The will to do better political journalism

Populist philosopher Will Rogers once said, “I’m not a member of any organized political party; I’m a Democrat.” This political season, though, it seems to be Republicans, not Democrats, feeding on their political young. Will’s likely turning in his grave in astonishment.

Will also said, “There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil.” But would Will think that journalists this political season are being all that accurate in their truth-telling? Amid all the political horserace hoopla, are Americans instead being fed a media diet laced with indigestible half-truths?

Nepotism is nothing new in American politics

Liberals have for decades turned a collective blind eye when brothers Bobby, and especially Ted, so effortlessly fed off John F. Kennedy’s aura and jump-started their own political careers. And does anyone seriously think that “W” would have inhabited 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue had papa Bush not been there first? Today’s Republicans seldom mention the leg-up that father George Romney gave to his son Mitt. And few on either side of the political aisle touched the third-rail gender question of whether being First Wife really qualifies a person to be secretary of state for the world’s No. 1 superpower.

Newspapers’ photo-finish sanctions

Newspaper photographs should be accurate. Readers know that. So do photographers, photo editors and managing editors.

But what should a news organization do when a photojournalist’s work is less than accurate – or not completely truthful? When the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee discovered earlier this year that Bryan Patrick’s page one nature photo was actually a compilation of two photos, the newspaper suspended the award-winning photojournalist. Was suspension the right response of the newspaper, or was the Los Angeles Times correct when it fired Brian Walski in 2003 when he also merged two war-front photos to create a more dramatic image?

Harmony v. Freedom

I’ve either taught journalism or been a journalist for most of the past 40 years. Thus, on hundreds — perhaps thousands — of occasions I’ve chatted with and addressed individuals and groups of students, educators and journalists on how different news organizations, journalists and nations cover stories. Never before now, though, had I stood before a group of journalism reporting students to discuss the media’s coverage of a story about which no one was remotely familiar.

The story in question was that of the Georgetown University’s men’s basketball team which played the Chinese People’s Liberation Arm Team Aug. 18, when U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was in Beijing. During the game, a fight broke out and fists, chairs and water bottles were thrown, and Chinese audience members came on the floor and attacked and stomped Georgetown student athletes. Referees apparently did nothing to stop the brawl and the Hoya team walked off the court with the score tied 64-64.

MEDIA CRITICS BITE THE DUST

Just as there are fewer public/civic journalism initiatives and news councils are going the way of the dodo bird, it seems media critics are fewer and farther between these days than at any time in the past few decades. Slate and Poynter have been major players in