Journalism's responsibility? Tell the truth
Falling needles create an unexpected display in the woods
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Mark Frost, owner of the Chronicle, wrote a column in his May 23 edition about “journalism’s very soul,” arguing it is threatened by his favorite target, the overweening liberal left.
“But make no mistake, lots of people in the journalism business — including a slew at the Times — say news media must stand definitively against what they see inarguably as Donald Trump’s threat to democracy,” he wrote.
Phrases like “make no mistake” signal that the following statements will be based on feelings and beliefs, not evidence, and Frost doesn’t offer any.
Columnists and editorial writers at the New York Times, whose job is to write opinion pieces, have written about the threats Trump poses to democracy.
Media critics like Margaret Sullivan, formerly the media columnist for the Washington Post, public editor of the New York Times and editor of the Buffalo News, have written about the necessity for journalists to aim not at a perfunctory presentation of “both sides of a story,” but at the truth of it.
If, for example, you have on one side Joe Biden saying the 2020 election was fair and accurate, and, on the other, Elise Stefanik saying it was fraudulent, it is your responsibility as a journalist to do more than report those two positions.
It is your responsibility to gather evidence and report the truth. It is the responsibility of all journalists, including Frost, to call out their members of Congress who lie about critical events.
To my knowledge, in all his both-sides musings on the sad state of our politics, Frost has never mentioned that, for several years now, Elise Stefanik has been repeatedly pushing falsehoods about the last presidential election.
Frost’s column describes an interview of the New York Times executive editor, Joe Kahn, by Ben Smith, founder of an internet newspaper called Semafor.
Smith asks Kahn why the Times doesn’t see its job as “We’ve got to stop Trump.”
“What about your job doesn’t let you think that way?” he asks.
This is a softball question, setting Kahn up to defend the Times’ independence and impartiality and allowing him to compare it favorably with state-run media like Xinhua News Agency in China or Pravda in Russia.
Frost seems to miss that the question was only asked so that the case for turning the Times into a partisan instrument could be exploded.
“I’m glad to see the New York Times belatedly stand up for its integrity instead of cowing to the angry mass,” Frost writes.
Mass? Frost makes Times’ readers sound like a tumor.
But where is his evidence of the Times’ lack of integrity, now or in the past? Where are the stories that show a pattern of partisanship?
It is not the Times’ fault that the truth often makes Trump look bad.
A jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll years ago in a department store dressing room in New York, then lying about it.
A jury found Trump guilty of covering up payments to an adult film actress, Stormy Daniels, to influence the 2016 presidential election in his favor.
Trump has been credibly accused of sexual assault by more than 20 women.
Trump mocked a disabled reporter.
Trump tells dozens of lies a day.
Trump celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade by justices he appointed, leading to severe restrictions on abortion in states across the country.
Trump wants, as president, to round up millions of migrants, including those who have been in the country for decades, and put them in camps, while pushing to have them deported.
Trump has pardoned numerous unrepentant criminals and intends to pardon more, including violent rioters who beat police officers.
Trump praises autocrats, living and dead, and has promised to move his administration toward autocracy.
Trump’s language sometimes mimics Hitler’s.
Trump uses the presidency to enrich himself and his family.
Trump has undermined the free and fair elections that are the foundation of our democracy and has refused to refrain from that behavior again this year.
Trump has done a lot of bad things, which is not a reason to stop reporting on them.
Journalism has been crippled in recent years not by bias but by severe cuts in newspaper staff brought on by the loss of readers and advertising to the internet. Good for the Chronicle that it seems to have weathered the collapse.
But Frost’s success should carry with it a responsibility to tell the truth, at the very least about the willingness of our congresswoman to defend Trump’s reprehensible behavior and lie on his behalf.
Wild walks
A recent venture into Cole’s Woods brought us past numerous skunk cabbages adorned like pin cushions with pine needles that must have fallen from the trees above and stuck upright into their leaves.
"It is not the Times’ fault that the truth often makes Trump look bad."
That's the heart of it.
Trump supporters, including many elected Republican officials, chose a candidate in part because he makes them feel good by vowing revenge and retribution. But at the same time, he is objectively unfit for office for numerous reasons. (Which, given Trump's statements and actions, is an inevitability. Any candidate running on a platform of revenge and retribution is unfit by definition.)
Truthful reporting about Trump will always offend his supporters. That's what happens when you choose a twice-impeached, convicted felon who pledges to be a dictator and prosecute (baselessly) his political opponents.
Next time, Republicans, choose wisely.
Mark Frost won’t say anything to lose access to “interviews” with Elise Stefanik. Thanks for calling out his both sidesing of issues. He also makes frequent use of strawmen and whataboutism.
I assume there are guidelines for journalistic integrity, but then he has no one to answer to anyway. It’s really not worth picking up The Chronicle for free if I think his kneejerk opinions are in it.