Merry Christmas

John Lennon's acoustic home demo of "Julia" from way back in 1968

Journalists should bare all and drop the pretense of objectivity, says Alan D. Mutter

Is time for journalists to declare who or what they believe in before they go about the business of gathering and reporting news?

Media critic Alan D. Mutter think so.

Says Mutter:

journalists not only possess valuable insights into the matters they cover but also have an absolute obligation to share their perspectives with the public after diligently gleaning all sides of a story in an ethical and open-minded manner.

For journalists to be able to report effectively on the news and its significance, we have to replace the intellectually indefensible pretense of objectivity with a more authentic standard that journalists actually can live up to.

The way to do that is to treat the public like adults by providing the clearest possible understanding of who is delivering news and commentary – and where they are coming from. Hence, the following proposal:

Let’s take advantage of the openness and inexhaustible space of the Internet to have every journalist publish a detailed statement of political, personal and financial interests at her home website and perhaps even in a well publicized national registry. Full disclosure would enable consumers to make their own informed judgments about the potential biases and believability of any journalist.

This standard will work as well for journalists and media outlets committed to down-the-middle reporting as those desiring to express a point of view.

A superb example of how detailed disclosure could work can be found at AllThingsD.Com, where co-editors Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg unsparingly bare their personal interests.

Mike Reed wins public service award for coverage of Metro shennanigans

We've pretty much washed our hands of covering journalism awards, but this one stood out because it is illustrative of how lackluster the Houston Chronicle's news coverage has become in recent years.

The award of which we speak was handed out to Mike Reed, a reporter for the weekly chain of newspapers in Houston that are known collectively as "The Examiners." (Reed is pictured above, on the left, with his writing coach at her part-time day job.)

He was cited for his coverage of the apparent mess that is "Metro" and all that it entails.


In an e-mail that was issued to by a vice president of the company that owns The Examiners and 60 or so other daily and weekly newspapers in East Texas and Colorado, the below was stated:

One last thing, especially for those who don’t work in Houston. I think it’s appropriate to make sure we understand the purpose behind the top editorial award we give every year: The Tom Jacobs Community Service Award. Tom served as editor of the Pearland and Friendswood Journals before his passing a little more than a year ago (Nov. 12, 2009, to be precise). He was one of the kindest men you’d ever meet, but he had an incredible tone with his pen. He could make readers laugh, and he could make public officials squeamish. He knew how to stand up for his readers, and the priority of his newspapers was always to put the good of the community ahead of any one individual.

You can read more about the winner in the attachment, but I thought it would be nice to include a photo of the inaugural award, given to Mike Reed of the Examiner Newspapers for his incredibly thorough coverage of Houston’s public transportation system. Mike literally stayed three steps ahead of every media outlet, breaking story after story about some of the corruption in Metro’s plan for construction of a light rail through chunks of the Examiner coverage area. The results of Mike’s reporting were far-reaching, to say the least. The chairman and CEO of Metro offered his resignation; the federal government launched an investigation into Metro’s funding application; the state opened an investigation into bond sale practices; the district attorney investigated potential criminal misconduct of Metro officers for not releasing public records; and the new mayor of Houston fired all city appointees on the Metro board. Mike would probably have us tell you he wasn’t the only one reporting on this “circus,” but media across the city gave him credit for leading the way.

Mike is a humble guy, but he should know Tom Jacobs would be proud, as are the rest of us.

Congratulations to Mike and the rest of our winners.

This likely won't come as a surprise to some observors of the media scene in Houston, such as the gang at blogHouston, who have commented previously on Reed's relentless bird doggin' of Metro.

Wikileakage -- Taiwanese style