Mitchell Stephens

The case for wisdom journalism–and for journalists surrendering the pursuit ofnews Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/139/2/76/1829808/daed.2010.139.2.76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021

When journalists and those who value to cataloging the many egregious blind them compose their apocalyptic screeds, spots of newspapers and newscasts– when they repair to conferences to rend with their sometimes narrow-minded their clothes, wail their wails, and curse “gatekeepers.” The Web’s weak points, the Fates, they are wont to declare news at ½rst glance, appear to be in coverage itself to be in crisis.1 In this, however, of news that grew up together with they are wrong. News, for the most part, newspaper beat systems: varieties of is in ½ne shape. local news in particular. The recent arrival of the most power- However, the growing numbers of ful information technology in human us fortunate enough to have an Internet history has been, on balance, a great connection now have access to a remark- blessing for news. The Web remains ably generous supply of news. The gates very young, but already it gathers ac- have flung open. And the flow of news counts of an extraordinarily wide va- on the Web seems, if anything, likely to riety of events from an extraordinarily continue to broaden, deepen, and accel- wide variety of sources. It disseminates erate. Entrepreneurs and nonpro½ts are these accounts in a wide variety of for- even beginning to address some of those mats, fast and far. Never before have blind spots. The future of news, in other we seen a news medium like it. words, appears reasonably secure. This does not mean news on the Web It is the future of journalism that is is always edifying, constructive, or re- looking grim. Journalists have made liable. News in print or on tv, after their living for approximately the last all, has often enough failed to display century-and-a-half either by selling those qualities. And the Web’s mani- news or by selling ads next to news. fold strengths as a news medium do However, the flood of information on not mean all news will be equally well current events that is sloshing around served by it. We have to be alert, as we the Internet right now can be had, most- must be with any medium, for blind ly, for free, and the supply of news-rich spots. Once, it should be remembered, pages on the Internet is now so large journalism reviews devoted themselves that it is hard to charge much for ads on those pages. Understandably, this © 2010 by the American Academy of Arts new reality has strained pro½t margins & Sciences and flummoxed business models. There

76 Dædalus Spring 2010 is not much of a living in hawking that standings of a ½eld, as reasonable The case which is given away free. as they may sound, sometimes must for wisdom journalism The end of the era when it was possi- change. Consider–to jump ½elds and ble to make a good business out of the centuries for a moment–the case of gathering and dissemination of news is Ernest Meissonier.3 causing large numbers of talented, hard- Meissonier, who died in 1891, was working journalists to lose their jobs. long the most respected painter in Par- This is a tragedy. This is the crisis. It is is and, therefore, the world. His pains- a crisis not for news but for journalism. takingly accurate re-creations of great But, without making light of this hu- events dominated the most important man tragedy and this professional crisis, expositions and commanded the high- an opportunity can be discerned here– est prices. But in the late nineteenth for journalism. The Web allows our best and early twentieth centuries this no- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/139/2/76/1829808/daed.2010.139.2.76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 journalists to surrender the prosaic task tion that quality in art was dependent of telling everyone what just happened. upon precision and verisimilitude fad- It allows them to leave some coverage of ed. Meissonier’s reputation tumbled speeches and press conferences to the after his death to the point where one cable networks and YouTube; to leave major two-volume history of French some interviews with investigators and art in the nineteenth century did not survivors to diligent wire-service report- mention his name. The Louvre even- ers; to fob off some surveillance of vari- tually exiled a marble statue of Meis- ous backwaters on the gadflies and ob- sonier from its halls. sessives who replenish their blogs every This change in understandings of couple of hours. The Web allows our what painting should be can be attrib- best journalists–it requires them, I will uted in part to a new technology: pho- argue–to return to an older and higher tography. It made producing painstak- view of their calling: not as reporters of ingly accurate re-creations of just about what’s going on but as individuals capa- anything easy and, thus, cheap. Have ble of providing a wise take on what’s technologies today, particularly tech- going on. nologies introduced in the past couple of decades, done the same with the Most Americans today think of jour- painstaking gathering of information nalists as most journalists think of them- on current events? Have they outdated selves: as reporters of news. An under- the view of quality in journalism cham- standing like this can become deeply en- pioned by Bill Keller and most other tra- trenched over the course of a century- ditional journalists: this veneration of and-a-half. Indeed, it would be dif½cult witnessing, digging, ½nding sources, to ½nd many American journalists today and checking? Keller moans that “there who would disagree with the de½nition is a diminishing supply” of his version of quality in their ½eld supplied (in an of “quality journalism.” Given the abil- online discussion with readers) by Bill ity the Web grants us all to witness, dig, Keller, executive editor of The New York ½nd sources, and check–to search–is Times: “By quality journalism I mean the it possible the supply of this kind of jour- kind that involves experienced reporters nalism should diminish? going places, bearing witness, digging Journalists will, of course, still have to into records, developing sources, check- go places, interview, uncover, and check ing and double-checking.”2 But under- facts. But doing that will no longer be

Dædalus Spring 2010 77 Mitchell enough. Exclusives and investigations hood that our ancestors’ genes might Stephens will still have value. But my argument is make it to the next generation. The news on the future that, for the most part, journalists must for which we most thirst has usually been ofnews learn to conceive of quality in journal- news of what is going on near us. But lo- ism as wisdom–expertise, judgment, in- cal news still was monopolized in the sight–in interpreting the news. This ½rst years of the United States by the may sound like a new idea. It is actually oldest news medium: word of mouth. an old one. It was exchanged in taverns and coffee houses, on front porches and on the Bill Keller insists that his version of streets of towns like Boston, New York, “quality journalism” provides “the in- and Philadelphia–for free. No printer formation you need to be an engaged and no weekly could scoop neighbor- citizen.” The founders of this country hood busybodies on an intriguing local Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/139/2/76/1829808/daed.2010.139.2.76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 certainly did agree that the citizenry political development or crime. requires a free press. Writing in the Opinions–in newspapers and pam- National Gazette a couple of years after phlets–rallied the American colonies he helped draft the First Amendment, against the British. Opinions then James Madison stated how important helped shape the new democracy. It “a circulation of newspapers through is hard to imagine anyone at the time the entire body of the people” is “to lib- having anything glorious to say about erty.”4 However, Keller’s understanding the mere dissemination of news. of the function of newspapers would have been unintelligible to the found- The word news, in its current usage, ers. For not only were there no report- is very old. However, in Madison’s ers witnessing or digging in America day, journalism referred only to the keep- in 1791, there were no reporters. ing of a private journal. Its meaning Newspapers then were the products morphed somewhat earlier in French, of individual printers, who culled out- but, according to the Oxford English Dic- of-town papers for interesting or impor- tionary, journalism was ½rst applied in tant items; reprinted letters, speeches, English to work on newspapers in 1833.6 and transcripts; and then added disqui- It was de½ned that year in the Westmin- sitions of their own or of their acquain- ster Review as “the intercommunication tances. They rarely undertook excur- of opinion and intelligence.”7 Intelligence sions beyond their print shops. Why is an interesting term for news here, but did Madison consider “a circulation a term for news nonetheless. So, by 1833, of newspapers” so crucial? Because, newspapers were beginning to be seen he wrote, it “facilitates a general inter- in part as organs for the dissemination course of sentiments”–not news of of news. politics, in other words, but opinions In London at that time (more than in on politics. France or anywhere else), increased en- This does not mean that people in ergy was being applied to the gathering Madison’s time, or any other, lacked of “intelligence.” Many papers had be- an interest in news. We humans were gun employing reporters, a word that was born, as I have argued elsewhere,5 with itself making a transition: from teller or a basic thirst for news, undoubtedly be- transcriber of an event (perhaps using cause knowledge of potential threats shorthand8) to gatherer of news. Lon- and opportunities improved the likeli- don newspapers, which had long been

78 Dædalus Spring 2010 publishing daily, had become a place to tion, “essential” as it may be, as “almost The case look not just for clippings and opinion purely mercantile and clerical.”9 In 1881, for wisdom journalism but for the information, the news, those the English essayist Leslie Stephen (Vir- reporters gathered. Newspapers on the ginia Woolf’s father) characterized the outskirts of the English-speaking world, “reporter of ordinary events and speech- in North America, eventually followed es” as “a bit of mechanism instead of a suit. man.”10 And it was at about this time that two Only in the second half of the twen- inventions arrived that would begin to tieth century did reporting news–not tip the balance in “journalism”–this just “the discussion and explanation” “intercommunication of opinion and of it–begin to gain real cachet.11 Ivy intelligence”–further toward the latter. leaguers (enamored with the excite- First came the steam press, which en- ment and Hemingway) replaced high Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/139/2/76/1829808/daed.2010.139.2.76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 abled “journalists” to distribute their school graduates (enamored with the newspapers quickly and widely. Then excitement and the regular paycheck) the telegraph was invented, giving “jour- on the White House beat, at city hall, nalists” quick access to news from afar. and, soon, even on the police beat. By Amateurs on the street began to have “bearing witness, digging into records, dif½culty competing with these daily, developing sources” they brought down steam-powered, wired, news behe- a president, exposed a massacre in Viet- moths. If you could obtain it quickly nam, and shined a light on a wide vari- enough, if you could distribute it fast ety of miseries and corruptions. Fact- and far enough, you could make a busi- obsessed reporters became heroes in a ness out of selling what humans had fact-obsessed age. (Indeed, “naive real- always exchanged for free. ism,” as the postmodernists call it, pre- It took the better part of the nine- served its hold on journalism long after teenth century in the United States; it art and literature had moved on.12) Jour- took the desperate hunger for “intel- nalism had become the painstaking gath- ligence” occasioned by an unbeliev- ering of information on current events. ably bloody war; it took the spread, Journalists in Europe often maintained in many endeavors, of a mindset that a more pointed perspective on events– emphasized unvarnished facts, but the Telegraph and Le Figaro from the right, journalism increasingly became syn- for instance, the Guardian and Le Monde onymous with the gathering and dis- from the left. But in the United States, semination of news. “intelligence” was generally revered It wasn’t necessarily the most distin- to the point where it was considered guished of undertakings. An 1869 maga- sinful to sully it by any “intercommu- zine article on journalism by the Ameri- nication” with opinion. The standard can essayist Richard Grant White gives of “quality journalism” before which an idea of the status of the mere reporter Bill Keller and his cohort genuflect had of news: “Of the two branches of jour- been raised. All hailed the reporter. nalism, which are the gathering and the publication of news and the discussion But then that period during which and explanation of the events thus made it was possible to make a business out public, the former is the more essential, of selling news ended. It feels as if it the latter the more important.” White has been sudden. It has not been that ends up dismissing the former occupa- sudden.

Dædalus Spring 2010 79 Mitchell Radio began disseminating news be- has to tell us is familiar. As we spread Stephens fore the papers, even with their extras, cream cheese on a fresh bagel, much of on the future could hit the streets. And radio arrived what we are reading on the front page of ofnews free. Per capita newspaper circulation The New York Times is stale. As we drive began its descent in the United States. to work, even much of what some sol- Television news, too, was fast and free emn-voiced reporter is recounting on and awfully pleasing to the eye. Cable npr’s Morning Edition is no longer news made it available around the clock. to us. In the news game the race is to the That descent accelerated. Extras and swiftest. afternoon papers disappeared. News- News habits are strong. Those current- papers achieved their greatest respect- ly over ½fty may continue to peruse with ability in the last third of the twenti- pleasure yesterday’s headlines with their eth century as–and isn’t this the way morning coffee. But for their younger Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/139/2/76/1829808/daed.2010.139.2.76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 it goes–they were beginning to lose siblings and their children it is probably their audiences.13 game over. Newspapers and even many Then something rather sudden did newscasts cannot regularly compete happen: with the Web the whole world with the Internet for news. rapidly started becoming one big tav- Ah, you say, but the front page of The ern, coffee house, front porch, or street New York Times can do a better job with through which news races–mostly for a story than did an Associated Press ac- free. Soon it seemed anything news- count on Yahoo. Yes, but do those quotes papers could do with news, websites, from a couple of sagacious sources neg- some of them subsidized by newspa- lected by the ap, those three extra par- pers, could do better–for free. Web- agraphs putting the event in context, sites are currently beginning to dem- make up for the fact that you’ve already onstrate the ability to outdo radio known this “news” for twenty hours? and television newscasts, too. Hold on, you say, a version of this story Now when a major event happens was up on the Times website not long –a well-known person dies, votes are after Drudge, Huf½ngton, and the others cast, bullets fly, bombs explode–that had it, and it was more measured and event ½rst happens for most of us on thorough. Yes, but is that all The New the Internet. Maybe some of us initial- York Times is to be: The Huf½ngton Post ly learn the news on washingtonpost or the Associated Press but a little slow- .com or cnn.com, but we also might er and somewhat better? ½rst encounter it on The Huf½ngton Post, Our best journalists need to ½nd a the Drudge Report, the remarkably com- new game to play. Instead of remain- prehensive Google News, or any of ten ing also-rans in the race for increasingly thousand other news sites–profession- hard-to-peddle news, they have to ½nd al or amateur, general or specialized. something else with which to compete. Or maybe we come upon the news un- They have to begin selling something der the count of how many unread mes- less common, less cheap than news. sages we have in our Yahoo mailbox. Exclusives are one possibility. Upon Therefore, by the time Brian Williams occasion a reporter manages to secure comes on at six thirty, most of us with a vantage point webcams and other re- any facility with a computer already know. porters have not achieved–at the scene As we lie in bed and ½ddle with the re- of some atrocity somewhere, perhaps. mote, much of what Anderson Cooper In such circumstances “going places,

80 Dædalus Spring 2010 bearing witness” certainly has journal- training, to leave the teaching and guid- The case istic value, even moral value. Upon oc- ing to expert sources. So we get a Har- for wisdom journalism casion a source passes on something vard professor here, someone from the eye-opening to just one trusted report- Brookings Institution there, Norman er. Or an exclusive may, in fact, be the re- Ornstein everywhere. Smart commen- sult of “digging into records, developing tators, no doubt, but they are presum- sources” and exposing some wrong or ably being asked–as is usually the case injustice. Such investigative reporting, in interviews for newspapers–to expati- too, has nobility. This is news that truly ate on complex subjects extemporane- quali½es as “intelligence.” It certainly ously. And their unpolished comments, offers our journalists a way to compete. often part of extended arguments, are News organizations cannot, however, then sliced by the reporter into short depend solely on such exclusives. There quotations. These standard and accept- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/139/2/76/1829808/daed.2010.139.2.76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 aren’t enough of them. Even with their ed journalistic practices hardly encour- battalions of veteran reporters, even age coherent and thorough interpreta- with their reputations as destinations of tions. Why shouldn’t the journalists choice for leaks, The New York Times and writing the stories themselves be smart The Washington Post can’t come close to commentators? ½lling their front pages each day with ma- “When my young friends consult me jor scoops. But interpretative articles, if as to the conditions of successful jour- they’re smart and interesting enough, nalism,” Leslie Stephen wrote in 1881, are also exclusive; wire-service report- “my ½rst bit of advice comes to this: ers are unlikely to be peddling the same know something really; at any rate, try perspective all over the Web. Our best to know something; be the slaves of journalists should be contributing some- some genuine idea, or you will be the thing of signi½cant civic and commer- slaves of a newspaper.”16 Is there not cial value: new understandings. need for journalists who themselves “really” know a lot? Might readers Writing before American journalists searching for some extra value not ap- had entirely given themselves over to the preciate the more frequent flickering pursuit of news,14 Richard Grant White of a “genuine idea”? Aren’t journalists insisted that a journalist who “has any who fail to pursue ideas enslaving them- other purpose in life than to make mo- selves to an increasingly unremunera- ney” should aspire to the role of “teach- tive, unrewarding view of what journal- er and guide.”15 It is in this role, White ism might be? stated, that the journalist “deserves re- One reason mainstream reporters spect.” White assumed that this judg- hide behind sources is to protect them- ment was shared. It is not widely shared selves against the accusations of bias by mainstream American journalists that pepper American news organiza- today. Teachers and guides marshal tions. As long as journalists are seen pri- accumulated learning and good sense marily as collectors of news, as mere in order to help us better comprehend witnesses, they will be judged by the something. We have come to expect evenhandedness with which they col- less than that today from our most re- lect, by the faithfulness and dispassion spected journalists. of their witness. Opinion will have to Contemporary American journalists be suppressed, and journalists will end instead are disposed, by instinct and up putting considerable energy into dis-

Dædalus Spring 2010 81 Mitchell guising whatever point of view they may traditional just-the-facts, “½ve Ws” lead Stephens have achieved. However, if the goal of paragraph. All were important stories: on the future journalism is seen, instead, as imparting about a then sinking economy and plans ofnews understanding of events, then accuracy to improve it (four of them), about Rush and fairness still, of course, are crucial, Limbaugh and Republican politics, about but they are not all. Doesn’t insightful- hunger in North Korea. But instead of ness often bene½t from a point of view just reporting what happened yesterday –from a fair, well founded but pointed –though there was a fair amount of that, perspective? too–they considered; they character- An opinion, if it is held without reflec- ized; they investigated; they measured tion, can interfere with learning. But an effects and looked behind scenes. They opinion can also provide an impetus and were doing quite a bit, that day, of what a framework for learning. If we use opin- this essay argues they should do a whole Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/139/2/76/1829808/daed.2010.139.2.76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 ions to sort out to whom we will deign to lot, every day. listen, they can narrow our perspectives. The ½rst lesson of this front page is But turning to someone with a like mind that the route out of journalism’s cri- can be useful in adapting old principles sis being promoted here is not as radi- to new situations.17 Why must most cal (or, alas, as revelatory) as it may mainstream journalists work so hard to sound. More and more interpretation disguise the fact that they have weighed is already appearing in newspapers and the arguments and reached a conclusion? on newscasts: not just in editorials– And it is not just a question of opinion. remnants of the pre-reporting era; not Ideas about current events, insights into just in columns and op-ed pieces–care- current events, interpretations of current fully walled off from the news stories events don’t have to array themselves on that contemporary journalists consider the political spectrum to be stimulating. their main business; interpretation is Indeed, the less they ½t traditional no- appearing on the news pages themselves. tions of partisanship the more thought Analysis is the journalist’s preferred provoking they often are. All that is re- word for such efforts to go beyond mere quired is that they be important and in- reportage–probably because it sounds teresting. clinical and, therefore, objective. Some Provocative, insightful interpretations stories in some papers are given a spe- are beginning to sprout here and there in cial designation: “news analysis.” One, our new, vaster, wilder journalistic ecol- by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, even turned up ogy. But they remain rare on what are in the lead position on the front page still the most valuable parcels of journal- of The New York Times during the health istic real estate: tradition continues to care debate.18 But the “news analysis” dictate that newspaper front pages or slug is not required. For reporters have network evening newscasts be devoted been granted increased leeway to char- primarily not to teaching or guiding but acterize, not just transcribe, in stan- to retelling by-now old news. dard-issue stories themselves. One quick, limited historical survey What happened one day when there may help demonstrate that shift: an was an exception to this rule is instruc- analysis of the main New York Times tive. On March 6, 2009, The Washington story reporting on the ½rst speech giv- Post displayed a front page upon which en before a joint session of Congress none of the six stories opened with a by each of our last twelve presidents.

82 Dædalus Spring 2010 For Presidents Truman through Carter, nect policy to style. Sometimes they ex- The case at least 18 percent, and sometimes more plain, predict, or conclude. The most for wisdom journalism than twice that, of the words in the story partisan celebrate or, more commonly, were quoted directly from the speech.19 bemoan. In those same stories on Presidents Rea- Interpretation–coming up with a gan through Obama, fewer than 18 per- “meaning,” an “explanation,” or a “sig- cent, and sometimes less than half that, ni½cance”–seems better able to encom- of the words were taken by the Times pass the broad repertoire of tunes such reporter directly from the speech. This commentators sing. But interpretation rough measure con½rms what careful apparently sounds more subjective. newspaper readers may already have It makes some traditional journalists noticed: news stories are somewhat uncomfortable. Indeed, this whole less stenographic than they used to business of moving beyond the mere Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/139/2/76/1829808/daed.2010.139.2.76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 be. Wordings that imply some sort of telling of news makes traditional jour- reportorial judgment, such as “thinly nalists uncomfortable–even if they veiled swipe,” are now used more; di- are indubitably, if half-heartedly, do- rect verbs of attribution–declared, for ing more of it. example–used less. And that is the second lesson of The What is called “analysis” has also Washington Post’s front page on March 6, burgeoned on television news. On the 2009. A blog sponsored by Washingtonian evening newscasts of the three tradition- magazine quickly attacked the paper for al networks, presumably nonpartisan carrying “no news.”20 “Welcome to the commentators are regularly asked to new age of daily newspapering,” writer step back for larger meanings or step Harry Jaffe protested on that blog, “where up with inside dope; the late Tim Rus- the actual news of the day has migrated sert established the type. But the big to the Internet or tv or radio or the in- change has come on cable. After a ma- side pages of the paper. Bye-bye to the jor news story has been introduced on old ‘who-what-when-where-why.’” cnn, it does not take long before an The Post’s relatively new executive ed- anchor turns to “our panel” for some itor, Marcus Brauchli, felt called upon perspective upon it–often partisan to respond to the charge that he lacked perspective. And on fox, now msnbc, proper devotion to news. Brauchli did and a cnn show or two, as on talk ra- profess a commitment to “tell our read- dio, the anchors themselves are often ers . . . why it’s happening, how it might quite prepared to supply the partisan affect them and what’s likely to happen perspective. next.” He acknowledged–in other words, Analysis may not, in fact, be the best mine not his–that interpretation should term for this phenomenon, since the be part of the paper’s mission, its front- word’s primary meaning is to break page mission. But before he said that, down into component parts in search Brauchli had to establish his bona ½des of understanding. Our “analysts” may as a “newsman.” He had to pay obei- have a weakness for tearing things apart, sance to the mission that had dominat- but they hardly limit themselves to that. ed the old, and romanticized, “age of Sometimes they synthesize. Sometimes daily newspapering.” “We tell our read- they offer context, background, or a peek ers what’s happening,” Brauchli insist- behind scenes. Sometimes, unembar- ed–just as his predecessors would have rassed by the ad hominem, they con- insisted. No matter, apparently, that

Dædalus Spring 2010 83 Mitchell most of those readers often already know And the appearance in newspapers of Stephens what is happening. these more interpretive articles remains on the future The discomfort traditional journal- sporadic and unpredictable–even, so ofnews ists continue to feel with providing in- far, at Brauchli’s Washington Post. Some- terpretations also helps explain why times a more “analytic” piece illumi- they don’t always do such a good job nates the major news event of the day of it. “Analyses” in newspapers and (actually, in print, the major news event on network newscasts can seem a lit- of yesterday), sometimes readers must tle hesitant, predictable, or flat. That make do with only the traditional ac- “news analysis” by Sheryl Gay Stol- count. There’s no guarantee in a news- berg, which led The New York Times, paper that a columnist, an op-ed con- had a real point to make: that a health tributor, or an editorial will bother to care plan along the lines President Oba- take up the subject on that day; these Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/139/2/76/1829808/daed.2010.139.2.76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 ma favored had a better likelihood of personages and pages operate by their passage than “conventional wisdom,” own more leisurely schedules, their as reported in recent news accounts, own whims. made it seem. Often, however, these The efforts of mainstream American news analyses don’t seem all that journalism to explore the territory be- much more analytic than the news yond plain reporting of news have, in stories that run next to them.21 other words, been tentative, spotty, and In part that’s because such pieces are unreliable. So bloggers have stepped into limited by the traditional journalist’s the gap. Indeed, that is surely among the almost inescapable reluctance to ex- explanations for the sudden success of press a strong point of view. Stolberg, bloggers–opinionated, snarky, smart– well versed on health care politics, was like Andrew Sullivan, Markos Moulitsas, willing to make an assertion on her own Josh Marshall, Mickey Kaus, Ana Marie authority: “The conventional wisdom Cox, and others. They are not restricted might be wrong,” she wrote. Even mut- by “walls” between news and opinion, ed by the “might,” that statement quali- and other vestigial remnants of an ear- ½es as an unusually powerful assertion lier journalism. They have a relatively for a New York Times reporter. A source clear view of where quality in journal- was not quoted in her story until the ism now lies: in exclusives, when avail- eighth paragraph. Frequently, however, able; but more often in intelligent, well- “news analysis” pieces lean, like most reasoned interpretation–in attempts at mainstream journalism, on the quotes of wisdom. experts, with the point of view of those questioning conventional wisdom duti- Many American journalists, it should fully offset by the point of view of those be noted, believe that a move from “shoe- supporting it. Too often these articles leather” reporting to what they dismiss emit, consequently, the squishy, method- as “thumb sucking” would be a disaster. ical sound of toothless rumination. They have a point. We don’t want “in- The “analysis” on cable tv has its own telligence” overwhelmed by “opinion” problems. The talking heads22 can seem, –as it can be on some of our more im- shall we say, a bit shrill. The word wisdom passioned radio talk shows, cable news does not always come to mind when con- programs, and websites. We do not gain sidering current efforts to chew over the from unsupported interpretations or dis- news–with or without fangs. tortions in service of a cause. Much con-

84 Dædalus Spring 2010 tinues to depend, therefore, on the to be fair, its hair-trigger feedback mech- The case marshaling of what might (naively) anisms have made this medium extraor- for wisdom journalism be called cold, hard facts, the raw ma- dinarily responsive to criticism and cor- terials out of which persuasive inter- rection.) And if reporting of events ends pretations might be constructed. up in part in the hands of the sponsors of In many ways the raw materials those events, then we will have to work on current events are more easily ob- hard to correct for lacunae, tilts, and ex- tained now than ever before, thanks to cesses of cheeriness. the expansive, information-rich Web. But many aspects of society are al- Still, for unpublicized facts on uncom- ready being better reported today. And fortable subjects; for an outsider’s per- not all forms of reporting seem likely to spective and an outsider’s follow-up retain their value tomorrow. With the questions; for accounts that extract volume of available information ever Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/139/2/76/1829808/daed.2010.139.2.76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 the newsworthy from the run-of-the- increasing, digesting, indexing, order- mill, a certain amount of shoe-leather ing, and highlighting newsworthiness reporting remains, as Richard Grant are gaining importance; transcribing, White put it, “essential.” Journalism’s collecting, and witnessing–the pains- teachers and guides will continue to rely taking gathering of information on upon it. Who will supply this reporting? current events–are losing importance. Some newspaper journalists and The greatest value, as I have been argu- their cheerleaders have been chant- ing, will lie in bringing wisdom to that ing, “If we don’t do it, nobody can.”23 huge pile of information–which brings I suspect they are wrong. Various wire us back to the role of our best journal- services, or their online equivalents, ists and to a consideration of who can continue to provide accounts of might qualify as our best journalists. the day’s events. And the fact that Web journalism, in the initial decades of its At most American news organizations existence, may not yet have come up the career ladder is as encrusted with tra- with a way to uncover much of what dition as are the stories. You work your is now uncovered by the accomplished way up through a series of beats–from fact chasers of the Times and the Post covering a suburban town, say, to city doesn’t mean that it won’t. It took the politics to Washington. Such a résumé, purveyors of newspapers a couple of or a stint at a wire service, might still centuries to develop reporting systems. be appropriate for the portion of wis- Bloggers are already pretty skilled at dom journalists who specialize in ex- noting, kibitzing, questioning, dissect- clusives or investigations. However, it ing, deconstructing, and kvetching. is not clear that the talents nurtured They work the Web. We can allow allotting the “allegedly”s on the police them a few more years before we con- beat or developing sources at city hall clude that it will never occur to them necessarily translate into an ability to to put on a pair of pants and also work pen front-page news analyses or a col- the hallways. umn. Indeed, it is a demonstration of Until Internet journalism matures, or sorts of the “Peter Principle” that a po- if it remains in part in the hands of am- sition in which a point of view is of use ateurs, we will have to remain alert for should be the reward for a career of sup- lapses in accuracy, accountability, fair- pressing evidence of such a point of ness, or ethical standards. (Although, view.

Dædalus Spring 2010 85 Mitchell If you were to construct from scratch eralists who are dependent upon expert Stephens an organization capable of discussing sources, the idea would be to hire idea- on the future the major events of the day, wouldn’t oriented specialists who know as much ofnews you want to hire individuals who, to as the expert sources. use Leslie Stephen’s wording, “know Then you would make sure one of something really”–who have earned these commentators was assigned the right to interpret? Yes, of course, each day to shed some light on each they would have to be able to write– of the major stories of the day. Editors to write fast, to write well. (The value and producers now go to great trouble of engaging prose, or engaging video, to include accounts of those stories– has not been well enough exploited although much of their audience no by newsrooms consumed by a fever longer depends on them for such ac- for facts.) And, of course, they would counts. The argument here is that our Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/139/2/76/1829808/daed.2010.139.2.76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 have to be attuned to the contempo- top journalistic organizations should rary world–ready to go out and ob- instead be working, with similar dili- serve, ask, listen, and test their ideas; gence, to make sure they include an ready to talk to sources (though not to interesting interpretation of each of depend entirely on sources). Nothing those stories–perhaps with a brief said here is meant to imply that these recap of the news a few paragraphs new wisdom journalists have leave to down in the article, for those who retreat to ivory towers while producing haven’t been keeping up. their deeper understandings. News is It is almost impossible to speak of still best understood in the places where journalism today without using the it is made and where its impact is felt. word news. Our journalists work in But wouldn’t it be useful if, instead of “newsrooms,” for “newspapers,” a background sparring with mayors and “newscasts,” or other “news organiza- police chiefs, four or ½ve of these hires tions.” We lack alternative terms for brought an expertise on macroeconom- these locales or enterprises. A “jour- ics, for instance, and another four or ½ve nalism room”? A “journalism-cast”? were well versed on the Middle East? A “journalism organization”? Maybe I don’t pretend such individuals would we need some new terms. The day be easy to ½nd. I do believe they could when journalists could support them- be found. Academics who can write– selves by reporting the news is ending. some of whom are already maintaining They must aim higher. They must be respected blogs–certainly might be re- wiser. cruited for these distinguished and in- fluential positions. If journalism pro- grams insist, as some are now doing,24 that their students master a subject mat- ter and not just techniques, they could supply candidates. But the requisite ex- pertise would not have to be certi½ed by a degree. It might come instead from private study or life experiences. Some years having reported on business or in the Mideast certainly wouldn’t hurt. However, instead of fact-oriented gen-

86 Dædalus Spring 2010 endnotes The case 1 for wisdom This article is based on work completed at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Poli- journalism tics and Public Policy at Harvard University. 2 “Talk to the Newsroom: Executive Editor,” nytimes.com, January 30, 2009. 3 This account is based on that in Ross King, The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade that Gave the World Impressionism (New York: Holtzbrinck, 2006). 4 James Madison, “Public Opinion,” National Gazette, December 19, 1791, in The Writings of James Madison, vol. VI, ed. Gaillard Hunt (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1906). 5 See Mitchell Stephens, A History of News, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). 6 The word journalist, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, made the transition earlier.

Voltaire, for example, used journalist in 1737 to mean “contemporary historian.” Voltaire, Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/139/2/76/1829808/daed.2010.139.2.76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 “On History: Advice to a Journalist,” in The Varieties of History: From Voltaire to the Present, ed. Fritz Stern (New York: Meridian, 1956). 7 This article itself was translated from the French; Westminster Review XVIII (January–April 1833). “Du Journalism,” Revue Encyclopédique (September 1832). 8 Isaac Pitman’s book is entitled The Reporter: Or, Phonography Adapted to Verbatim Reporting (Bath, U.K.: n.p., 1846). 9 Thanks to Brooke Kroeger for bringing this article to my attention. Richard Grant White, “The Morals and Manners of Journalism,” The Galaxy VIII (December 1869): 6; American Periodicals Series, 840. 10 Leslie Stephen, “The Duties of Authors,” in Leslie Stephen, Social Rights and Duties, vol. II (London: n.p., 1896), 154–156. 11 War reporting gained cachet earlier, with dashing reporters like William Howard Russell, Richard Harding Davis, and Stephen Crane. However, they were known for their literary and interpretive abilities, and their courage, more than for their adeptness with facts. 12 See Mitchell Stephens, “Deconstruction and the Get-Real Press,” Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 1991. 13 Newspapers’ increased respectability came, in part, because the audiences they were left to serve–after television–tended to be better educated audiences. 14 See David Mindich, Just the Facts: How “Objectivity” Came to De½ne American Journalism (New York: New York University Press, 2000). 15 White, “The Morals and Manners of Journalism.” 16 Stephen, “The Duties of Authors.” 17 I owe this point to Thomas Patterson. 18 Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “After Recess, Health Talk Steps Lively,” The New York Times, Sep- tember 9, 2009. The jaunty headline on this piece is not reflective of its content. 19 For a different reading of historical coverage of presidential messages to Congress, see Michael Schudson, “The Politics of Narrative Form: The Emergence of News Conven- tions in Print and Television,” Dædalus 111 (4) (Fall 1982): 97–112. 20 Thanks to Maralee Schwartz for directing me to this story. Harry Jaffe, “Flash: Front Page of Washington Newspaper Contains No News,” Capital Comment Blog, Washingtonian .com, March 6, 2009. Jaffe, to be fair, has interesting, nuanced views of the Post’s situa- tion. 21 For an example, see Helene Cooper, “On the World Stage, Obama Issues an Overture,” The New York Times, April 3, 2009.

Dædalus Spring 2010 87 Mitchell 22 It is also unfortunate that edited video and the other visual tools that can elevate television Stephens over radio tend to disappear when the “analysts” come on. We are left, instead, with shots on the of the moving mouth of a Bill O’Reilly, Rachel Maddow, or George Stephanopoulos. future ofnews 23 Here’s John S. Carroll, a former editor of the Los Angeles Times, from a speech to the Amer- ican Society of Newspaper Editors on April 26, 2006: “Newspapers dig up the news. Oth- ers repackage it.” 24 To pick my own program as an example, New York University’s Carter Institute of Jour- nalism now offers specialized master’s programs in, among other subjects, science, health, and environmental journalism; cultural reporting; and business and economic journalism. All undergraduate journalism majors are also required to complete another major in the liberal arts. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/139/2/76/1829808/daed.2010.139.2.76.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021

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