jay rosen – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Techdirt Podcast Episode 401: How Fact Checking Fails

from the paved-with-good-intentions dept

There’s been plenty of conversation over the past decade about how unprepared the mainstream media was for the shifts that have happened in politics and political discourse, especially when it comes to finding… well… the truth. As we move towards the 2024 election, the challenges of reporting and fact checking are once again in the spotlight, and this week we’re joined by NYU Journalism Professor and Jay Rosen to talk about the state of modern journalism, and how fact checking so often fails.

You can also download this episode directly in MP3 format.

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Filed Under: fact checking, jay rosen, journalism, podcast, politics

Axios Ridiculously Calls For Newsrooms To Ban Journalists From Having Opinions Online

from the view-from-nowhere dept

Tue, Oct 23rd 2018 12:10pm - Karl Bode

For years we’ve talked about the journalistic perils of what journalism professor Jay Rosen calls the “view from nowhere,” or the pretty common misconception that journalists should prioritize factual symmetry in news reporting, instead of actually trying to get to the truth. This usually results in “he said, she said” reporting where both sides are given equal weight (even if one side is clearly being intentionally misleading), with the idea that the reader can then ferret out the truth, while the journalist him or herself stands stoically protected from accusations of “bias” because they refused to take a real stand.

Rosen put it this way during an interview back in 2010:

“Frequently it places the journalist between polarized extremes, and calls that neither-nor position ?impartial.? Second, it?s a means of defense against a style of criticism that is fully anticipated: charges of bias originating in partisan politics and the two-party system. Third: it?s an attempt to secure a kind of universal legitimacy that is implicitly denied to those who stake out positions or betray a point of view. American journalists have almost a lust for the View from Nowhere because they think it has more authority than any other possible stance.”

The problem, as you’ll often see in modern reporting, is this bid to embrace false equivalency often tends to ignore what’s actually true. It’s a major contributor to the partisan strife that’s ripping the country apart, and it’s frequently exploited by companies and politicians who use it to perpetuate outright falsehoods, since even the dumbest ideas must, under this model, be treated with perfect journalistic symmetry, in the process inadvertently advertising the false claims (especially if you choose your headlines poorly).

But a journalist’s job isn’t just to just report cold claims, it’s to get to the truth — often by adding necessary context, or, in some instances, by not running a story at all if the entire underlying premise is fluff and nonsense. Trump’s manipulation of the press is the pinnacle of this dysfunction, with every false claim bouncing around an echo chamber of false objectivity and good intention.

One extension of the view from nowhere is the newsroom idea that journalists should be unfeeling automatons, hiding their true opinions (even if those opinions are fueled by years of experience on a subject) from readers, especially when engaging on social media. Case in point: late last week Axios co-founder and CEO Jim VandeHei penned this blog post in which he proclaimed to have devised a solution to the “fake news” problem that’s currently plaguing the world. One of those solutions, according to VandeHei, was to urge newsrooms to ban reporters from having opinions online:

“News organizations should ban their reporters from doing anything on social media ? especially Twitter ? beyond sharing stories. Snark, jokes and blatant opinion are showing your hand, and it always seems to be the left one. This makes it impossible to win back the skeptics.”

Yes, banning reporters from joking online will surely fix everything.

VandeHei’s “solution” solves nothing, but does indicate he doesn’t understand that in the modern media age, the sterile, false objectivity he supports directly contributes to the fake news he proclaims to have the cure for, and the “skeptics” he’s trying to appease long ago stopped making claims of bias in good faith, since a key component of modern partisan tribalism involves wielding the word “bias” as a bludgeon against any discordant opinions. Meanwhile, why can’t reporters make jokes if their reporting is driven by integrity? How exactly does a snarky comment on Twitter magically erode a career’s worth of reporting?

Under this model of journalism, instead of debunking clearly false statements and giving them less (or no) weight when appropriate (say when Ajit Pai clearly spreads falsehoods about net neutrality for the eightieth time), these kinds of reporters tend to give those claims equal attention, assuming the reader can ferret out the truth.

That manifests itself constantly in issues like net neutrality, where false claims are often amplified in headlines and throughout a story, counterbalanced by the other take (usually partisan in nature) as if both sides are somehow correct and Ajit Pai hasn’t been lying his ass off on this subject for the better part of two straight years. The only positive outcome of that falsely-symmetrical reporting is you’ve amplified what’s often outright disinformation and given the reader no context to debunk it. More well-rounded reporting in the post-truth era absolutely must evolve, stop playing patty cake, and call a duck a duck when it’s factually appropriate.

Donald Trump, Ajit Pai and their ilk thrive under this view from nowhere because it often assumes that to be fair, blatant lies are one valid half of a two-sided, always perfectly symmetrical story. Fortunately numerous folks were quick to ridicule VendeHei’s take, including New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik, who quite correctly points out that you don’t just magically “build trust” by banning your reporters from sharing years of informed opinion on social media:

What idiot would believe that? In what other aspect of journalism do we believe that hiding information from the public serves the public? 4/

— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) October 21, 2018

Others, like reporter Karen Ho, were correct to point out that white, wealthy males are usually the ones who get to define what objectivity means in many major media newsrooms, something VandeHei doesn’t seem all-too keyed in on:

Again, “he said she said” reporting has been absolutely fatal for America, and to suggest that banning your reporters from expressing their informed opinions (or god forbid being snarky about it on Facebook) doesn’t even come close to understanding the problem, much less fixing it. And this is all before you even get to the oceans of disinformation (both foreign and domestic) that’s been happily kicking the truth in the crotch in this country for the better part of a generation.

As we’ve noted previously, it’s not “bias” if you’re genuinely seeking the truth or pointing out obvious falsehoods, snark or not. It’s “bias” if you refuse to call a patently false statement a false statement, or help give clearly inaccurate arguments weight they don’t deserve. This belief that journalists should stand stoically silent in an illusory “middle,” apply perfect dispassionate symmetry to all things, and then assume the reader can just mystically infer the truth from your sterile, often incomplete reporting–is one of the biggest reasons we’re currently facing a disinformation apocalypse in the first place.

Filed Under: community, jay rosen, jim vandehei, journalism, opinion, trust, truth, view from nowhere
Companies: axios

Reuters Tries To Explain Away Its Refusal To Call Torture 'Torture'

from the the-view-from-nowhere dept

We recently pointed out that in a Reuters news report about the pending (and ultimately delayed) release of the declassified executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s $40 million report on the CIA’s torture program, Reuters reporter Patricia Zengerle refused to call the torture program “torture” instead describing it as “physically stressful interrogation techniques” within the following context:

Human rights activists and many politicians have labeled as “torture” some of the physically stressful interrogation techniques, such as water boarding – or simulated drowning – that were authorized under former President George W. Bush.

We then went on to point out how odd it is that Zengerle apparently can’t come to call it torture herself, given that by pretty much every definition out there, including the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention Against Torture (not to mention President Obama himself) have defined the practices as “torture.”

Journalism professor Jay Rosen read the story and decided to ask Zengerle and Reuters about it. Rosen is the guy who has helped to highlight and call out this weak form of journalism known as “the view from nowhere” in which reporters refuse to actually say what something is, preferring to avoid any such claim. At best, such journalists feel the need to find someone to quote to call something what it is, rather than saying so themselves. Zengerle told Rosen he needed to talk to Reuters PR people, which was reasonably perplexing. Since when do journalists take their orders from PR?

Nonetheless, Rosen did exactly that. At first he was referred to Reuters’ “Handbook of Journalism” which is the organization’s style guide. Except, as Rosen noted, there doesn’t appear to be anything in there concerning whether or not Reuters reporters can call torture “torture.” In response, the PR person told him:

We have no formal policy regarding the designation of certain practices as torture. Our approach, in general, is to factually describe a technique — such as waterboarding — and attribute the characterization of it as torture to credible sources.

That is… an unsatisfactory answer to say the least. The idea, of course, (as one of our commenters on the story noted) is to “stay away from emotionally charged words.” But that’s not reporting. That’s a cop out. Is torture an emotionally charged word? Possibly, but it’s also accurate. It’s not debatable. Under every definition of torture, practices like waterboarding fit. When reporters like Zengerle take the cheap way out, they actually make things even worse. Calling torture like waterboarding “physically stressful interrogation techniques,” it may avoid the “emotionally charged” term of “torture,” but it does a disservice to readers by underplay what is really happening when someone is waterboarded.

A reporter should be accurately reporting the facts. And that means when something is torture, they should call it torture.

When a Reuters PR person tries to brush this aside by arguing that Zengerle “factually described a technique,” she’s not telling the truth. Calling waterboarding and other CIA torture techniques as merely “physically stressful” is an outright misrepresentation of the fact that these techniques — submitting someone to severe mental or physical pain for the purpose of obtaining information — is the very definition of torture. Walking up a big hill may be “physically stressful.” Waterboarding is not merely physically stressful. It’s torture. Reuters does a disservice to truth in pretending otherwise.

Filed Under: jay rosen, journalism, patricia zengerle, style guide, torture, view from nowhere, waterboarding
Companies: reuters

Real Reporting Is About Revealing Truth; Not Granting 'Equal Weight' To Bogus Arguments

from the nyt-failures dept

Journalism Professor Jay Rosen has long been the leading advocate in condemning the prominence of “he said/she said” journalism in the mainstream media. This kind of journalism is driven by a complete distortion of what it means to be an “objective” journalist. Bad journalists seem to think that if someone is making a claim, you present that claim, then you present an opposing claim, and you’re done. They think this is objective because they’re not “picking sides.” But what if one side is batshit crazy and the other is actually making legitimate claims? Shouldn’t the job of true journalists be to ferret out the truth and reveal the crazy arguments as crazy? Rosen’s latest calls out the NY Times for falling into the bogus “he said/she said” trap yet again. This time it’s on an article about plagiarism and copyright infringement charges being leveled from one biographer of Ronald Reagan against another. We wrote about this story as well, and we looked at the arguments of both sides, and then noted that author Craig Shirley’s arguments made no sense at all, as he was trying to claim ownership of facts (something you can’t do). Furthermore, his claims of plagiarism were undermined by the very fact that he admitted that competing biographer Rick Perlstein’s quotes were different. Shirley claimed that “difference” in the quotes showed that Perlstein was trying to cover up the plagiarism, but… that makes no sense.

Of course, when the NY Times reported on this, it did the “he said/she said” thing, providing no enlightenment whatsoever to the public who was reading it about whose argument actually was legit, and whose was ridiculous. Reporter Alexandra Alter played the false equivalence card:

Mr. Perlstein, 44, suggested that the attack on his book is partly motivated by conservatives? discomfort with his portrayal of Reagan. Mr. Shirley is president and chief executive of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, which represents conservative clients like Citizens United and Ann Coulter.

But Mr. Shirley and his lawyer contend that Mr. Perlstein paraphrased original research without properly giving credit. ?The rephrasing of words without proper attribution is still plagiarism,? Mr. Shirley said in an interview.

As Rosen notes, this is the “easy” way out for a journalist. Actually figuring out who’s right takes work, and hell, you might be wrong. So why take the risk:

You?re safer because you could be wrong if you choose, so why choose? You?re safer because even if you?re not wrong you can be accused of bias, and who needs that? You?re safer because people will always argue about [fill in some bitterly contested narrative here] and you don?t want to be a contestant in that. In the middle is safe. Neither/nor is safe. Not having a view of the matter is safe? Right?

But, as Rosen notes, thanks to the internet these days, newspapers are increasingly having trouble with this kind of lazy “safe” journalism. Because the public will call them out when they avoid reporting the truth, favoring a false narrative instead. In this case, the NYT’s public editor, Margaret Sullivan, (whose job it is to examine whether or not the NY Times is best serving the public) called the paper out for this weak effort in response to complaints from the public. She directly notes the problem of this he said/she said journalism:

By taking it seriously, The Times conferred a legitimacy on the accusation it would not otherwise have had.

And while it is true that Mr. Perlstein and his publisher were given plenty of opportunity to respond, that doesn?t help much. It?s as if The Times is saying: ?Here?s an accusation; here?s a denial; and, heck, we don?t really know. We?re staying out of it.? Readers frequently complain to me about this he said, she said false equivalency ? and for good reason.

So I?m with the critics. The Times article amplified a damaging accusation of plagiarism without establishing its validity and doing so in a way that is transparent to the reader. The standard has to be higher.

As Rosen further points out in his blog post, the ability of the public to weigh in may be changing the equation here. The “easy” and “lazy” response of just doing he said/she said journalism won’t cut it because you’ll get called out on it. Journalism should be about reporting what’s true, not just what people say is true. The continued use of he said/she said is actually “reckless behavior that may easily blow up in its face.” Rosen even points out that the BBC is now specifically retraining its reporters to stop inserting “false balance” into stories where there’s an underlying truth and an attempt to distort it. It seems amazing that this even needs to be repeated, but it’s been that way for so long in many publications.

Hopefully, the ability of the public to call it out will make more lazy journalists and editors recognize what used to be the “safe” move is no longer so safe.

Filed Under: alexandra alter, craig shirley, false equivalency, he said she said, jay rosen, journalism, margaret sullivan, reporting, rick perlstein, ronald reagan, truth
Companies: ny times

There Are Lots Of Ways To Fund Journalism

from the if-you-look-around dept

As various folks in the news business (and outside of it) continue to fret about how it could be possible to ever fund the production of news, some are taking more positive looks at the space. Jay Rosen has listed out 18 different sources of subsidies for funding journalism (or journalism-like) work. Some of them are better than others, but it’s a useful list to get you a thinking. Full disclosure: a part of our own business model is on the list. Along those lines, since people have been saying nice stuff about our business model, Jesse Hirsh has a way-too-nice writeup about our CwF+RtB experiment, which I still think is a bit short of a full business model, but is getting closer. Based on our experiences with it, we’re getting more and more ideas on how to fund not just journalism, but all sorts of content creation.

And, really, that’s the idea. There are lots of different ideas and experiments going on — and many of them are showing early signs of success, and I’m sure more will come along at a later date that are even more successful. Really, the only ones complaining and demanding changes to the law are those who represent the old way of doing things, and don’t want to change. They talk up all sorts of horror stories and moral panics about how “journalism” or “music” or “movies” are going to go away — despite the fact that we actually have more of all three of those things happening today than at any time in history. Based on that faulty reasoning, they demand special protection not for “journalism” “music” or “movies” but for the old business models and old institutions that produced all three.

Eventually, as these new business models and new institutions work themselves out, it’ll suddenly seem “obvious” what the right answers were, and people will forget the hundreds if not thousands of different experiments — both good and bad — that went into developing the new model. It’s a time of upheaval, for sure, but there’s no indication that there’s any real risk to the production of content. Just a few businesses that got big and don’t want to change with the times.

Filed Under: business models, funding, jay rosen, journalism

Understanding The Paywall Mindset In 140 Characters

from the concise-brilliance dept

We’ve been arguing for a while — often in great detail — that a newspaper paywall doesn’t give anyone a reason to buy. There’s no added value and the competition is massive. Just setting up a paywall doesn’t mean that people will suddenly rush to give you money. But, for all the long essays on the subject, I don’t think the concept could be summed up any better than Jay Rosen’s short twitter message simplifying the issue:

Journalist: hey, I made a snowman. Inuit: nice! Journalist: it took me all day. Inuit: what’s your point? Journalist: that’ll be five bucks.

It’s not how nice the content is. It’s not how long it took or even how much money it cost. It’s understanding the basics of how a market functions. Demanding money without providing additional scarce value, in a market where the competition is plentiful and free is as much of a non-starter as the journalist’s demands in the tweet.

Filed Under: jay rosen, journalism, paywalls