Journalists are taught to be objective and unbiased, but no matter what they are taught they all look through a lens of their personality and experiences that may affect their outlook.

The problem happening to journalism today is that some so-called journalists are turning news into something more entertaining than informative because entertainment is more profitable. This is hurting journalists’ integrity and objectivity because others look to these pundits for informative news and receive nothing but opinion.

Without integrity and objectivity, journalists are not any different from the average blogger with a website and a cellphone camera.

The coverage of the death of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman is the best example in recent news of how the objective truth can be warped for better readership and viewership.

The initial reports were of an black teen being killed by a white neighborhood watch volunteer in cold blood, while the later reports show Zimmerman to be a Hispanic man who was attacked and defended himself against an aggressor.

Photographs of the two originally showed a 12-year-old Martin as a happy kid next to Zimmerman in the orange jumpsuit in prison.

Later photos were leaked that showed Martin dressed like a gang member and Zimmerman smiling in a suit. But the damage was already done to the public consciousness who immediately jumped behind Martin, some demanding that Zimmerman be given capital punishment for his crimes.

The latest problem in this case comes from a 911 tape. The tape originally has Zimmerman describing Martin as “looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining, and he’s just walking around, looking about.”

Only after the dispatcher asks Martin’s ethnicity does Zimmerman respond, “He looks black.”

This is edited down by NBC to, “This guy looks like he’s up to no good…. He looks black.”

Instead of editing down this 911 tape, NBC should have run it in entirety, and while they commented that this was not done to contextualize the message the damage was done.

The editors of the show should have thought about the objectivity for their show rather than the extra two seconds cut off the phone call.

Zimmerman has not been convicted of second-degree murder, but he is being charged for the crime. The journalism done about this event shows him as one already guilty and has affected public opinion in such a way that causes a grave misconception in public opinion.

Student journalists have been in an uproar over the rules and tenets being broken that are taught in their classes.

“We put our trust into the hands of the media to give us fair and accurate news. Who can we trust if the media reports unfairly and inaccurately?” Carly Yamrus wrote in an article for The Beacon, the newspaper for Wilkes University in Wilkes, Pa.

The power of journalism to take information and edit it for public consumption has been misused to force opinions on people and that has turned the people against journalism.

The reputation for the next generation of journalists must be protected from this sensationalized entertainment that is hurting the profession and the public at large.