Independence!!

Recently in class, we had our presentation on Independence and Journalism. I liked both the presentation and the chapter in the book. I feel very strongly about the importance of a journalist remaining independent from factions in their report of the facts.

William Safire intrigued me very much. He never went to journalism school, he was a political insider, but he came to be a respected, Pulitzer-Winning columnist for the New York Times. He was regarded as an outsider, a pariah, and he suddenly became one of them after (1) he saved a co-worker's kid at a picnic, and (2) he was wiretapped by Nixon. A man like William Safire, who came in an outsider and, because of his commitment to the truth as a journalist and his writing skills, succeeded. His FBI file was recently released (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/13/william-safires-fbi-file-_n_536038.html) and is fairly interesting. Safire said something in the text that really stuck with me, something I really agree with:

"Where does loyalty lie--with your old personal friends and colleagues, with your political ideology or party, with your news medium, with the cold facts--or with The Truth?
In real life, it's a fluctuating combination of all these. You don't burn a good long-term source to get a pretty-good story. You don't let your ideology turn you away from a good story. (You don't let a copy editor change "story" to "article" without a fight.) You don't let a series of hard facts lead you to a softly untruthful or misleading conclusion. You don't become a hero by joining a pack savaging your ideological soulmates. You don't quote this paragraph selectively, reporting accurately but corrupting its whole meaning."

I liked the way he describes it--in a way that can be easily understood as well as practically implemented. Safire showed--at least this is how I think of it--that being independent is being truthful and respecting others while still maintaining one's original commitment to the citizens. I cna be respectful of someone in office that I know, but I don't let my respect for them muddle my judgement or get in the way of getting the truth.

Independence means that, as a journalist, I don't get paid to cover something by anyone outside my paper and then just ignore that fact as I'm writing about it in my paper.

Maggie Gallagher's story shocked and disapointed me. In the first place, any journalist accepting government money is slightly sketchy. But that would have been ok if, in her column, Gallagher had said that she was writing these promotional marriage brochures for the government. She would be being transparent and honest with her viewers. What really bothers me about that is that she never thought to write a column about it. At the Tx (the Ogden Standard-Examiner's Teen Section), that was the kind of thing Becky (our wonderful editor) would have jumped on--our unique experiences. How many people get to say "The President of the United States wants me to write something"? Gallagher missed out on a golden opportunity to build reader trust--actually lost it--and to tell an interesting story. Gallagher is now the President of the National Organization for Marriage and has is very outspoken against the legalization of Gay Marriage. Some of the things she says--but mostly her timing--give off and insensitive vibe. Either way, Ms. Gallagher is perhaps the epitome of what not to be as a journalist. One should be transparent with one's audience, and try to avoid accepting money from anyone besides your editor-in-cheif.

I would like to say one thing about taste: Yes, it is our duty to speak the truth and give freely the information needed by citizens to be free. However, there is a fine line between baring the truth and losing all sense of taste, especially when reporting delicate matters. This is my opinion, it should be noted, not text or lesson or doctrine or anything like that, but it is what I believe. Don't kick people when they're down unless the public REALLY needs to hear you kick them.

So, while being tasteful, remember one's duty as a journalist, and be independent.