Alex Jones Advises Columnists at Confab to Back Hard Reporting

By: Dave Astor As investigative journalism and other news reporting comes under siege for budgetary and political reasons, columnists should be among those discussing that problem, according to a Friday speaker at the National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC) conference here.

"You need to give moral support to your colleagues in the newsroom and in your columns," said Alex Jones, director of Harvard University's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

Jones said "about 85% of the real reporting done in this country is done by newspapers." But because that kind of reporting can be expensive in terms of staffing and resources, some budget-conscious papers are cutting back on this content while concentrating more on things like celebrity and sports coverage.

There are also other pressures on investigative journalism, including the Bush administration's angry reaction to New York Times revelations about the scrutiny of bank records and the wiretapping of phone calls. "The kind of reporting the Times is doing is being discredited by our president for sincere reasons and for political reasons," said Jones, who formerly covered the press for the Times. "If the press is muzzled, publishers will be even less likely to spend resources and speak truth to power."

Another journalism trend is more opinion writing, and Jones is all for it. "I'd expand the Op-Ed pages and have more columns," he said. "I'd infuse editorials with more personality, and sign them." But since "virtually every kind of opinion is based on reported news," Jones added, cutting back on that news doesn't help the quality of opinion writing.

One part of opinion writing Jones is not fond of is responding to letters to the editor with an editor's note underneath. "I'd resist the practice," he advised. "If you answer letters to the editor in print, you make an enemy and remove an incentive for others to send letters." Jones said newspapers have to "trust" readers to figure out whether the newspaper or the letter writer is correct.

A Ben Franklin impersonator also appeared at the NSNC luncheon that Jones keynoted. The impersonator asked the audience for a reason why Franklin was considered important enough to get his face on a higher-denomination bill than George Washington.

Because, "Franklin" said with a smile, "I was a newspaper columnist!"