A little inside baseball
The Washington Post's recent stumble has a lesson for us all
I like to say I’m a classically-trained journalist because that makes the process sound so much fancier than it was.
But in my not-fancy training, I learned that a journalist must pay attention to how things look, ethically. Sometimes that means we accept blame even if we don’t feel we did anything wrong.
All we have is our reputations and those are so fragile. I give students this example: If you were to see me stumbling out of a bar at closing time, leaning on the arm of a man who isn’t my husband, you’re not going to think, “Oh, look! The professor’s brother is in town!” Real or no, you’re going to think I have strayed from my marital vows and it will take some time for me to convince you otherwise, if I’m even given that chance.
And so in journalism, we have to be ever-careful to not give even the hint of impropriety. We don’t always get to explain ourselves, so we keep ourselves squeaky clean.
Which brings us to the Washington Post. No news organization wants to be the topic of news coverage, so the Post has been squirming of late but I find a silver lining in the mess.
Recently, Telegraph deputy editor Robert Winnett was chosen to step in as the Post’s top editor, and furor ensued. Media reports — including from the Post, itself — showed that as a British journalist, Winnett was involved in a scheme to steal an unpublished memoir by former PM Tony Blair, in paying for information, and using stolen information in news stories — all journalistic no-nos.
This weekend, Winnett announced he would not join the Post staff and this is as it should be. I am not here to figure out why Winnett was chosen for such a vaunted position, but a journalist must be concerned with the looks of the thing, and in this case, that’s exactly what happened. It almost feels like a delicious throwback, when tough as it may be, you do the right thing. Glory.
Two things have been striking me:
The GOP has turned, Trumpishly, to advertising pure power. So far as I can tell, sneering and persisting as they are caught out in lie after lie and cruelty after cruelty and coercion after coercion: that they can just keep doing this stuff is part of what they're advertising.
When newspaper and TV news management has responded to concerns about bias, they have claimed that complaints come from "both" sides and thus demonstrate their purity in representing no one, in being unbiased.
It looks to me like a terribly hard time to be a professional journalist. And to be a news reader.
Whenever you write "Glory", it reminds me of the fictional FB character Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian. She's been a little quieter under the current administration, but prior to that (and ramping up again now), her special brand of church lady sarcasm was another balm amidst the hypocrisy.