Media Investigate Their Own Values

The FBI was closing in on the suspected Unabomber and CBS knew. The network agreed to hold its story for two days to avoid jeopardizing the investigation. CBS News president Andrew Heyward explained the decision this way: “We consider ourselves citizens first and journalists second.”

Would CBS have made the same decision a decade ago? Impossible to say, but in the past few years, some of the media have engaged in soul-searching about their relationship with - and responsibility to - the communities they serve.

Traditionally, journalists have defined their role as that of a tough watchdog. They felt they had to be detached enough from those they guarded to bark at villains within the community.

But some journalists are rethinking their traditions. They realize that media values do not often align with the values of the community. Journalist James Fallows, in an Atlantic Monthly article titled “Why Americans Hate The Media,” pointed out that two out of three members of the public had “nothing good to say about the media.” Many also felt the press gets in the way of society solving its problems. The news media, meanwhile, has a “generally positive attitude of itself in the watchdog role.”

The discrepancy in perceptions is humbling. And some in the news business are responding by opening their doors - and minds - to members of the community. They realize they need to be less detached and more “interdependent.” Though the rightness of their decision is still being debated in journalism circles, The New York Times and The Washington Post published the Unabomber’s manifesto last fall. The suspect’s brother said reading the manifesto helped convince him to contact the FBI. Who knows how many lives this may have saved?

Soon, every newspaper newsroom in the country will possess a Journalism Values Handbook. Thirty editors from big and small newspapers around the country, including The Spokesman-Review’s Chris Peck, spent a year examining and redefining core journalistic values, such as accuracy, leadership and news judgment. They recognized the pressing need to restore connections with the public.

This soul-searching is not happening everywhere in the news business. There is much resistance to it within the industry itself. Some editors worry that by connecting more with the community, they are selling out, losing objectivity.

But the media must contribute to community well-being. They must act as a community’s “candid friend.” That still includes pointing out wrongdoing and revealing harsh truths. It also includes participating as a constructive community member. These are difficult roles to balance. The first challenge is to try.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rebecca Nappi/For the editorial board