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April 17, 2008

Ripping Them A New One

I firmly believe that every news organization should have a columnist (an opinion journalist who operates as a custodian of fact with a discipline of verification) whose job it is to get in the face of every other news organization in the market. I think news orgs need to be critiquing the competition regularly in regard to news values, editorial judgment, and ethics.

I have two reasons for this:

1. News organizations are culturally, politically, and economically important institutions that should never be above scrutiny by journalism. (Note: I do not equate the two because the former is one potential producer of the latter.)

2. Such coverage can be smashing good copy that informs and--dare I say it?--entertains. Oh, and perhaps this smashing good copy might do some real good.

Here's an interesting example of exactly what I mean. The keisters of Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos should be right properly smarting today. Now, we know that these guys are unlikely to change much of anything following Shales' withering critique. But just think what could happen if it were Shales' job to keep this up. Think what could happen if the Post backed this up with an editorial about the news values, editorial judgment, and ethics of ABC News.

(Yes, there are many media columnists. Howard Kurtz for example. But I'm not talking about general media criticism. I'm talking about focused and sustained coverage of specific news orgs by competing news orgs and backed up by the voice of the news org.)

I'm not a big fan of news competition for stories. That era is really dead now thanks to television and the internet. But I think news organizations could, and ought to, compete over news values, editorial judgment, and ethics. Rub the competition's nose in its mistakes. Rip them a new one. And do a better job yourself.



Posted by acline at April 17, 2008 1:52 PM | | Spotlight