Published: October 03, 2008 01:04 pm            

Journalism is not what it used to be

I watched a professional broadcast journalist do something the other night that would have gotten me fired from the daily newspaper I worked for years ago. Katie Couric asked Sarah Palin if Congress failed to approve the proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, did she think the country would slip into another “Great Depression.” Couric’s words, not Palin’s.

Palin’s answer was straightforward and to the point. She said that inaction was not an option, that the proposed bill would have to be amended before America would accept it, but added if something wasn’t done, “that is the road America may find itself on.”

Later in the day Couric interviewed John McCain and falsely quoted Palin as saying America was headed for another Great Depression. Then, believe it or not, she blatantly asked the senator, “do you think using rhetoric like ‘the Great Depression’ is the kind of language Americans need to hear right now?”

Then, to make the fiasco even worse, she opened the news broadcast with the teaser statement that Sarah Palin says America is headed for another Great Depression.

In a court of law I think that’s called leading the witness. In journalism it’s misleading the listener by putting words in someone’s mouth.

It’s also a serious breach of the professional ethics that were drilled into everyone attending journalism school at the University of Missouri back in the Dark Ages of My Youth. Such bait-and-switch tactics in school would have gotten me expelled. On the job it would have gotten me canned in a heartbeat.

Two weeks ago I attended the centennial celebration of the Missouri School of Journalism. It was three days of round-table discussions breakout sessions and speeches. On the last day they dedicated a new journalism institute to the future of the profession.

I wish I felt better about that future. Sessions during the week were lined up like tombstones, so it was impossible to attend them all. But the ones I did get to seemed to be more focused on strategies for making more money and on new technology, the latest gee-whiz gadget that was going to be bringing us the news than on the challenges of gathering the news, writing the news, and getting it right.

There was one session on ethics, but it dealt entirely with advertising and seemed to be geared toward avoiding lawsuits. One bright note, however, painted a rosy future for community newspapers — small town weeklies and dailies like this one. While many big city papers are struggling for survival — especially those traded publicly — both advertising revenue and editorial integrity seem to be flourishing in small papers.

Another change that left me feeling uneasy emerged during an editorial meeting at the Columbia Missourian, the competing daily newspaper published by the J school.

I had just read that day’s paper and was surprised by what was on the front page. While other newspapers around the country were sharply focused on a deadly hurricane bearing down on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana, and on the ominous financial storm clouds gathering over the country’s investment banking system, The Missourian devoted most of its front page to the J school centennial. Sure, the centennial celebration was important, but it wasn’t news.

The next day’s newsroom meeting was no better. There are four candidates running for governor in Missouri. A debate was scheduled for that week and a student reporter/photographer was dispatched to cover the event. So far, so good.

The story that appeared in the next day’s paper, unfortunately, was sketchy, incomplete. The editor asked what happened to the rest of the story. Why didn’t the reporter write a complete story?

“My shift was over,” the student said unapologetically. That was it. Then the editor had another question. There were four candidates in the debate, but the picture included only three. “I couldn’t get them all in one picture,” the student said again. He only took one picture.

At that moment I expected the editor to climb up onto the copy desk, roll up his sleeves and acidly review for the student reporter the basic rules of journalism followed by a heartfelt recommendation to pursue a different career. That’s what would have happened when I was covering stuff like gubernatorial debates for The Missourian. The honest truth is it would never have dawned on any of us back then to leave before a story was done. And I would have taken lots of pictures. Lots.

Surprisingly, the editor didn’t say a word.

I’ve been away from daily journalism for quite a few years. But even though now I just write a column for a small community weekly, when facts are vital to the story, I do everything I can to make sure they are present and accounted for. More than once I have bolted upright in the middle of the night realizing I had left some fact out of the column I had written the day before. When it happens, I change it. Even at 3 o’clock in the morning.

I can’t fault the students, I guess. They will follow the path their teachers lay before them.

And perhaps I shouldn’t blame the teachers either. After all, the glittering lure of technology is irresistible for just about everyone.

As the CEO of one of Americas premier cell phone companies said during a roundtable discussion sponsored by the university president, “The cell phone is the news medium of the future.” For emphasis he pulled out his own phone and brandished it like a weapon. “It will wake you up in the morning, put on the coffee, let out the dog and give you up-to-the-minute news while you eat breakfast.”

        

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