The Elephant In The Newsroom

According to Ed'nPub, the NYTimes knows it has a problem:

In a lengthy memo published the newspaper's Web site, Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, announced several new policies in response to a recent report by the paper's Credibility Committee. Among them is a fresh attempt to diversify the Times' staff and viewpoints, and not in the usual racial or gender ways, but in political, religious and cultural areas as well.

The aim, he wrote, is "to stretch beyond our predominantly urban, culturally liberal orientation, to cover the full range of our national conversation."

Aside: It's a matter of faith among the left that we conservatives are deluded and reacting to cant from the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity when we say the mainstream press, especially the NYTimes, slants left.

Apparently the upper echelons of the NYTimes are deluded as well. Wait'll Atrios hears this.

But I digress.

The memo actually reads like exactly what many on the right have been suggesting for decades:

The point, Keller wrote, "is not that we should begin recruiting reporters and editors for their political outlook; it is part of our professional code that we keep our political views out of the paper. The point is that we want a range of experience. We have a recruiting committee that tracks promising outside candidates, and that committee has already begun to consider ways to enrich the variety of backgrounds of our reporters and editors.

"First and foremost we hire the best reporters, editors, photographers and artists in the business. But we will make an extra effort to focus on diversity of religious upbringing and military experience, of region and class."

It's not quite as good as creating a culture of honesty about bias, but it's a next-best thing.

Keller said there had already been successes, namely, the coverage of conservatives by David Kirkpatrick and Jason DeParle, and a number of recent Sunday magazine pieces. "I intend to keep pushing us in this direction," Keller declared.

He also said that he endorsed the internal committee’s recommendation "that we cover religion more extensively.... This is important to us not because we want to appease believers or pander to conservatives, but because good
journalism entails understanding more than just the neighborhood you grew up in."

My prediction: This, like the attempts to bring genuine ecumenical diversity to the Corporate Broadcasting, will shortly draw a flurry of protest from the fundamentalist left, claiming the media is becoming "more conservative".

Because it's not like Keller would know, would he?

Posted by Mitch at June 27, 2005 12:13 PM | TrackBack