A primer on opinion writing
The job of an opinion journalist is not to rehash the news, but to help readers make sense of it
What do we do on these pages? Something totally different than what is done in the rest of the paper.
In the news pages, the news is reported.
On these pages, it is analyzed, commented upon, reflected upon. Here we do opinion journalism. It is opinion, but it is informed, researched, thought out. It is opinion, but journalism.
I admit that in many newspapers today, the detachment and coolness of traditional, straightforward news reporting has been compromised. In my mind that is a pernicious thing.
News reporters should not opine or analyze. Even off duty. And especially not on TV.
News reporters at this, or any great newspaper, do not write for the opinion pages and opinion writers do not write for the news pages.
I do not tell news editors what to write and news editors do not tell me or the opinion writers who work with me what to write.
I am not responsible for a news story you do not like and no news editor is responsible for an editorial you do not like.
Opinion writers should not pretend to play investigative reporters or sleuths. Their job is not to report the news, but to help readers make sense of the news and the world we live in. This is not a slight responsibility.
And that is why it is also not enough for opinion writers to simply rehash the news. Our job is insight. If we can’t offer that, we should save newsprint and the readers’ time and keep silent.
Insight does not come cheap. It takes digging. So the opinion writer’s beat is research. No one is smart enough, or educated enough, to have insight on a subject, or two, a day. So the opinion writer must read, read, read, and seek out experts. And be willing to change his mind.
His education, and experience, and life wisdom might help him to know where to look for wisdom and ideas.
For no opinion writer is an original thinker. But he must have the ability to simplify and synthesize complex thought so that he can bring original and new research, and understanding, to his readers.
Opinion writers should be journalists, par excellence. They are solemnly bound by the written and unwritten codes of their profession. They must not be biased, partisan, or corrupt. If we are any of those things, we fail you the reader and we fail our craft and our consciences.
It is good if we have a values system, a philosophical direction, an intellectual consistency. But, no matter the stakes, we should never have a permanent side.
So, there is all the difference in the world between the loud mouth at the end of the bar, or camera, or blog, and the professional opinion journalist.
• All of our opinion work, in this and every newspaper, appears on what are designated as opinion or editorial pages, which are always in the same part of the paper and segregated from the rest of the paper.
There are three kinds of opinion journalism appearing in the editorial pages of a newspaper — this almost no one understands and there is no reason why most people should be expected to know the categories.
One is the letter to the editor. Space is made available, usually on the first editorial page, for “letters” from the public on matters of public importance. This is not professional, curated opinion, but guest public opinion. We create a public square, like Speakers Corner at Hyde Park, in London.
We do edit for factual accuracy, grammar and spelling, and exclude purely personal attacks. But we let the reader have his say. A letter is not an editorial. The second is the editorial — the official opinion of the newspaper as an institution. This is produced by a staff of professional opinion writers who constitute an editorial board. This board is headed by the publisher, and it is the publisher’s vision, direction and tone that is reflected in all editorials. This is true at every newspaper.
The third is opinion columns. These are signed essays by journalists who may be on staff or may be syndicated writers. They express the writer’s own personal views. They are not institutional views. They are also not editorials. When an editorial writer pens a signed column it is his. When he writes an editorial, the work is not “his,” or “hers,” but the paper’s and its owners’.
Ideally, a column is a personal essay. It has a different form and feel than an editorial. A good editorial should be like a good sermon. It should not be too long. It should have an arresting beginning, one that draws readers in, a middle that develops a line of argument, and a resounding end. It should have one theme and one big point. Readers should have no doubt about what that point is. Though we editorialists often forget it, simple declarative sentences are an editorial writer’s friend.
A column is more like a lecture by a great teacher or an extended variation by Art Tatum or Hank Jones. It should have motives that re-occur, as in all great music, but not one theme. It can meander until the strands are finally connected at the end. Whereas the editorial should, generally, clarify, the column should, often, complicate.
There are exceptions that prove these rules, of course.
• What the two forms, editorials and opinion columns, produced by professional opinion journalists, should share is a passion for thought exercises and a willingness to re-examine and think outside the orthodoxies and the ideological boxes. We must be willing to disappoint and even offend.
Our job is insight, and this is what we strive for. If we fall short it is because we are human and we know and see only in part. But, we get to go at it again tomorrow. That is the beauty, and the romance, of journalism. The inquiry does not end until we do; the conversation does not stop, ever.
Keith C. Burris is editor and vice president of the Post-Gazette, and editorial director for Block Newspapers (kburris@postgazette.com).