Washington Watchdogs Wandering Away

N ANDREW TOMLINSON
AMERICAN FORUM
2/19/09

The way the United States government is being covered by journalists in Washington is changing for the worse, according to four of the media’s own Tuesday night.

Tuesday night was another installment of WAMU 88.5 FM’s American Forum. The forum was made up of four members of today’s modern media. They explored the effects of newspaper closures on the American people and democracy in general.
The discussion was moderated by Wendell Cochran and featured journalists Mark Whitaker, Melinda Wittstock, Suzanne Struglinski and Tyler Marshall. All of them have experience covering the government and Congress in either print or broadcast. Along with their experience in Washington they also all have had their jobs affected by the struggling economy.

Marshall, who just finished a book on the declining media in Washington, was one of the experts on the panel. There were several trends he saw in the new Washington media. Those trends seemed to be focused around the changing Washington Press Corp, the rise of niche media and the increase in foreign correspondents.

“We found this has implications in the democratic process,” Marshall said. “If you accept the premise that talented journalists are a finite commodity, then this migration away from mainstream media… raises questions of how well our citizens are informed.”

Whitaker echoed much of Marshall’s thoughts when he remarked on the decline of local media. He remarked on how local media felt the government in Washington was not a local story back home. Rather he said they feel that if it is not in their backyard it doesn’t apply to where they are from.

Following Whitaker, Struglinski gave her opinion on how she believed the decline in Washington reporters was because of “lines on an accounting page.” To her it is another sign of how the economy is dictating the media. She stated that she believes it is not the news judgment people who are scaling back the Washington coverage, but rather people in charge of the money.
“It’s freighting when all of the sudden you are going to be watching a webcast of a committee hearing and that is what your Washington coverage will be,” Struglinski said of the declining local coverage. “Readers deserve better than that and journalists deserve better than that.”

The lack of local coverage is just one example of how the loss of Washington journalists is going to effect democracy. Everyone on the panel acknowledged that with no local reporters in Washington voters cannot get unbiased information on a member, instead they have to turn to the offices themselves.

Aside from the lack of local media, Whitaker stated that the decline in media presence means the decline in investigative reporting. He believes that confidential sources are less willing to come forward to a niche or Internet journalist. To him Whistle blowers are the only way scandal and wrongdoing will be uncovered.

“Anybody who knows how our business works, knows that in order for confidential sources to be willing to talk to you; one you need trust which is built up over time,“ Whitaker said when describing how important traditional media is to investigative reporting. “You also need some guarantee and expectation that a news organization will go to bat for you, in terms of protecting your confidentiality and that requires money and resources.”

Along with investigative reporting comes eyewitness news. Wittstock went on to describe how hard it is to cover Washington from afar. She said there is no way to know if a member of Congress acts differently there than back home. Wittstock made the profound statement that if a reporter or journalist is not there, then there is no way for them to see the context of events unfolding.

All of these different changes and losses to the mainstream media have led to the reshaping of the Washington press corp. Most if not the entire panel said part of the change could be credited to the growth of the Internet. While they said it could be used for good, currently it was an inefficient way for citizens to retrieve their news.

“Getting news from the Internet is like dinking from a fire hose,” Whitaker said when discussing the Internet. “It’s a lot of water, but you can really be easily overwhelmed by it.”

Overall the panel focused on the lack of unbiased news for voters. They said it was the quality of information that was important not necessarily the quantity. With the entire panel having experience at organizations such as the Los Angeles Times and NBC they all have had first hand experience covering Washington.