Bhatia: Credibility, FOI Are Editors' Top Issues

By: Joe Strupp Credibility and freedom of information remain the most important issues for editors, according to outgoing American Society of Newspaper Editors President Peter Bhatia, who called on newsroom leaders at the annual ASNE conference Tuesday to make both issues priorities.

He also proposed the creation of a national "Sunshine Sunday" like those held in Florida each year to promote public access to government information.

Saying the ethical lapses of Jayson Blair and Jack Kelley, as well as others, "did horrible damage to our industry," Bhatia, executive editor of The Oregonian in Portland, challenged editors to do more to ensure accuracy and honesty in reporting.

"Isn't it time to say enough is enough? Isn't it time to attack this problem in our newsrooms head-on and put an end to the madness?" Bhatia asked editors. "Isn't it time to really dig deep and examine our operations in a way that goes far beyond memos and meetings? Are we really able to say we are doing everything possible to make sure our newspapers and staffs are operating at the highest ethical level?"

Bhatia urged editors to look at the specific structures of their daily operations with an eye toward ensuring that reporters maintain accuracy. "We must look at more thorough fact-checking methods like those, at least in theory, employed at magazines," he said.

Bhatia also suggested that each newspaper conduct "a thorough, internal audit of its ethical fabric and the potential for breakdowns." He cited a "new diagnostic tool" that is being developed by ASNE's ethics and values committee for editors to aide in this approach.

"We must come to realize that our franchise is at risk over these issues," Bhatia said. "We must admit and acknowledge that we have shorted editing since we sent the linotypes off to the museums and brought the composing room into the newsroom."

On the information access front, Bhatia slammed the federal government for limiting the media's ability to get news with the Homeland Security Act and Attorney General John Ashcroft's October 2001 memo that directed federal officials to deny FOIA requests in any case where they were deemed a threat to national security and could be defended on a "sound legal basis."

"We need new energy ... in the struggle against those who would diminish the people's right to know," Bhatia said. "It is led, of course, right here in Washington, from the White House and the Justice Department." But he added, "our dream is imperiled here ... by the fact that on these issues many of us are rolling over, not engaged, or have given up, citing weariness with the public's apathy or the cost of fighting cases that drag on for years."

Bhatia urged editors to take on the information issue within their newspapers more often through stories, editorials and other projects aimed at fighting back. He also proposed a national Freedom of Information/Sunshine Sunday, based on a 3-year-old Florida exercise where that state's newspapers focus on public awareness and information regulations during a specific Sunday, often tailoring stories and editorials toward the issue.

"These are admittedly complex topics and hard to tie into people's everyday lives," Bhatia said. "But we will never get national traction unless we all join the fight."

Finally, Bhatia called on ASNE members to do more to improve the industry's image and allow newspapers to dictate their mission, strengths and beliefs instead of having it shaped by media-bashers.

"The image problems we have go well beyond those who read us completely and carefully," he said. "And require us to reach out to those who drop by occasionally."

Bhatia urged newspaper companies to develop ad campaigns and strategies that "take our message beyond the pages of the paper or the Internet site." He also said ASNE, the Newspaper Association of America, and other news organizations must "suspend our differences, embrace what we have in common, and develop a strategy that reveals our story."

Bhatia's one year term as ASNE president ends Friday when he will be replaced by incoming president Karla Garrett Harshaw of the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun.