by David Phinney
March 31, 2006 — Leonard Downie heads The Washington Post newsroom. He may be one of the most well informed citizens in the United States, but he DOESN’T vote. And because he doesn’t vote, he doesn’t want his reporters to vote.
Why? He wants to project a posture of unbiased views, according to the Washingtonian mag. ( In fact, Washington Post reporters were banned from seeing a Bruce Springsteen concert during the 2004 election because Springsteen endorsed Kerry over Bush and put his money where his mouth is.)
Downie isn’t the only Beltway journalist to embrace a hands-off attitude. Mark Halperin, ABC’s political director — who has no shyness about hardball politics in the office — also boasts of not voting, according to a fawning New Yorker profile.
Could it be that’s why circulation and ratings are sinking? Are these the kind of news people who would watch the Titanic go down while asking passengers in the water “how does it feel” for the impartial benefit of readers and viewers?
Whatever. I’m sure the money’s good.
I am also sure I may be stretching things. Still there’s that sinking feeling among corporate mainstreamers that we may now be entering into a new age of corporate news coverage that doesn’t pretend to mask the human side of journalists.
Michael Kinsley in Slate nails the trend: “Journalists,” writes Kinsley, “who claim to have developed no opinions about what they cover are either lying or deeply incurious and unreflective about the world around them. In either case, they might be happier in another line of work.”
There’s more. Observing the rising ratings of Lou Dobbs and his untiring, self-appointed mission to address how the spreading global economy and illegal immigration is affecting the middle class and blue-collar workers in the United States, Kinsley concludes:
Objectivity is not a horse to bet the (television) network on. Or the newspaper, either. The newspaper industry is in the midst of a psychic meltdown over the threat posed by the Internet. Internet panic is a rolling contagion among the established media. It started with newspapers, now it’s spreading to magazines, and within a year book publishers will be in one of their recurring solipsistic frenzies.
Oh, and Leonard, good luck on the new WTWP/Washington Post radio programming. The one like NPR, but “with an edge.”
As Paul Farhi relays — in The Washington Post no less — the slogan for the new marriage of radio and newspaper reporters is: “Because there’s always more to the story.”
Paul boilerplates:
The venture between The Post and Bonneville comes at a time when most mainstream news outlets are facing declining audiences amid increasingly fierce competition from the Internet and other digital alternatives. By joining forces, the media companies seek to stem circulation and audience erosion.
