Fold the tent on this job
Ted Vaden, the News & Observer’s “public editor” — more about that title in a moment — is gone, having left a long career in newspapers for the state Department of Transportation, an agency with a reputation so tarnished that the governor herself temporarily thawed a hiring freeze in the hope that Vaden’s services could be put to beneficial use.
This would be the right time for the N&O to eliminate the job. The paper should use the money to hire, or retain, a reporter. Besides, the role had the feel of a bait-and-switch scam perpetrated on readers: The person who purported to be the reader’s representative to the newspaper instead deployed most of his ink explaining the newspaper’s decisions and operations to readers — thereby reversing the intended flow of his energies. The very job title is misleading.
To be fair, I suspect most of Vaden’s work occurred off-stage, handling small reader complaints out of sight of the larger public. But the idea of employing someone to whom all such complaints can be funneled seems perverse. Reporters and editors shouldn’t be spared that unhappy interaction with readers. Most newsrooms already have an us-vs.-them mentality; hiring an affable fellow to sit outside the castle, on the other side of the moat, to deal with restive natives only fosters that mindset.
Beyond that, it’s too much to expect anyone who collects a check from his newspaper to muster the fortitude to confront his employer’s institutional biases. Even in his farewell column, Vaden stepped around the issue:
The most frequent complaint I get is about liberal bias. There is something to that. Any good newspaper sees advocacy for the voiceless against the powerful as one of its roles. It’s part of the public service responsibility of journalism, and that often translates into coverage that makes the established uncomfortable. Newspapers are biased against the status quo.
But a reformist impulse doesn’t equate to a political agenda, and I don’t see much reporting that’s driven by ideology.
Problem is, a reformist impulse, whatever its noble intent, usually ends up serving a political agenda. And reporting doesn’t have to be driven by ideology to serve an ideological purpose. Fortunately, the next few years will provide a real-life test of Vaden’s implicit assertion that journalism is politically neutral. The most liberal administration in generations has just been installed in Washington. Liberalism is now the status quo, and liberals are the powerful.
I guess we’ll soon know for certain whether journalism reflexively struggles against those in charge.
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:33 am
Where was Vaden during the Duke lacrosse case? The N&O owned that case, it was right in its back yard, and it did as little to stifle the public hysteria as did the papers in Alabama during the Scottsboro case.
It could have challenged Nifong on why he was continuing his prosecution after DNA proved the accused were innocent–even before they were arrested.
It could have asked why a police chief went missing for months (on full pay) while the biggest case in Durham’s history, replete with satellite trucks and international coverage, was in full swing.
It could have asked Duke about its FERPA violations in turning over student info to police without subpoena; and then about their charade with Nifong to pretend that they hadn’t already given him that info (resulting in a sham court session).
It could have championed reforms in the NC justice system (such as requiring grand jury transcripts, a speedy trial law, and the right to a probable cause hearing) to protect defendants’ rights and prevent another lacrosse case in the future.
Instead, it seemed content to simply feed out of Nifong’s hand, and accept whatever he said as valid. That coverage certainly did not “make the establishment feel uncomfortable” and it certainly wasn’t “reformist”.
And it certainly wasn’t providing the full truth.
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:46 am
The sad truth is that, after all the pissing and moaning is over, I’m confident there really isn’t much disagreement. Most of the populous knows the N&O to be politically biased, promoting a Leftist agenda. I’m sure John Drescher, Linda Williams, Steve Ford, Jim Jenkins, et. al find the whole “debate” rather amusing, snickering behind closed doors, and basking in the glow among the social elite wherein they mingle. Only those on the genuine Far Left (especially in Chapel Hill and Carrboro) can’t accept this, simply because from their vantage, the N&O genuinely is Conservative. Fair enough. But what truly eludes my understanding is the failure of these named individuals to recognize the true destruction they bring, as a collective, upon this country. No, not because they are committed Leftists, but simply because they overreach, being destructive of what good does come from Conservatism and promoting the Leftist agenda to an almost religious status, and thus bringing with it all of the destructive influences of a contemptuously repugnant theology. One can not read Mr. Vanden’s rationalizations without hearing the context of morality to a higher agenda. GD, you’ve swam in this sewer, yet you (and I’m confident, others) remain less swayed. Yet the tide of pronounced Leftist dogma continues to extend its reach. Economic trends aside, it is the continual promotion of this Leftist ideology that is sinking this journalistic ship. Is there any hope that a genuine, politically unbeholding newspaper might one day rise in the city of nuts, I mean acorns, er, oaks? I wish I had the money, but I’m a nut.
As to the N&O, a horses butt indeed. Truly, my contempt dost runneth deep.
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:56 am
Chavez, “Where was Vaden during the Duke lacrosse case?” What has ALWAYS alluded me is why the N&O wasn’t sued just like Mr. Nifong. Specifically, when the story first broke, and it was a known fact that only a very few of the lacrosse players were even suspects, the N&O printed the pictures (like mug shots) of every individual on the team except one, the black guy. If a story broke that the exact same type of incident had been reported, but rather than the Duke lacrosse team it was a black fraternity, does any believe the N&O would have printed the pictures of every member? Hardly, the N&O doesn’t even want to print the pictures of criminals since so many are black (I bleed for you Barry). The racial bias of the N&O is repugnant. Lord, I wish they had been sued.
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:25 am
“why the N&O wasn’t sued …”
Attorney James Cooney said at the press conference following the declaration of innocence by AG Cooper :
“Now, we will never sue them. They have got way too much money. And, as a general proposition in the law, you don’t sue people who buy newsprint by the gallon, because they always win.
“But, if they had done what journalists are supposed to do and spoken truth to power, they could have slowed this train down. And there are a number of other people in Durham, some of whom teach for a living, who should have stood up and said, wait a second. Civil rights means something. We have spent careers studying civil rights. We’re not going to throw them down the drain simply because a district attorney tells us to.
“One wonders what would have happened if the newspaper had stood up for proper processes and if the teachers had stood up for proper processes, whether that would have slowed the last coward of the case down. And you know who I’m talking about.”
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:35 pm
To What’s in a Name,
Your comments would be excellent posted under Zane’s column “Joe Sixpack”
http://www.newsobserver.com/1051/story/1424154.html
March 4th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Dan is exactly right on this one. Vaden really got rewarded by the
old Democrat machine in Raleigh for all his “hard work”.
How many people do you know his age who transfer UP to such a high
paying job?
Vaden might have a nice and sweet front for the public, but he was
lethal at the N&O. People like that are the worst. I’d rather deal
with someone who tells it like it is
and doesn’t waste people’s time.
Does everyone also know that while the public was complaining about
the N&O coverage of the lacrosse case, Vaden was connected to Duke?
He got paid for teaching some class there.
Now, that’s some “public editor”. Unbiased?
I just think he’s a piece of muck on a stick!
And here is Zane trying to tell us that it’s unfair on both sides.
Baloney!
http://www.newsobserver.com/2766/story/1424154.html