May 27, 2003

NY TIMES Reporter Rick Bragg Describes Being on the Wrong End of Hostile Reporting.

Rick Bragg, suspended by the NEW YORK TIMES in the wake of the Jayson Blair fiasco, comments on what the mainstream press is currently experiencing:

“And this insanity—this bizarre atmosphere we’re moving through as if in a dream—we’re being made to feel ashamed for what was routine. . . . Reporters are being bad-mouthed daily. I hate it. It makes me sick.”

Mr. Bragg is experiencing, doubtless for the first time, how unfair hostile reporting is. Yet this is what the mainstream press has subjected every other business in America to for decades.

Hostile reporting is the result of the sentence all mainstream reporters say, specifically, “To be objective I must be hostile to the subject of the article.” That sentence is false. Hostility as a goal produces only attacks. It does not produce fairness. This is what Bragg, and the press, are discovering under these unfortunate circumstances.

It’s easy to tear things down. Anyone can do that. What is laudable is to build, to contribute, to be helpful. So, to practice what I preach, let me seek to offer something helpful.

A good example of how to do great reporting with fairness can be found in the trade and business press. Examples: FORTUNE, FORBES, BUSINESS WEEK, VARIETY, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, etc. etc. etc. These publications are recognized for expert, truthful, fair reporting. But their goal is to help: to help the businesses on which they report.

I would suggest that the mainstream press should consider that the business on which they report is the business of the world – the health, well-being, and prosperity of the American people, and of all people everywhere. With the goal of promoting these good things, the press will be able to report fully, truthfully, helpfully, and admirably.

Update: typo (Freudian slip) corrected: “meanstream” changed to “mainstream” in paragraph 3.