The former public editor of the New York Times ruminates about his stint at the Gray Lady as the newsroom cop.

From BigThink.com

When veteran journalist Daniel Okrent joined the New York Times as the newspaper’s first public editor in 2003, he entered a newsroom reeling in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal and found himself critiquing the work of some of the best reporters in the country—many of whom were unused to having their work questioned.  As a result, he says staffers “were very, very dubious, and in some cases openly hostile” toward him. “No one likes a cop,” he said.  “No one wanted to see my name on the caller ID’s box because I couldn’t be calling about good news.”

In his Big Think interview, Okrent talked at length about his time at the Times, and about journalism ethics generally. He said that while there would always be small-scale scandals in journalism, having an ombudsman at a news organization is a good way to make sure that major transgressions get noticed. “There will always be plagiarists,” he said. “There will always be people who didn’t make the phone call they claimed to have made, but the chronic repeated abuse that Jayson Blair was engaged in, I don’t think could happen at a newspaper that has a public editor, or ombudsman.”

Okrent also spoke about some of the challenges facing the newspaper industry, and, in particular, the Times—namely the online culture where content is given away for free. “People in the news business seem to be reluctant to realize is that’s the only thing that matters: that it’s the production of news being rewarded with revenue to cover the costs and perhaps produce a profit, that’s what counts. … Charge people for your product; if they’re not willing to pay for it, maybe you’ve got a problem with your product.”

The Times was forced by the Blair scandal to hire an ombudsman and has been stuck with the position ever since.  Every once in awhile the Times’ public editor actually takes the paper to task but considering that his check is coming from the vey people he is supposed to scrutinize criticism is often slow in coming. 

But I would rather have someone filing that role than not and I think it does keep what reporters are left on their toes to a small degree.

News organizations could regain some of the public trust they have lost over the years if readers or viewers thought there was someone actually critically vetting their reporting.  But that lesson seems to be lost on the mainstream media.

 

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