Newspapers aren't dead, but they're not helping themselves

A columnist cites Ted Koppel in an offering about journalism dying in self-importance and embracing its own biases. Who am I to argue with him?

When I owned the Tea & Harrisburg newspaper 15-20 years ago with a skeleton staff, people would ask how I could cover a Lennox School Board meeting and put a news story about it on Page 1, but then turn the page and find me ripping the same school board for its dumb decisions. I felt, wrongly or rightly, that I could present an unbiased news story on the cover and present my thoughts on the story on the opinion page. Koppel's point, and others, seems to be those lines of separation have been blurred or even erased in some cases: The news story contains the opinion of the writer.

When I started as a reporter years ago—we were known as “reporters,” never by the more pretentious “journalist”—I tried to use an adjective or an adverb now and then, in the wistful hope of making a story, well, colorful. The city editor, with a look of scorn, would ask, “Who do you think you are?” It was not for the reporter to characterize the facts of the story. He was to report them. Facts were sacrosanct—they had a hard-won integrity, an objective existence in the universe. They were to be approached with a certain scruffy reverence.

Back in the day at the Argus Leader, I remember legendary editor Dick Thien telling the newsroom the best sentence, in his opinion, contained a noun and a verb. That would make pretty boring copy in my opinion, but I understood his intent.

I think most local newspapers I read make an attempt at being unbiased, but understand how readers get confused when they see the paper state an opinion on the opinion page and wonder how that can't bleed over onto the news page. They usually don't understand how things work in a newsroom. People still assume the reporter writes the headline on their story.

I think the larger problem is when reporters go on social media and post political stuff, with their unfiltered snark and self-importance, and then they expect people to read a news story with their by-line the next day with an open mind.

While I think it's good for reporters to use social media to give readers or viewers a more personal look at them, some can't resist the temptation to be antagonistic egomaniacs.  While that is the personality of some, I doubt it's driving traffic to their newspaper.

Here's another take on the same subject:

Why Losing Our Newspapers Is Breaking Our Politics
Study finds newspaper closures are linked to partisanship

As local newspapers disappear, citizens increasingly rely on national sources of political information, which emphasizes competition and conflict between the parties. Local newspapers, by contrast, serve as a central source of shared information, setting a common agenda.