Saving Journalism

An old school reporter explains what's wrong with modern journalism:

Yates identified several causes of the problem: First, journalism schools are no longer teaching their students the craft. "When I was in school," he explained, "what was pounded into our heads was to be as objective as possible. Subvert your own biases; if you don't, you just become a propagandist." He compared this with today's journalism graduates, who "don't think it's their job to report the news; they think it's their job to get people to make the 'right' choices." Second, Yates bemoaned the loss of the traditional newsroom. "Young journalists had mentors who helped them weed opinions out of news articles," he said. "Accuracy was so important. If you continued to include your opinion or inaccuracies, you were fired." He also pointed out the current distorted balance of political viewpoints. "In 1971, when I started," Ron said, "26% of reporters identified as Republicans, 35% as Democrats, and the rest as 'independents' or unaffiliated. Today, 71% of reporters identify as Democrats, about 25% as independents or 'moderates.' Only 4% identify as Republicans or conservatives." He attributes much of this shift to the leftward lurch of higher education. "Ninety percent of the faculty at a lot of universities are leftists, and this is just as true of journalism schools." Finally, Yates says, the organization responsible for monitoring the profession -- the Society of Professional Journalists -- isn't doing its job. Ron directed me to the SPJ Code of Ethics page, which admonishes journalists to "seek truth and report it," "be accurate and fair," "label advocacy and commentary" and hold "those with power accountable." "Today's media doesn't do any of that," Yates stated. "The SPJ needs to hold their feet to the fire, and they're not doing it." Ron was blunt about the challenges to Americans trying to get the facts. "It's not going to be easy," he said. "We have information overload. Media outlets -- from both political sides -- are not dealing in truth, so the onus falls upon the consumer, who has to look at what the liberal outlets are saying and what the conservative outlets are saying and decide for themselves what the truth is. But most of the people you see on TV aren't trained journalists; they just give their opinions. And the average American can't tell the difference between opinion and journalism." Yates is encouraged by the proliferation of new media outlets like Substack and the Free Press, founded by former New York Times writer Bari Weiss; the increasing number of other journo expats like Uri Berliner, Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi, and Elon Musk's purchase of X. "I hope that journalism in this country isn't dead; that it's only in a coma," he said. "But it's going to take a revolution in these newsrooms. Back to the old rules."

Little things like just the facts...