THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503050084
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
SOURCE: Cole C. Campbell, Editor
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
President Clinton's former press secretary has a bone to pick with the nation's news media.
Or, rather, four bones.
Dee Dee Myers left her White House post at the end of 1994. As reported in Saturday's People column, she decries these dictates of pseudo-journalism:
``No. 1: Be first rather than right. No. 2: Never let the facts stand in the way of a good story. No. 3: When in doubt, analyze. And No. 4: Good news is no news, so create conflict.''
Myers has grounds for complaint.
Last fall, the Washington press corps covered discussions about changes in the White House staff. The centerpiece issue was whether Myers' duties would be rearranged to make room for a press secretary more acceptable to White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta.
In the end, the president sided with Myers.
Here is how three national newspapers characterized that decision.
From The New York Times:
The White House today announced a long-awaited reshuffling of its staff, a move that was intended to help shape President Clinton's image as bold and decisive but has instead given an impression of indecision and last-minute invention.
. . . The president has already established a long record of following procrastination with improvisation . . .
From The Washington Post:
The great White House staff shake-up was finally announced yesterday. As it turned out, many were shaken up in the process, but few actually lost their jobs.
. . . some officials said the 12-week process that resulted in yesterday's announcements reflected the continuation of the worst of the disorganized Clinton White House.
From The Wall Street Journal:
By choosing loyalty over efficiency in the most recent staff shuffle, President Clinton undercut his new chief of staff and undermined the effort to bring discipline to his haphazard White House.
. . . Democrats were privately disconsolate, and White House experts detected fresh signs of a self-defeating pattern in the Clinton presidency.
National political reporting is an easy target when it defers to opinions offered by ``disconsolate Democrats,'' ``White House experts'' and the ubiquitous, unnamed ``officials.'' This reporting embraces what one press critic calls ``scoops of perception'' - such as ``fresh signs of a self-defeating pattern in the Clinton presidency.''
Tom Rosenstiel of the Los Angeles Times studied press coverage of the first year of the Clinton presidency. He reports:
``On the White House beat, `a lot of what we do is what I call souffle journalism,' said Los Angeles Times White House correspondent John M. Broder, describing a recipe that calls for one part information mixed with two parts attitude and two parts conjecture. And after 24 hours or so, the analysis it contains has fallen flat.''
At The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, we work hard not to fall into these traps. Sometimes we fail, but most often we stay on track.
We are driven by a philosophy spelled out by Frank Batten, chairman of Landmark Communications, our parent company, in a concise statement called ``The Duty of Landmark Newspapers.''
That statement calls for the aggressive coverage of the news, free of the private interests of the newspaper's owners or other groups, distinguished by independence, professional discipline, respect for the public and a keen sense of fairness. It concludes:
Warts and problems are at the core of news but they are not all of the news. Even against the tide of modern life, people and institutions make progress. We should be generous in coverage of achievement; our pages should reflect the grit, devotion and durability of the human spirit. Let us nourish hope. . . .
A great newspaper is distinguished by the balance, fairness and authority of its reporting and editing. Such a newspaper searches as hard for strengths and accomplishment as for weakness and failure. Rather than demoralize its community, the great newspaper will by honest and intelligent journalism inspire people to do better.
We want to become a great newspaper. It is a long, difficult journey. by CNB