Trust evaporated
The former executive editor of The Washington Post told an audience and former Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Publisher and current WEHCO Media Chairman Walter E. Hussman Jr. the other day that journalists “have a lot of work to do” to regain the public’s declining trust.
In essence, Martin “Marty” Baron was reinforcing Hussman’s message delivered daily on page two of this newspaper explaining the need for objectivity and credibility in news reporting.
Speaking together at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, both agreed the surveys revealed this critical loss of public trust, due largely to political partisanship, evaporated objectivity and journalistic activism.
Coming from men of their experience and stature in national journalism, every reporter, editor and journalism professor should pay close attention.
I’ve long said news reporting, to be trusted and effective, must reliably maintain a neutral and objective position for readers so they believe they are getting the fullest, truest version of untainted truth available at the moment. Opinion writing, labeled as such, is a different animal altogether.
Problems arise when editors and reporters alike inject trigger nouns, verbs and phrases into their articles that most Americans have come to recognize, as they do the kind of placement stories receive. It’s also easy to spot when one flawed political party’s side is continually getting a pass on critical coverage while the other is being intentionally pursued and hounded for the same thing.
The bias has become easily recognizable and offensive to many who just want a reporter to deliver the cold facts rather than try to cleverly sway readers. For the most part, those paying to absorb their work product are fully capable of forming their own opinions based solely on the who, what, when, where, why, and sometimes how.
They also have learned how to spot a journalist’s characterization of a situation or person and quickly determine the author’s point of view. This means a byline on a story can quickly identify who is a true journalist versus activist.
Josh Snyder’s news account of their public appearance said Hussman asked Baron to comment on the news media’s obligation to provide both sides of a story.
Baron explained that while it was necessary to publish information from all sides (usually more than two) involved and also rigorously examine the entirety of the available evidence, “Ultimately, the objective is to try to get at the truth.”
To that I can only add preach it, Brother Marty! It was basically the same message I delivered time and time again during my five years directing the Kiplinger Public Affairs Reporting Program for professional journalists at Ohio State, when I’d advise: “If we don’t determine and report the truth as we find it at the time (and correct it should facts change), we badly fail the trust our readers and viewers place in us. And that means we lose.”
Baron also addressed his tenure as editor of the Boston Globe, during which the paper won six Pulitzers, including for its investigations into the Catholic Church’s concealment of sex abuse by clergy; that coverage was later dramatized in the 2015 film “Spotlight.”
Talk about courageous and pressurized reporting: taking on the Catholic Church in Boston?
In that respect, Baron and Hussman are kindred spirits in publishing. Hussman has never shied from special-interest pressure when he believed exposing truth in the public interest was important, at least never with me. And I believe I recall stepping on a few bigger Arkansas toes during my time at the Democrat and as executive editor of his Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs.
Baron also addressed his experience as editor of The Post during Donald Trump’s term as president, emphasizing journalists’ obligations to their profession and the pursuit of the truth. I can only imagine some of the joyful calls from the White House this man received in that period!
He also said he believes “our democracy is in a pretty fragile state. Sadly, we treat people who are political opponents as political enemies and I don’t think we should.”
Yet again, Baron was on the mark. So many of us today act as if the most important thing in our brief and fragile lives is which self-seeking politician and their sheeple will temporarily hold sway over us, so much so that our egos often encourage us to needlessly abandon truly enduring aspects of life that matter most: family relations and longtime friends and associates closest to us. It’s a futile waste of time and emotion that generates unfounded hatred while achieving absolutely nothing of consequence.
Baron also sold and signed copies of his new book, “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos and The Washington Post.”
Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you.