ACCESS DENIED OR GRANTED?
Another phenomenon is that criticism comes at the press from the public, who may not be informed about the role of the press, our code of ethics, or how the work is done.
“News organizations and journalists need to do a better job of educating people on how they go about reporting, so when people see anonymous or unnamed sources in the publication, we explain what that means—that we know who they are, that our editors know who they are, but that we can’t share that information because of the position the source may be in. We need to provide all the insight into the independent rigor that goes into the reporting,” Lichterman said. “Trust—being the most important currency—requires that you be as transparent as you can. … I think that can go a long way.”
More often, journalists innocently stumble into access traps, Lichterman said. Unfettered access to sources and the pressures of producing content sometimes leads to untenable situations and lackluster journalism. Lichterman offered a recent example: “There was a bunch of hub-bub about a brand of cast-iron pots. They had a fancy Instagram feed and a millennial-friendly brand. There was a big story in Business Insider about the two women who’d used a lot of family money to start a business, who got all this fawning press coverage, just because they were available.
“The interesting story was that they weren’t making their own products. They were just relabeling things made in China or overseas. But they were out there promoting themselves, and journalists were eager for content, and as a result, it became a mutually beneficial cycle behind the scenes,” Lichterman said. “The more interesting story was that it was a poorly run business that had taken advantage of these larger consumer trends and generational wealth to start this organization. … (Access journalism) happens in more subtle ways.”
Wemple said that political reporting is particularly “ripe for corruption along the access-journalism line,” by virtue of the imbalance in the ratio of journalists to sources. Hundreds of reporters working the D.C. beat often vie for the attention of a singular figure, who, if inclined, can only grant so many interviews.
“I think ‘access journalism’ has just become another way of dissing journalists,” Wemple said. “If someone doesn’t feel the interview was tough enough, it’s access journalism…
But sometimes it’s true. If you’re talking about the definition of access journalism, I don’t think you need to go a hell of a lot further than just Fox News’ coverage of the entire Trump Administration. I mean, that was exactly access journalism, precisely and every time, whether it was ‘Fox & Friends,’ Sean Hannity or Jeanine Pirro, or any of the others. That was the most awful sort of extreme, corrupt access journalism you’ll ever see, making everything else pale in comparison.”
Even though access journalism now has a place in pop culture, the practice and its exploitation isn’t novel. In Dan Rather’s and Elliot Kirschner’s book, “What Unites
Us: Reflections on Patriotism,” the authors reflected back on how adept President Nixon was at manipulating the media—casting doubt, insulting the press, and granting access to local or regional reporters while snubbing the big-title journalists, knowing full well that a reporter getting one and only shot at questioning a president might shy away from anything too hard-hitting or controversial.
“We knew Nixon hated us, but he wasn’t calling us ‘enemies of the people.’ We didn’t have to worry about the mob turning on us every time we showed up to cover something,” Schultz reflected back on Nixon-era reporting. “We’re having a very different conversation now because we’ve just survived four years of Donald Trump as president…i think the Trump Administration had a trickledown effect. Trump would refuse to answer questions. He insulted the media, so every county commissioner who didn’t want to talk to journalists started doing it. It was affecting regional and local journalists, who had nothing at all to do with reporting on the Trump Administration or even on politics. You may think because you’re not a Washington journalist that you don’t have to deal with Washington, but you are most definitely dealing with it now.”
Gretchen A. Peck is an independent journalist who has reported on publishing and journalism for more than two decades. She began her reporting career covering municipal government at a suburban Philadelphia daily and also served as an editor-in-chief/editorial director for a magazine publisher. She has contributed to Editor & Publisher since 2010 and can be reached at gretchenapeck@gmail.com.