Once, years ago when I worked for a daily newspaper, my wife had her own business. Part of her work included ‘encouragements’ from some of her bigger customers to contribute to political campaigns, which she occasionally did because it was a matter of business. But then the paper I worked for got a list of contributors to a certain candidate, and there was my name listed (it was a joint checking account, and by law a business couldn't contribute to a campaign).
What happened? I was called into the editor’s office. My editor knew what my wife did, and he knew that I – particularly as a sportswriter – wouldn’t be working on anything having to do with coverage of a campaign or a particular politician.
However, the fact that my name showed up on a donor list reflected on the newspaper I worked for. People could say “Well, that paper supports so-and-so, because one of their employees contributed to this campaign.”
As a result, I told my wife it was not a good idea for her to make these kinds of donations (which she didn’t typically make anyway). I told her it was a matter of me keeping my job.
And avoiding the appearance of bias.
It’s not that reporters don’t have bias. Reporters are human, and all humans have biases. And, truthfully, most reporters I have known over the years lean more liberal. Heck, I did too, when I was younger. I think it comes from being lied to or intentionally misled by those in power which makes reporters naturally suspicious.
But most of us worked hard to try to compensate for that bias. We valued a reputation for being fair. Sometimes I would almost go overboard in writing against my own bias in an effort to battle that perception, and I know many other reporters who did the same.
Still, as a sportswriter in the state of Alabama, I was accused of favoring Alabama or Auburn on a regular basis. UAB fans thought I hated UAB regardless (which wasn’t true; I had and have many friends who coached or played at UAB). I was pretty successful in hiding the fact that I am a University of Georgia graduate. And to those who knew and accused me of being a Georgia fan (one sports fan constantly referred to me as a “Georgia leg-humper”), I would say, “I paid for the degree that I received from the University of Georgia. When I left, neither one of us owed the other anything.”
Unfortunately, it seems that appearance of being fair and checking your biases at the door doesn’t seem important to journalists today. I have seen reporters at local media outlets who will post their political views in no uncertain terms on facebook pages or other social media outlets.
Are reporters entitled to their opinions? Certainly.
Are they entitled to share them in a public forum? Unless they are opinion writers or columnists, I don’t believe so.
Because once they do, then readers will look at every story they write with proof of what that reporters’ personal bias is. It also reflects on the news organization they work for.
What got me thinking about this was something called the “Center for Public Integrity,” which last year released a report in which showed that more than 96 percent of donations by members of the media to presidential candidates went to Hillary Clinton.
Now there were some criticisms of the methodology, and probably warranted. But I tend to agree with former executive editor of the Washington Post, Len Downie, who told NPR, “No journalist should contribute, as far as I’m concerned, to political campaigns” because it creates a “conflict of interest” for both reporters and the media they work for.
My former colleague John Archibald of the Birmingham News/al.com, in a story that happened to be about me after I left the newspaper, said something to the effect that “journalism is not a job, it’s a calling.” I couldn’t agree more. When I’d talk to students about going into journalism, I always said “If you can imagine yourself doing something other than journalism, do it. If you can’t – and I never could – God help you.“ I always figured I’d die an “ink-stained wretch,’’ working for a newspaper. But then the business started changing and I realized I just didn’t want to do it anymore.
The point of it being a “calling’’ however, is that – like the priesthood or the military – with any ‘calling’ comes a responsibility. You give up some of your rights and freedom as an individual to answer that call. In sports, I could no longer allow myself to be identified as a fan of any team. As a reporter, you shouldn't allow yourself to be identified as a liberal or conservative or Republican or Democrat or animal rights activist or even environmentalist. Your responsibility is to try to present information in a balanced way, and that means sometimes presenting “the other side” of your own personal views with as much professionalism as you do the side you may agree with.
Again, that didn’t apply once I became a columnist, just as it doesn’t to people like John Archibald. At that point, your job is to express opinion, to take sides and make stands.
Unfortunately, with the changing media the line between "reporting" and "opinion" has become blurred. Social media has done that, as well as the fact that everyone wants to share their opinion these days and very few people want to try to present both sides of a story in a clear, balanced, well-researched fashion so the reader can draw his or her own conclusions.
Or the job is to explain what happened in a way that is researched and backed up with information from both sides, information that the reader does not have access to on their own.
We used to say the best news stories were the ones where you didn’t even remember who the reporter was that wrote it, or that you didn’t recognize the name because that person did not insert themselves in the story through an opinion or personal observation.
Now, for the sake of transparency, let me say there are times when reporters do indeed become fans. Usually it’s because they have a vested interest in the outcome. For example, during NCAA tournament time everyone became a fan of the team they covered because you wanted that team to win so your trip through the tournament continued. If you covered a football team with a shot at going to a bowl game, you wanted it to be at the best location possible.
I’d say if you are a reporter covering a political candidate, you can’t help but find yourself knowing that if that candidate wins, you benefit from having established a good relationship with that person prior to them going into office. If you are a business reporter, the truth is its more fun to cover either a thriving new businesses or a business caught up in scandal than it is to have to report on ordinary, everyday activity.
But that’s why it becomes important to maintain a reputation of neutrality, or evenhandedness, and not give anyone the opportunity to correctly point out that you, as a reporter, have a proven bias on a certain issue or position.
It's not that way anymore. And truthfully, if you really know the history of media in this or any other country with a free media, there have been times when media outlets took a definite position on an issue. Heck, wars have been started, presidents and governors elected, mythical college football championships won by media.
I had a conversation with an old-school editor about young reporters who think nothing of posting their political opinions on social media. I asked why that was allowed to happen, since those reporters might be expected to report as fairly as possible on those candidates or issues, and sharing their view immediately made them less trust-worthy as a source of balanced news.
"That's new journalism,'' I was told. "I don't know why we don't stop young reporters from doing that, but we don't. It's a different world."
Indeed it is. I much preferred suspecting I knew the bias of certain reporters but not being able to go to their facebook page or twitter account and knowing for sure.
Just as, now in retirement from the business, I enjoy being able to be a fan again, of letting my support for a particular team show.
Even if it is a team that just suffered the biggest fourth-quarter collapse in the history of the Super Bowl.
Oh, and "how 'bout them Dawgs!"
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