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Fair & Balanced?“A newspaper cannot really congratulate itself on having got all the facts impartially when it has quoted at length from two uninformed idiots on opposing sides of an issue.”
—James Russell Wiggins, former editor & publisher, The Ellsworth (Maine) American, and former managing editor, The Washington Post
Pease’s Soapbox:
I met the estimable Mr. Wiggins in the early 1980s, when I applied for a reporting job at the Ellsworth American—a “retirement hobby” for the former hard-bitten managing editor of the Washington Post. A classic journalistic curmudgeon, Wiggins let me down easy, first by ignoring my application letter and then by meeting me when I wandered into his newsroom without an appointment, and ushering me back out.
Wiggins’s perspective on journalistic “balance,” as exemplified in his quote, illustrates how the tradition of investigation, even muckraking, had devolved by the end of his career (he died at age 96 in 2000). When a network that is anything but can coopt the journalistic ideal “fair and balanced” and strip it of all meaning, then Wiggins’s definition has indeed become the standard of press responsibility. This kind of “balance,” so prevalent in the press today, equates to journalistic sloth and does little to advance citizen discussion and understanding of issues and events.
Agree? Disagree? Have a different bone to pick? Click on the Comment link below.
Good quote, but the editor of the Ellsworth American was James Russell "Russ" Wiggins.
ReplyDeletePaul's correct. Chagrined, I've fixed the citation and added a note. Chalk it up to blear at 6:30 a.m.
ReplyDeleteTed
I agree! I am sending this to my Dad!
ReplyDeleteI agree -
ReplyDeleteI remember a debate a long time ago when I was in journalism school... (1990 - I was already 30 - came to it late!) about the role of mass media and journalism, about offering information that in subject matter and style of delivery catered to the lowest common denominator - populism (how patronising is that?)
I argued vehemently that it was/is not journalism's role to cater to the lowest common denominator, to contribute to the 'dumbing down' phenomenon... that journalism's role (in part) is to educate (in the broadest possible terms) and make accessible/provide access to higher levels (two different functions) of functioning for those who might not otherwise get that access...
Information/education is power, and for some the only access to that information is through the media...
Doesn't the media then have a responsibility to provide the highest quality of information it can source?
Great stuff, as always. What's truly mind boggling is that there are so many fools that actually believe, and will repeatedly argue that it's true, the ridiculous "fair and balanced" tag line. Thank you for your daily emails.
ReplyDelete“There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life.”
-Frank Zappa