« Complex system... | Main | To be good... »
May 27, 2004
More good than bad...
I think this is the key paragraph from yesterday's explanation in The New York Times:
Some critics of our coverage during that time have focused blame on individual reporters. Our examination, however, indicates that the problem was more complicated. Editors at several levels who should have been challenging reporters and pressing for more skepticism were perhaps too intent on rushing scoops into the paper. Accounts of Iraqi defectors were not always weighed against their strong desire to have Saddam Hussein ousted. Articles based on dire claims about Iraq tended to get prominent display, while follow-up articles that called the original ones into question were sometimes buried. In some cases, there was no follow-up at all.
In these six sentences we may see much of what is good and bad about American journalism (the good far out-weighing the bad, in my opinion). In this case, the hallmark of the practice--the editorial process--broke down. Editors are responsible for what's published in a newspaper. Reporters, even the highly skilled, need guidance and skepticism from editors because reporters can get too close to a story--want it too much, believe it too much, need it too much.
Further, what is news? Any proper definition must include the concepts of "new" and "drama," although the word "drama" may be too starkly accurate (i.e. not euphemistic enough) for some journalists. Allegations of WMDs by seemingly credible sources is new and dramatic; reporting the sources' politically-driven propaganda after the fact is not. Why? Because there are always new and dramatic situations popping up to replace the old.
Finally, journalists are a self-reflective bunch--even if too many of them have far too little grounding in various language, communication, and social-science theories (the profession itself is under-theorized) to help guide that self-reflection. Journalists understand themselves to practice a socially, culturally, and politically important profession. They care deeply that it is practiced well. And that leads to such "explanations" as The Times published yesterday.
Posted by acline at May 27, 2004 7:53 AM | | Spotlight