• Home
  • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
  • Contact

JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« A particularly smart and attractive touch at new KCI
The “sense of inevitability” about a downtown baseball stadium »

Margaret Sullivan on Up to Date: “We actually have a public mission here.”

January 21, 2023 by jimmycsays

On Wednesday, Steve Kraske had the nation’s foremost press and media critic on his “Up to Date” show.

In the 26-minute interview — she was not in the studio — Margaret Sullivan gave listeners a lot of insight into the state of the news media.

Sullivan is former editor of The Buffalo News, former public editor at The New York Times (she followed Arthur Brisbane in that role), and former media columnist at The Washington Post. She has also written two books: “Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy” and, most recently, “Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life.”

Following are excerpts — some edited for clarity and length — from the interview. (You can listen to the entire interview here.)

Question: Has the media lost its voice of authority and, if so, can it ever get it back?

Sullivan: Well, one thing that’s happened over the past 50 years or so is that the trust in the news media has really plummeted. At the time of the mid-‘70s, after Watergate and after the Pentagon Papers were published, trust in the news media was quite high — in the mid-70s percentile, 76 percentile. That has dropped precipitously year after year after year, and so it’s low now; it’s certainly well below 50 percent, and sometimes, depending on what you look at, it could be in the 30s. So I do think that the voice of authority from kind of big-establishment media has been diminished, and there’s lots and lots of reasons for that.

Question: Why has trust in the media plummeted?

Sullivan: Well, one of the things that’s happened is now we have 24/7 cable news, and we have the internet and we have all of this information — and sometimes misinformation or even disinformation — coming at us all the time. The other thing that’s happened (is that) local journalism is actually more trusted, but the business model has been so diminished and newsrooms have been so shrunken that there’s less content and less ability to go out and report those stories. And meanwhile, you know, Fox News and all the other hyper-partisan news media are doing their thing. I think that all contributes.

Question: Can the media ever get it back, or are those days gone for good?

Sullivan: I think it’s a tough thing. I think we in the media can do some things to help that along. One of the things we can do is to explain ourselves better to our readers and listeners and viewers and kind of take people behind the curtain and be more transparent. And I think another thing that needs to happen is local news needs to be shored up and helped along. Not just newspapers but the new digital-only sites, public radio, radio in general, TV. All of these things can be sustained better, and that will help with trust as well.

Margaret Sullivan

Question: What effect did Donald Trump have with his constant attacks on the media?

Sullivan: I think that former President Trump did a lot of damage, as he used the disparagement of the news media as a central part of his initial campaign and of his administration and afterwards. And, as he so often did, he said the quiet part out loud. So he actually said to Leslie Stahl of CBS News at one point, “You know why I do this, right? It’s so when you do a negative story about me, no one will believe it.” So he was pretty up front about what he was doing, but, at the same time and by the same token, it has worked.”

Question: How much responsibility does the media have at this moment, with our democracy under assault?

Sullivan: Well, you know, I think we always have to remember that we in the news media are very unusual in that we have a constitutionally protected role. There’s nothing else that has an amendment essentially devoted, at least in part, to protecting our role in the governance of our country. So, you know, we need to remember that. We have a job, which is to inform the public and to do it properly. And our our job is not to just get the most clicks, and it’s not to get the most corporate profits, but it is to inform citizens so that they can be self-governing. And I think we’ve kind of lost touch with that, to some extent, and some of that is because there are so many pressures – competitive pressures, financial pressures – on journalists and on the news leadership that we’ve kind of, I think…only in the back of our heads do we recognize, “Oh, yeah, we actually have a public mission here.” And that should be first and foremost.

Question: What effect has the proliferation of news outlets had on the way people consume news?

Sullivan: We are really in our echo chambers; there’s no question about that. And I think social media, whether Facebook or Twitter or whatever it may be, has really exacerbated that so that you want to tune out or un-follow or block people who don’t agree with you. And so you hear the things from your own cohort and you get even more entrenched.

Question: So news consumers have a responsibility to be somewhat discerning?

Sullivan: Absolutely, and it’s hard because we have this kind of fire hose of information just blasting at us all the time, often from our phones. And this is another part of the problem: it’s very — I guess the technical term for it would be disaggregated. It’s all in sort of the same form. So it’s not as if in the old days you would read the newspaper and you’d see, okay, this is the news section, and now this is the opinion section, these are the editorials. It’s all kind of one thing, and it’s not very well labeled, and it’s not very well differentiated. So it all seems like a big blob.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

10 Responses

  1. on January 21, 2023 at 11:37 pm Midtown Browne

    That was a great Kraske interview and I appreciate Sullivan’s straight talk – we must be vigilant as we work to discern what the new model of trusted media will look like.


  2. on January 22, 2023 at 1:15 am Mike Rice

    Everyday, I thank my lucky stars that none of my three kids (all in their 20s) chose journalism as their profession like their dad did. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to be a reporter these days.


    • on January 22, 2023 at 9:08 am jimmycsays

      For all of journalism’s challenges, Mike, I think it remains an excellent option for smart, young people who have a talent for writing and are innately curious about what’s going on in their cities, states, nations and world. It’s the very best field for cultivating high-level communication skills. I can’t imagine where I’d be today without my 37 years of professional journalism experience. It almost certainly would have been a much less interesting life.

      And as far as the money, we didn’t get into it for that; we knew we weren’t going to earn extremely high salaries and get big pensions. But we knew we could (and it still can be done) carve out a decent living.

      I wish our daughter Brooks — an excellent writer — would have gone into journalism, but, alas it’s just not up her alley.


      • on January 22, 2023 at 11:32 am Mike Rice

        Yes, Fitz, my life has been more interesting too thanks to the 20 years I spent working at The Star. And I made friends with people who are still among my dearest friends today. But it came at a significant personal and mental cost.

        You work your butt off reporting and writing stories for not only a daily edition but a weekly one as well (and at times, it was bi-weekly). That meant covering a lot of night meetings that stretched well past your children’s’ bedtimes and coming back to the office early the next day to write about what happened at those meetings _ and no, calling sources to find out what happened at those meetings was not going to cut it_ you had to be there.

        There were plenty of missed baseball games and barely making it to your child’s daycare before the 6 pm closing time because some editor wanted you to check out a meaningless story that Channel 9 had. Plenty of evenings being interrupted because a top level editor heard or saw something and couldn’t wait until the next day.

        All of that effort and sacrifice only to be told at your annual evaluation that you weren’t any good because you didn’t get enough A-1 stories, thus giving the paper an excuse to give you a less than 1 percent raise and keeping you from taking those kids on vacations.

        I’ll take the boring desk job I currently have any day. It may not be helping the common good but at least I’m happier.


  3. on January 22, 2023 at 7:59 am Tim

    “And I think another thing that needs to happen is local news needs to be shored up and helped along. Not just newspapers but the new digital-only sites, public radio, radio in general, TV.”

    But how? Starting in the mid-’90s, newspapers conditioned generations of readers to expect news to be free. Good luck convincing enough people to start paying to get enough revenue to fund a decent newsroom.

    Local TV news also probably won’t be around inside of a decade. Peacock and Paramount are examples of how the networks are increasingly going straight to consumers. They might keep their O&Os but likely will ditch their affiliates. Will locals be able to attract enough eyeballs and advertisers with rerun networks such as Grit to fund newsrooms? I guess we’ll see.


    • on January 22, 2023 at 9:10 am jimmycsays

      You make an excellent point, Tim. It’s easy to say and see what is needed…Much harder to get there.


  4. on January 22, 2023 at 8:40 am Vern Barnet

    In the case of The Star, it was not the perpetual disappointment in the paper that led me to cancel subscription after decades of loyalty; I was proud to be a subscriber and supporter of its often flawed but critically important work. It was the damn subscription process that went haywire. I have a lot more trust in the reporters than the managers. Now I guiltily read The Star faithfully and freely on the KC Public Library website. I do pay for the NYTimes and WaPo. Too many failed efforts at subscribing have led me to balance my shame as a free-loader with some sort of stupid self-righteous principle to protest the management. I am still shocked when I run into folks who have a stake in the life of the city who do not read The Star.


    • on January 22, 2023 at 9:13 am jimmycsays

      You’re no freeloader, Vern; you’re just taking advantage of what’s readily available to you. I should do that, too, but I’m too lazy. I go to The Star’s website several times a day and just don’t want to add another step to get there. Get me there vite, vite, vite!


  5. on January 22, 2023 at 9:55 am Steve Porter

    In late 1980 I went from a $24,000 a year, mind-numbing perfunctory office job to $8,000 a year as a 31-year-old cub reporter at a weekly newspaper in a small town. It changed my life. Being curious, nosey and writing to explain what I saw on a deadline based on the facts at hand offered me the intellectual discipline I needed, the stimulus I craved. Those opportunities are rare now, the pay scale pretty much just as penurious, and the effort even less respected some four-plus decades later. This is the era of information over facts and comprehension. Professional journalists are needed now more than ever before, yet the incentive to become a journalist is lower than ever.


  6. on January 22, 2023 at 5:35 pm John Altevogt

    “Fox News and all the other hyper-partisan news media” Strange, journalists never seem to mention MSNBC or CNN in their condemnation of hyper-partisan news media.

    And one can only dream of a young journalist who was “innately curious”. Most of what I see has about as much curiosity as some state owned rag in a third word dictatorship.

    I blame so-called journalists for the polarization we see. People seek out honest brokers who can be trusted to provide objective reporting on, and this is key, topics they’re interested in and failing to find any, turn to those who simply reinforce their own biases, pulling then farther and farther into ideological extremes.

    Thanks to journalists like Bari Weiss and friends, we’re beginning to see a minor drift in the right direction



Comments are closed.

  • Pages

    • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
    • Contact
  • Archives

    • April 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 567 other subscribers

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Join 567 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: