‘Necessary watchdogs’: Newsrooms must step up in a ‘changing, challenging’ world

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I had brunch with a former OU journalism student of mine a few weeks ago. It ended up with him assigning me a paper to write. Payback’s a bitch.

Between my bites of scrambled eggs and sausage, Tres Savage, this online publication’s editor, suggested I write an op-ed piece. What do I, as his old news writing professor, think about the state of reporting now?

I’m out of the loop in terms of today’s professional newsrooms. I’m retired. I’m the grumpy old guy in the house shoes — the has-been, the Max Goldman of Edmond.

I look at news reporting now more as an average reader would rather than how I viewed it as a newspaper editor or a journalism instructor.

As an average reader, I see shoddy, inaccurate and incomplete reporting in newspapers, on TV and on the internet. And, I see some excellent reporting.

I see investigative coverage that showed people who need mental health treatment dying in our local jails, reporting that revealed Chinese criminal networks taking over much of the illicit marijuana market in Oklahoma, stoking a wave of violence.

I also see people who view themselves as journalists when they are not, public servants who claim they are trustworthy and transparent when they are not. I see working news reporters belittled and degraded by nefarious officials who have a lot to lose if exposed to public scrutiny.

We readers expect truth and accuracy in reporting, and deservedly so. Journalism remains under fire in this polarized setting of our modern plight. That sort of environment makes accuracy and objective reporting more difficult.

Some readers understand, but that’s the job, isn’t it?

‘The ABCs of good journalism don’t change much’

Use of the big lie for political gain is in vogue nowadays, but it has careened out of control. The big lie is a propaganda tool where a falsehood is repeated so many times that people tend to believe it.

We excuse lying because we say all politicians lie. Candidates for office see a higher good in lying. They first have to get elected before they can help their constituents, they reason. They have to do and say whatever it takes. Some forget when the campaign’s over and when they need to start helping their constituents.

We’ve carried the tactic of lying to new heights. Hyperbole and lying have stormed through society like COVID-19 on steroids. It’s filtered down and tainted all levels of our lives — our education system, local government, the judicial system, our professional interactions and our social relationships. If we disagree with something, it must be a lie or fake news or a false fact, whatever that is.

Perhaps I’m putting too much emphasis on politics.

I, like most readers, don’t have the time or the inclination to follow the vast array of news outlets out there. I don’t see all the good and bad reporting. But when I do, I judge it through old-fashioned values. I want to see the basics in news reporting: clear and thorough sourcing, fair presentation, facts that are checked. The ABCs of good journalism don’t change much.

On the good side of things, I see reporting today that revealed a fake ticketing scam with millions of dollars pouring into a Texas County district attorney’s office. Investigative journalism that revealed one-third of Oklahoma kids in foster care were moved at least two counties away, increasing the strain on youth, foster parents, caseworkers and families trying to regain custody. Explanatory journalism that showed wind energy’s impact on the impending energy crisis in Oklahoma.

Reporters from nonprofits such as Oklahoma Watch, The Frontier and NonDoc are producing informative and important stories. They and others like them have helped fill the news vacuum created when the print industry began losing ad revenue and whacking staff rosters.

Properly trained journalists follow a code of ethics, a spirit of fairness and objectivity, truth and accuracy, integrity and accountability. People who don’t follow those values inevitably raise eyebrows among readers.

Media lining up on the left or the right is nothing new. Editorializing and outright bias in news stories are not new. They’re reminiscent in many ways of the 1930s and the William Hearst era of yellow journalism. That set a precedent for advocacy journalism, which itself is controversial.

Amid all the noise, we sometimes forget that reporters are the buffer between us and a corrupt government, us and our unlawful detention, us and power-hungry or crooked officials. Some of those public servants want to keep us from seeing what they do, many intent on ingratiating themselves and taking care of their cronies.

A free press mandated and protected by the Constitution offers the necessary watchdogs for our way of life. The platform — print, TV, online, radio — doesn’t matter. It’s the skilled communicator, the meticulous researcher, the ethical, passionate and dedicated reporter that matters.

My hat’s off to the conscientious reporters who watch over the public interests of this changing, challenging new world.

And that, Tres, is what I see. That’s the job.

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