SALZMAN: The evolving face of journalism?
Partisan sites act like traditional news outlets
By Jason Salzman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Saturday, March 1, 2008
- Email this
- Print this
- Comments
- Change text size
- Subscribe to print edition
- iPod friendly
Colorado has two political Web sites, one on the left and the other on the right, that are acting like traditional news outlets - gathering news and claiming to be practicing journalism.
On the left, there's Colorado Confidential.org. Its managing editor, Wendy Norris, oversees five paid fellows who produce news stories and commentary, much of it about Colorado politics.
Staff-written stories on the Web site carry bylines, which add accountability and credibility to articles.
Contact and biographical information on the site provide a window into the progressive political leanings of writers. "Commentary" pieces are clearly distinguished from news articles.
In its most notable investigation, Colorado Confidential revealed that Rep. Bill Berens, R-Broomfield, accepted a $20,000 check for hitting a hole-in-one at a Colorado Oil and Gas Association event, violating the spirit of a law prohibiting Colorado lawmakers from accepting cash gifts. Berens lost his subsequent bid for re-election.
The right-leaning Web entity that most resembles Colorado Confidential is FaceTheState.com, whose managing editor, Brad Jones, has ties to the Republican Party. He says his site supports "free market" principles. But Jones says he's committed to producing credible journalism.
You have to wonder about this.
For starters, the site's articles have no bylines and no other information about its writers. There's no explanation of the site's free-market orientation.
Jones doesn't use bylines in part because of the personal attacks his named writers would likely receive from leftists, he says.
Face the State sometimes puts strange headlines on links to articles in the dailies. For example, it placed this headline on a Feb. 15 Rocky Mountain News article: "Enviro-Wacko groups to push severance tax increase to the ballot."
Jones says this is his way of trying to make his Web site fun. But in a number of cases, as pointed out by Colorado Media Matters, the fun headlines misrepresent articles from the dailies.
To its credit, Face the State conducts investigations, including a recent look at dubious spending by Republican and Democratic members of the State Board of Education.
In a review of 10 recent news articles on Face the State and Colorado Confidential, I found at least one instance when each site did not seek comments or present views from public officials under scrutiny - which runs counter to basic journalistic practice.
Colorado Confidential's content looks a lot more like professional journalism as I know it. But I don't want to trash Face the State. I want it to improve and thrive.
If daily newspapers continue to shrink, online news sites like these - as distinct from opinion blogs - could represent the evolution of journalism, and without something to fill the void, as Colorado Confidential fellow Cara DeGette says, "It looks bleak and scary for journalism and for democracy."
Left vs. right. In a recent column, I pointed out that Denver needs a talk radio show co-hosted by a real progressive, unlike KHOW's Craig Silverman, and a hard-right conservative, like KHOW's Dan Caplis.
Regular left-right debate is nonexistent on local TV, as well.
There's Head-On, a stiff, 90-second feature on KBDI-Channel 12 airing prior to the BBC News. This show pits a left-leaning pundit, Susan Barnes-Gelt, against a right-leaning one, John Andrews.
But judging from my review of five recent programs, this is another example of a show contrasting the positions of the hard right (Andrews) and the center-left (Barnes-Gelt).
To imagine what an interactive left-right debate could look like, think about the entertaining and informative fights on Colorado Inside Out (8 p.m. Thursdays, KBDI) between Dani Newsum and my counterpart on these pages, Dave Kopel.
In this case, Newsum's further to the left than Kopel is to the right, so you really have to imagine Newsum taking on Caplis.
Or imagine if The Denver Post's PoliticsWest.com "Gang of Four" bloggers David Sirota and John Andrews hosted a TV talk show together.
Local pubic affairs shows, like Your Show (10:30 a.m. Sundays on KTVD-Channel 20), air left-right debates on occasion, and Jon Caldara occasionally invites a leftist to his KBDI studio for debate, but it would be nice to see more of it.
Jason Salzman, president of Cause Communications and board chairman of Rocky Mountain Media Watch, is the author of Making the News: A Guide for Activists and Nonprofits. Reach him at salzmanj@RockyMountainNews.com.
Comments
Posted by John_II on March 1, 2008 at 1:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wow. I love Colorado. But, you folks are really behind the times. Sometimes, reading this newspaper is like reading a paper just pulled out of time capsule from 1995.
Old school "journalism" has been slowly dying for years now. What makes you think that people don't have the same reaction to reading stories from the AP or Reuters as they do when reading these other websites?
Do you really believe local TV news and newspaper represent objective, high quality journalism? You do, really? Good luck with that.
As for me, I love a lot of these new sites popping up. LittleGreenFootballs.com is a great site that usually breaks interesting stories that AP or Reuters won't touch.
SnappedShot.com is another great site that specializes in exposing photo-journalism fraud.
Wow! I just checked SnappedShot.com and they have been shut down by the AP! Unbelievable. Now there's a story for you, Mr. Salzman.
Posted by Charles_B on March 1, 2008 at 6:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
What happened? Did SnappedShot.com try and carve out a swath of AP's intellectual property and keep it for themselves?
Why, exactly, would that be newsworthy?
Having said that, I agree. Dead tree journalism is fading and they can't even organize their website enough to allow basic html tags in their forums.
Posted by John_II on March 1, 2008 at 7:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
SnappedShot was a nonprofit website. They exposed some pretty amazing stuff. You wouldn't believe how many AP/Reuters photos were pure faked or manipulated.
AP has set up the rules quite nicely for themselves. They can report on others but cannot themselves be the target of reporting. That is newsworthy to me: AP shutting down critical nonprofit websites.
But, back to dead tree journalism, have you checked out the Your Space section? That is where we are supposed to submit our baby pictures and vote on the cutest baby. Is that RMN's idea of staying relevant?
I think that space would be much more valuable as a personal blog and comment archive. Wouldn't it be great to click on Charles B., John II or Old Grouch's Your Space section and read their own "columns" and review their comment history?
I have no interest in looking at baby pictures.
Posted by John_II on March 2, 2008 at 8:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Mr. Salzman,
Here's another non-traditional news source we should be skeptical of: http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2007...
In that story, they expose CNN's "undecided" voters as Democratic operatives.
Posted by John_II on March 2, 2008 at 9:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/internet_n...
"Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe traditional journalism is out of touch, and nearly half are turning to the Internet to get their news, according to a new survey."
Posted by John_II on March 2, 2008 at 10:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Here's another great website that has stories the AP/Reuters won't touch: http://www.zombietime.com/berkeley_ma...
Posted by Salzman on March 2, 2008 at 11:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Most of the "news" on the Internet comes from tradional news outlets, like AP and the dailies. The most popular online news outlets are the websites of traditional news outlets.
And most of the material trashed by opinion blogs comes from traditional news outlets.
So the 70 percent of Americans who believe traditional journalism is out of touch don't understand where their news comes from, in my opinion.
But I'll take any type of news source, even partisan ones like Face the State, if it proves to be fair and accurate, which is what "traditional" journalism is all about.
Posted by Gene on March 2, 2008 at 12:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Dear Salzman;
MATT DRUDGE
Posted by Gene on March 2, 2008 at 12:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Dear Salzman;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main....
Posted by John_II on March 2, 2008 at 1:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Mr. Salzman,
"So the 70 percent of Americans who believe traditional journalism is out of touch don't understand where their news comes from, in my opinion."
That may be true to a certain extent. But, that also misses the overall point of the current widespread dissatisfaction with "traditional journalism".
The survey is a bit misleading in that it confuses "traditional journalism" as an alternative to news acquired from the Internet. I view cnn.com, msnbc.com, abcnews.com, and even the RockyMountainNews.com as traditional news sources even though they are found on the Internet.
I despise AP/Reuters. But, I will regretfully acknowledge that most of my news comes from those sources. Yet, I trust "partisan" new sources more than AP/Reuters. Why? Because at least the "partisan" news source have the honesty to say upfront where they stand on the issue.
"But I'll take any type of news source, even partisan ones like Face the State, if it proves to be fair and accurate, which is what "traditional" journalism is all about."
Traditional journalism is "all about" appearing fair & accurate without actually being fair & accurate. I suppose you are one of those media insiders who believes the traditional media is actually objective.
"And most of the material trashed by opinion blogs comes from traditional news outlets."
Are you making my point? Why do you think it is being trashed?
Posted by John_II on March 2, 2008 at 2:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
mtnsurfer,
Here's another link that will get your blood up: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblo...
Check out those videos. Ezra Levant makes a brilliant argument. He is being investigated by the Canadian government simply because he posted pictures of Mohammad in his magazine.
Note: This story not brought to you by AP/Reuters.
Posted by John_II on March 2, 2008 at 2:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Here's the fourth video in that series. http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblo...
Posted by John_II on March 10, 2008 at 1:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
What happened to the rest of the comments on this page? Why were mtnsurfer's comments removed?
Posted by John_II on March 11, 2008 at 11:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Interesting. What happened to mtnsurfer's comments, Mr. Salzman? Why were they deleted? There was nothing wrong with his comments other than the fact that he was agreeing with me.
Post your comment (Requires free registration.)
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.