Submitted by John Hamer on Tue, 03\/03\/2009 – 7:16pmin<\/p>\n
Session Convenor: <\/strong> John Hamer, Washington News Council<\/p>\n Session Reporter:<\/strong> John Hamer, WNC<\/p>\n Discussion Participants: <\/strong> Anne Anderson, Tom Stites, Jay Young<\/p>\n JOHN explained the River Park Square project report, in which The Spokesman-Review of Spokane asked the Washington News Council to do an independent outside audit of 10 years of their coverage of a downtown development project run by the owners of the newspaper. He said it was unprecedented in the history of American journalism, and was an example of complete openness and transparency in an effort to be accountable to the public.<\/p>\n TOM briefly explained the Banyan Project. The whole philosophical underpinning has to do with integrity and trust.\u2026We are living in the age of an information glut, which means that attention is scarce. There\u2019s still 24 hours a day. What there is is a tremendous number of people wanting access to people\u2019s eyeballs. What\u2019s scarce? Integrity in our institutions. We are awash in manipulative messages \u2013 politics, PR people. Everybody knows that but can\u2019t quite say it. And the media are not trusted. There\u2019s this comprehensive sense of mistrust.<\/p>\n \u201cThe integrity economy.\u201d Goal: News we deliver is relevant, respectful of them, and worthy of their trust. People will find that very valuable and maybe even pay. OK, if you\u2019re going to do that, what do you have to do? 1. Make sure that news institutions don\u2019t have built-in conflicts of interest. We\u2019re here to serve you.<\/p>\n JAY: Owner of Altoona paper owned baseball team. No bad coverage of Pittsburgh Pirates. Scaife-owned paper: No photos of Al Gore in paper. Period.<\/p>\n Ethics Battles in Altoona: If you bring up a topic like that in a small newsroom, it\u2019s dangerous. If you work at the paper in Altoona, you\u2019re big time.<\/p>\n There were instances where people knew. Used car dealer was underselling everyone, pissing off the dealers. We did a feature photo on him, and the dealers who advertised went ballistic.<\/p>\n If I want to sit here moralistically and say that\u2019s wrong\u2026.well, it\u2019s complicated.<\/p>\n TOM: Banyan needs to find a source of revenue so you can have the independence. Civic networking \u2013 as opposed to social networking. Do it as a co-op, and the owners are restricted to people who are reader\/users. No capital involved. Comes entirely from people who are engaged. Other parties would be involved, but the advertisers would have to be screened to get the untrustworthy people out. Don\u2019t put up people who are putting up false advertising (i.e., subprime mortgages).<\/p>\n Center for Public Integrity \u2013 It doesn\u2019t get covered if we don\u2019t get a grant.<\/p>\n If journalism is ever going to be trusted again on an institutional scale, we need to find a way to be trusted.<\/p>\n ANNE: I came late to this profession, and I still struggle with one of \u201cthem\u201d \u2013 i.e., journalists. I have some real antagonism toward this profession.<\/p>\n Does freelancing for small group of papers owned by St. Pete Times. Got Knight Foundation fellowship to get Master\u2019s in community journalism at U of Alabama and Anniston Star.<\/p>\n Antagonism toward journalism? The whole trust issue goes beyond ethics to attitude: I know more than you do, and if you\u2019re lucky I\u2019ll tell you. The media tends to build mountains out of molehills. You never really know if it\u2019s really important or are they just trying to get eyes on the page or viewers. At the same time, while they ignore the smaller things, you don\u2019t real get a sense of proportion, context and priorities.<\/p>\n I have an issue with telling stories. We don\u2019t write \u201cstories,\u201d That\u2019s part of the identity crisis of journalism. We\u2019re trying to be the storytellers, and not tell the objective facts.<\/p>\n If we don\u2019t know who we are, how can readers know who we are? That implies the whole us vs. them mentality, which is another issue in building trust.<\/p>\n Journalism has been above the community, looking down on the community, and telling people what they should do \u2013 instead of being part of the community.<\/p>\n Orange County Register \u2013 Doing away with the central newsroom, and putting people out in bureaus to be closer to the people they cover.<\/p>\n JOHN: We comment all the time on things we don\u2019t know anything about. That\u2018s the definition of the profession.<\/p>\n JOSE: We take ourselves too seriously. We act like we are omniscient. We hold ourselves above the community, and at the same time we crave the recognition for what we do.<\/p>\n TOM: It\u2019s an ego need. What we have to do is not forget that what we do it a public service: It\u2019s about who reads the story, not who writes it.<\/p>\n JOSE: That\u2019s why we make so little money at it. You have to accept that.<\/p>\n JAY: In every newsroom you start with the perception that you\u2019re smarter than the public. You\u2019re better than the real people.<\/p>\n JOSE: Media. Where does the word come from? It has a Latin root: It\u2019s a channel,, it\u2019s something that things pass through. It\u2019s OK to shape, skew the news, but you need to be upfront about it.<\/p>\n JOHN: There is news and opinion, and a wall between the newsroom and the editorial page at most good papers.<\/p>\n JOSE: Editorial Wall? The lady who picks up the paper in the morning doesn\u2019t understand that distinction.<\/p>\n ANNE: Read Bernard Goldberg\u2019s book, BIAS.<\/p>\n She read from Kovach & Rosenstiel: Journalism is our modern cartography. It creates a map for citizens to navigate the world.<\/p>\n JOSE: When journalists speak about the press, they usually talk of big major papers, but it also includes National Enquirer.<\/p>\n JAY: At mid-sized papers, there is no value to two words: CUSTOMER SERVICE.<\/p>\n JOSE: At Wall Street Journal, every day they run corrections. Most papers do.<\/p>\n JAY: Every paper does it, but you have to go through a lot to get that correction. Was I talked down to by a person who thinks they\u2019re smarter than me? Their paper\u2019s attorney told them they had to do that to avoid defamation or libel suit. Even if you avoid the lawsuit, you haven\u2019t satisfied the customer.<\/p>\n JOSE: I wouldn\u2019t do anything I couldn\u2019t explain to my mother or my kids.<\/p>\n JOHN: The Golden Rule is the only ethics code journalists need. What if the story was about YOU? Wouldn\u2019t you want to make sure it was right? Double-check facts? Every reporter should have a story written about him\/her. It teaches a lesson. I\u2019ve had stories written about me, and in every one they got something wrong.<\/p>\n JAY: Editors are busy on phone, while editing a story and making an assignment at the same time.<\/p>\n ANNE: Idaho Falls PostRegister.com is a great example of being open and accountable. Has a story with ? marks that link to explanations of how and why they did what they did.<\/p>\n JOHN: THIS IS A CUTTING-EDGE EXAMPLE OF TAO (Transparency, Accountability & Openness).<\/p>\n ANNE: See ASNE.org for list of ethics codes. Tampa Tribune\u2019s site is the best. (FUNNY!) She did a paper for degree on how newspapers communicate their ethics standards to their staff, the public, et al. (NOT PUBLISHED YET). She may present paper to Newspaper Association of America meeting in Mobile, ALA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Submitted by John Hamer on Tue, 03\/03\/2009 – 7:16pmin Session Convenor: John Hamer, Washington News Council Session Reporter: John Hamer, WNC Discussion Participants: Anne Anderson, Tom Stites, Jay Young JOHN explained the River Park Square project report, in which The … Continue reading