What factor indicates the objectivity of a journalists report of an event

D, because they aren't including any opinions about it, and therefore have a specific goal in mind of making the reader think something about the subject their piece.

We could not give her those glib assurances that naive souls make so easily to others concerning their after state. …

The narrator is making it clear here that he does not believe in an after life. He says that he cannot assure Mrs. Herd that she was going anywhere in an "after state" because he thinks people who say things like that are being 'glib' and 'naive'.