“Biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.” WORLD’s mission statement near the top of page 2 of every issue sometimes confuses readers, because it uses the word objective in an old-fashioned way.

Today  we often think of an “objective” perspective as one not voicing a strong opinion—neutral.

The debate about bias at Facebook and other media intensified last month as investigators headed by former GOP Sen. Jon Kyl presented an “interim report.” Kyl’s Covington & Burling law firm interviewed 133 conservatives and heard concerns that Facebook’s third-party fact-checkers “skewed to the ideological Left.”

Harold “Hal” Prince, producer and director, died at age 91 on July 31.  It got me thinking about musicals and lyrics and how today’s aspiring writers, including humble magazine columnists, could do worse than study the old heyday Broadway songs. All writing is problem-solving, and it’s fun to see how the best of the best solved their “problems,” and had a blast doing it.

The social media giant said Thursday it had taken down a network of covert Saudi-led propaganda accounts. It removed more than 370 inauthentic Facebook and Instagram profiles, pages, and groups that had gained more than 13.7 million followers. It was the first time Facebook has unearthed an influence campaign linked to the officials in the Saudi government.

Kristin Hull, CEO of the Nia Impact Capital investment firm, was sitting at her computer reading emails when she received a notification about a pro-abortion ad that would take up a full page in The New York Times. “I thought, ‘Oh this is so fantastic.’” Almost immediately, she decided to add her signature to the growing list, because “it was very clear to me that this was the right thing to do.”

A New York moment: 

This week I talked to Jason Yu, a journalist who has covered Korean pop culture for the last decade, for a story I’m writing about KCON, a Korean pop culture convention that came to New York recently. Korean music has spread across the globe through social media, so now Yu’s primary way to report on K-pop is through his YouTube channel, Popsori, where about half of his audience is from North America. 

Twelve times my wife and I in our living room have shown small groups of WORLD readers how to become WORLD writers. During a week of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. reporting, writing, and editing, the students ranging in age from 27 to 72 have improved their understanding, story sense, and writing. I’ve just checked our masthead and seen that 31 are now WORLD correspondents.