Washington Post Editor Marty Baron spoke at the annual Penn State Oweida Lecture on Journalism Ethics on March 21. Baron spoke extensively on a lot of hot topics in today’s media, especially with the Trump administration.
He mentioned that even though there’s push back from the White House, the media should not stay silent and must report everything as thoroughly and truthfully as it can. He also mentions that the press needs to make sure that it is listening to what’s going on as well.
President Trump took away the Washington Post’s press credentials and would not allow them to cover his campaign on site. This was all due to Trump not liking the way that the Post was covering him and depicting him to the country.
However, the Post continued to report what they saw as honestly as they could. This is exactly the message that Baron delivered during the lecture. No matter what obstacles might be in the way, it’s the press’ job to deliver the news and make sure the country is informed.
Baron noted during the lecture that the media does need to listen more. Journalists have a duty in being fair when reporting stories because a reporter does not want his or her biases to appear in the stories that’ll persuade the audience. If the media listens more to what’s going on without bias, it’ll be easier to accurately report what’s going on.
According to a study from Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center, the press can play a role in elevating or sinking a candidate and keep voters under-informed in the election. The PBS article that discussed the study mentions that the press was more interested in making a good story to get views rather than reporting on candidates’ policies.
The article goes on to mention that the primary election coverage was more focused on the competition itself. “Only 11 percent of the primary coverage focused on the candidate’s policy positions, leadership abilities or personal and professional history,” (Childress). This goes with both the topics mentioned above. The press needs to accurately report what is truly going on, such as the policies of the candidates. This goes hand-in-hand with listening as to what is going on. If the press listened more to what was going on, maybe we wouldn’t be in the position we are right now with fake news.
There is a lot of give and take when it comes to reporting the news. Both sides need to cooperate more, in my opinion. Baron brought up a lot of good points during his lecture about how the media needs to listen more, but not stay silent. I’ve learned that our job as journalists is to report the news fairly and accurately no matter any potential repercussions like Baron talked about.
We need to make sure the public is informed about the main issues in today’s society with an unbiased point of view. It’s important that we discuss these issues and others that may arrive so we can move forward and progress as a society. The only way things can get better is if we discuss what is happening that’s positive and negative and how we can improve.
REFERENCES
Baron, M. (2017, March 21). Lecture presented at Penn State Oweida Lecture in Freeman Auditorium .
Childress, S. (2016). Study: Media Biased in Primary Campaign Coverage. Retrieved March 31, 2017, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/study-election-coverage-skewed-by-journalistic-bias/