海角大神

When Margaret Sullivan began her storied career in journalism in the late 1970s, 7 in 10 Americans said they trusted the news, she reports. Coming of age just after the era of Watergate, she describes how exciting it was to work in a newsroom, a job that was not only enjoyable but also a vital part of civic life, especially on a local level. Local newspapers were financially successful then, and journalism offered a viable career path. 鈥淎s a bonus, it struck me as exceedingly cool,鈥� she says.

In her new memoir, 鈥淣ewsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life,鈥� Ms. Sullivan tells a very personal story about watching as her profession lost the public鈥檚 trust 鈥� today only 1 in 3 Americans say they trust the news. She draws on her experiences to trace some of the missteps that newspapers made as the digital age unfolded, disrupting both its business models and the flow of information.聽

Covering the nitty-gritty of local civic life for over three decades at The Buffalo News, she became one of the first women to lead a major regional newspaper. As the public editor at The New York Times, she was tasked to investigate and critique the organization鈥檚 reporting from the inside. And more recently, Ms. Sullivan was the media columnist for The Washington Post, where she continued to think and write about the broader issues confronting journalism.

鈥淢uch as I love and value my craft, I鈥檓 worried,鈥� she writes at the outset. 鈥淚 am sickened at the damage done by hyperpartisan media and distressed about the failures of the reality-based press. We鈥檙e in deep trouble. How did we Americans become trapped in this thicket of lies, mistrust, and division? Can we slash our way out?鈥�

A manifesto as much as a memoir, Ms. Sullivan鈥檚 book has some suggestions. A major theme is her call to press forward with a renewed focus on journalism鈥檚 role in a free society. 鈥淭he reality-based press has to reorient itself, framing its core purpose as serving democracy,鈥� she writes.

She spoke recently with the Monitor;聽the conversation has been lightly edited and condensed.

What have been some of the major challenges confronting journalism over the course of your career?聽

I would say there are a couple different things. In the digital age 鈥� and certainly before that, although in a different way 鈥� we鈥檝e become very oriented toward what gets the most traffic, what gets the most engagement, what gets the most clicks. A lot of it is driven by the profit motive, since most news organizations are owned by corporations, and they are profit-making entities, and so they do have to think about that stuff.

But that should not be the first thing we think about. The first thing we think about should be: 鈥淗ow do we serve the public?鈥� and 鈥淗ow do we best play our constitutionally protected role in society?鈥� I have seen my role in recent years as trying to call journalists to their higher purposes. We鈥檙e not here to generate clicks. We鈥檙e here to serve the public, and we鈥檙e here to play an important role in the workings of democracy.聽

But one of the distressing parts is the fact that it鈥檚 harder to do this. Local newspapers, which had been the engine of local news in most regions, have taken a huge hit as their business models, based on print advertising, completely disintegrated. Newsrooms have shrunk so shockingly in size. At one time, a typical regional newspaper may have had 200 or 300 people in the newsroom. And now the much more typical number is 50, 60 people. And then maybe there was a second newspaper in town, ... but it鈥檚 gone now. So you just can鈥檛 do the same job covering all the important things that are happening.

You also explore one of the traditional values of journalism, objectivity. Do you think the idea of objectivity has distorted the way many news organizations cover the news?聽

I would say that there鈥檚 also a couple of different ways to think about objectivity. One is that all it means is approaching a story with impartiality and with an open mind. And who can argue with that? I think that鈥檚 exactly what we should be doing.

But there鈥檚 a kind of performative 鈥渂oth-sides-ing鈥� of political content, which is always really disappointing to see. So I think where objectivity gets more problematic is the way it has come to be understood by some journalists, where it often means to just report everything down the middle, and to be sort of neutral 鈥� not just impartial, but actually neutral, no matter what the subject matter is.聽

I don鈥檛 think that actually works well at a time when democracy itself is threatened. You can鈥檛 really cover people who oppose democratic norms and people who support democratic norms and then treat them equally. I mean, we鈥檙e just not doing our jobs if we do that.

One of the things I鈥檝e started doing is not using the word objectivity so much, but rather trying to use words that are less argument-inducing, such as impartiality, fairness, accuracy, public spiritedness. Objectivity for a number of people, and I think particularly younger journalists, journalists of color, anybody who might find the old idea of objectivity as 鈥渢he view from nowhere鈥� 鈥� they find that very problematic because they think that we should actually stand for something.

I鈥檝e come around to thinking that we should actually stand for something, too. And among the things we should stand for are equality under the law, press rights, decency, democratic norms. I think it鈥檚 actually remiss if we don鈥檛 stand for and stand up for these things.聽

You quoted the Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa, the Filipina journalist, who said, 鈥淚n the battle for facts, in a battle for truth, journalism is activism.鈥� Do you see reporting the news as a form of activism?

When I quote her in the book, I don鈥檛 think she means, and I certainly don鈥檛 mean, carrying a picket sign or going to bat for a candidate. I don鈥檛 believe in that. But at a time when the very purpose of journalism is on the line, and when journalists are threatened and they鈥檙e disparaged and all of that, I think it makes quite a bit of sense to stand up for our craft and not be afraid to do that. So it鈥檚 not traditional activism as I see it. It鈥檚 just an awareness that we can鈥檛 be passive, and that we need to have some ideals and live by them.

What has encouraged you about the future of journalism?聽

If you define local news very broadly, there are some good things happening. There鈥檚 the rise of relatively new nonprofit newsrooms that are digital only. There鈥檚 growing philanthropic support for local journalism. I also think there鈥檚 more awareness now on the part of government officials, and even on part of the public, that local news, and news in general, need public support. All of these things are good and relatively new.聽

The workforce has also become much more diverse. You see so many talented young people of diverse backgrounds who are entering the field and bringing their own skills and knowledge and experiences to what they鈥檙e doing. I鈥檓 always very heartened by spending time with young journalists.

There is a moral component to a life in journalism, and we can embrace that. I encourage people to go into journalism. I still think it鈥檚 a great way to spend your life. And, you know, it really is a life commitment in so many ways. It鈥檚 not just a job. It鈥檚 a calling, and it鈥檚 imperfect, and we鈥檝e screwed it up a lot. But I still think that it鈥檚 an absolute necessity that journalists be at their best.