Newspapers must use courage, not caution

Of all the mail I’ve read this week, the letter from Kathryn Gamble is the only one I can’t forget. Her letter shows that she reads several newspapers daily and watches the broadcast versions of the news. This proves she is interested in the world around her, and she wants to make it better.

She voiced a fear that newspapers seek “dramatic events that prey on soap opera-like themes,” rather than writing about the truth. Indeed there are days when we are barraged by stories about crime, death and greed. So people have the right to ask: Where are the stories about average people who work hard to provide for their families? Why aren’t they news?

The best way to answer the question is to tell you about George Seldes, a former foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. He lived to be more than 100 years old.

He interviewed Vladimir Lenin, chatted with Albert Einstein, ate lunch with Charlie Chaplin, covered Theodore Roosevelt’s administration, dined with Benito Mussolini, shook hands with Adolf Hitler, argued with Ernest Hemingway and briefed Calvin Coolidge. But what distinguished Seldes even more was his courage in criticizing the press. He wanted newspapers to be better and never stopped badgering them.

When I first had aspirations of becoming a journalist, I thought my duty would be to fix all that was wrong with the media. I would stop the stories that convict people before trials, the reporters who ask mothers how they feel about the death of their sons on the day of the loss and the editorials that glorify crime. While to some extent my theory of journalism is still the same, I now have a better understanding of the media.

We are not cheerleaders. Our business is not bad news or good news, but simply news. And what is news? Seldes said news is “something that somebody else doesn’t want you to know, and everything else is propaganda.”

Newspapers should bring up issues that provoke those being held down to raise hell. Newspapers should step on the toes of the establishment as means to keep the powerful in check.

Newspapers shouldn’t err on the side of caution. Newspapers shouldn’t employ wimpy reporters, afraid to ask the tough questions. Newspapers shouldn’t constantly embrace causes.

“You are not concerned about consequences, only truth,” Seldes said.

Readers should beware of media that tells you not to worry or that everything is OK, because in all likelihood, it’s not. Readers should stay away from papers that avoid conflict, because controversy is often what informs the reader of his or her surroundings.
Gamble uses the mass coverage of the Texas Seven in comparison with the minute coverage of President George W. Bush’s Inauguration as an example of how the media deemed the more sensationalized story as more important.

While I don’t agree with her point that Bush’s speech will ever be compared to that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt or John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the Skiff still deemed the 2001 Inauguration as very important.

In the first three weeks of publication, the Skiff published 27 articles on Bush’s Inauguration, including a two-page spread devoted to his Cabinet appointees. In the same time span, the Skiff published only six stories about the prison escapees.

As Gamble points out, Bush offered four principles that society demands from us:

Civility — well-mannered behavior toward others.
Courage — the quality of mind that allows one to face danger and hardship.
Compassion — concern for someone in misfortune.
Character — moral or ethical strength.

I would like to propose four principles that society should demand from the media:

Factual — correspondence with truth.
Focused — tending toward awareness and appreciation.
Fair — free from bias and judgment.
Forum — to give a voice to the voiceless.

Editor in Chief Rusty Simmons is a senior broadcast journalism major from Woodbridge, Va.
He can be reached at (j.r.simmons@student.tcu.edu).

Editorial policy: The content of the Opinion page does not necessarily represent the views of Texas Christian University. Unsigned editorials represent the view of the TCU Daily Skiff editorial board. Signed letters, columns and cartoons represent the opinion of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board.

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