By: E&P Staff As reported two weeks ago, a new Pew Survey shows that self-described moderates and liberals dominate newsrooms across the country, with conservatives at a far lower percentage than in the population as a whole. Apparently this has some editors considering a kind of political "diversity" program, at least informally.
"We should acknowledge that maybe the biggest problem is that most of us think too much alike and come from the same backgrounds," David Yarnold, editor of the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, told Randy Dotinga for an article in The Christian Science Monitor today. (Dotinga is an E&P contributing editor.) "Find the pro-lifers in a newsroom -- that's harder than finding Waldo."
Many editors and news executives told Dotinga that balance is generally achieved, based on professionalism, and even those concerned by the survey don't advocate a strict ideological litmus test in hiring.
Still, Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which co-sponsored the Pew study, told Dotinga that news organizations could reach out, for example, to Christian colleges and the military. "Just look around," he said.
Editors should look to hire reporters from different backgrounds, said Peter Bhatia, executive editor of The Oregonian in Portland. Yarnold told Dotinga that editors could frame job interview questions to separate the ideologues from the critical thinkers.
Most journalists continue to call themselves "moderates." In 1995, 22% of journalists told Pew they were liberal, and 5% conservative. Now it's 34% and 7%, respectively.
But Aly Colon, head of the diversity program at the Poynter Institute, told Dotinga: "Journalism in general in the United States tends to be fairly conventional and traditional. Even if [reporters] individually see themselves as liberal, the framework in which they work isn't necessarily a liberal structure."
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here