Where to begin?
The BBC seems as good a place as any.
As the most commonly used public service broadcaster in Britain, if any of them are going to need to strive for impartiality, it will be the BBC.
In exchange for receiving the license fee, the BBC’s journalism is supposed to take an impartial line on everything it does. The excitingly named Section 4 of the BBC Editorial Guidelines show the rules which they set themselves.
Or perhaps if you like your official BBC documents read at you by a slightly squiffy looking man in the format of a fire safety video, heres Evan Davis.
Not many jokes in there, but it is an important document which covers all the principles which I believe license fee payers will expect to be obeyed.
Not that many of them would actually think about. I reckon the average person assumes that these things are taken into account. Well maybe not this guy. Or this one.
There will always be times when these guidelines and the BBC’s impartiality are questioned.(It may not even be possible, but that is a question for another post.) But given it’s the role and subsequent responsibilities to Britain and the world, it is crucial that the BBC leads efforts to maintain impartial.
By producing stuff like that found on the College of Journalism website, it seems they are indeed trying to.
Straight Down The Middle 
It must be very difficult for some journalists to keep their own preferences quiet while working for the BBC. It was apparent during the elections that there were some journalists, such as Nick Robinson, were struggling to keep their alignment secret. His frustration when it seemed the Conservatives would not get a majority was not well hidden!
And for Paxman to keep his own allegiances under his hat while berating insufferable politicians during Newsnight is impressive…then again, he probably just hates all politicians.
It is true that impartiality is part and parcel of good journalism and it is a professional responsiblity of every journalist. However, as every individual is different by nature and temprament and it is also unavoidable to be influenced by different other factors as well. So theoritically it sounds good to be impartial but practically it varies from person to person as it varies in terms of honesty, fairness and professionalism. Similarly, political influence and policy matter of different media organizations also influence the impartiality of journalists which indeed is a big question mark.
Iqbal Yousafzai
I would like to think that one day, when I’m lucky enough to be working as a journalist, that I will act impartial and fair at all times – however we are all human, we all have opinions and we all like to express these opinions!!
It must be very difficult for BBC journalists to hide these opinions at all times – so it no surprise that at times (especially during an election) these journalists struggle to keep their opinions to themselves.
Also…just because we all pay a TV license, doesn’t mean that we ALL want to see a straight down the middle, impartial view on the world. Wouldn’t it spice it all up if journalists were allowed to give their (sometimes) outrageous opinions on matters?
I think it would be a disaster if journalists were allowed to openly give their opinions because inevitably you will have the most extreme views over represented because these make the most entertaining television. I think if you see American news that speaks for itself.
Journalists should aim to not reveal their opinions, and it works well to have forums, like question time, where opinion can be heard and debated, without the broadcaster giving thief two cents as well.