The news is broken: Journalists find scandals, image eroding credibility

That the public thinks journalists are only slightly more believable than used-car salesmen may not come as a shock, given scandals that have damaged media credibility in recent years.

What's more sobering to some media observers is that the hits continue to come.

``Times have changed, and there is a growing distrust of the media and there is a feeling that reporters are out to make money or make celebrities of themselves,'' said Robert Bertsche, a media lawyer with Prince, Lobel, Glovsky & Tye.

Timothy Karr, executive director of Mediachannel.org, a not-for-profit media issues group, says the story of declining media credibility has itself become a major media story. ``In many ways, it's the biggest story of the year,'' Karr said.

Among the recent dust-ups:

• CNN's chief news executive, Eason Jordan, resigned earlier this month after saying during a panel discussion that he believed several journalists killed in Iraq were targeted by the U.S. military.

• An online media watchdog group and several bloggers revealed that conservative reporter Jeff Gannon, who'd been asking softball questions at White House news briefings, was actually named James Guckert and has ties to gay porn Web sites.

• In January, news reports revealed that conservative commentator Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 to promote a White House education initiative.

• CBS News fired a top producer and is trying to oust three other executives after getting a scathing review of its handling of the President Bush [related, bio] National Guard documents scandal. Dan Rather stepped down as anchor.

• A jury Friday awarded $2.1 million to a judge who sued the Boston Herald for libel. The Boston Globe went one-for-two in its own libel cases this month. A jury ruled in its favor on one and the state's highest court upheld a $2.1 million verdict in another.

In December, a jury awarded $950,000 in damages against the Boston Phoenix in a libel case. The Herald, Globe and Phoenix are all expected to appeal.

All of that followed the well-publicized Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal at The New York Times and Jack Kelley fabrication scandal at USA Today, and subsequent mea culpas.

Herald lawyer Robert Dushman told reporters Friday that the jury's verdict in the Herald libel case may reflect the view the public has of the press these days.

Karr says perceived media arrogance among an elite class of celebrity journalists has played a role in declining credibility.

``The traditional notion of journalists as members of the Fourth Estate is that they're outside the power structure and are questioning and challenging the powerful elite on behalf of the disenfranchised,'' Karr said. ``When journalists become celebrities with high salaries, they're no longer outside that class.''

But to blame it all on arrogance would be shortsighted. A host of factors have contributed to the public's disenchantment with the press in the past two decades. A recent Pew Research Center report found that Americans find the mainstream media much less credible than in the mid-1980s.

One reason is that politicians and other public figures have become highly adept at running against the press, said Bob Zelnick, chairman of Boston University's journalism school. It's been refined since the Nixon administration first portrayed the media as elite and out of touch.

The media is also to blame for pulling back on hard news coverage and emphasizing stories of lesser substance. And, says Zelnick, it's been severely hurt by its own scandals.

Zelnick and others say the growing ``red state-blue state'' divide has played a role, as have radio talk shows that reinforce hostility toward ``the liberal media.''

But perhaps one of the most powerful factors in the media's recent credibility gap has been the rise of the blogosphere, which has mobilized itself as a media watchdog. The Jordan, Gannon and Rather scandals were all exposed in part by bloggers.

``The problem with that is they're sort of like electronic lynch mobs,'' Karr said. ``The byproduct of that is general distrust of journalists. It's spread beyond the blogosophere into the general public.''

So what can be done to rehabilitate the media's image? Does the media need a public relations campaign to burnish its image?

``The media should not be in the PR campaign business,'' says Emily Rooney, host of the ``Beat the Press'' edition of ``Greater Boston'' on WGBH-TV. ``That's not the business we're in. We do what we do, and a lot of it is unpopular. There's nothing you can do to put a better face on it.''

Zelnick says the press needs to hold itself to a higher standard of performance, as well as debunk the myth that the public doesn't want serious news.

``We're going to see that good journalism and good business are not necessarily antagonistic,'' he said. ``If you don't have credibility in any business that you're in, the value of your product is less.''

And there may yet be hope for the media.

A recently released study by University of Missouri-Columbia professors reportedly found that journalists are among the nation's most ethical professionals, trailing only philosophers, medical students and practicing physicians.

By Greg Gatlin Sunday, February 20, 2005
( Jennifer Heldt Powell contributed to this report. )

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