Society Needs a Good Photoshopping

Arthur Silber notes that the New York Times' press release today ends with this line:

The Company's core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.

While Silber focuses on the "creating … high-quality news" part, I'm struck by the idea that the newspaper's "core purpose" is to "enhance society."

Comments

[Renna]

I believe the main problem starts when journalists want ?to make a difference? or ?make the world better? instead of just wanting to report the story as fully and truthfully as possible. When they want to make a difference it starts by choosing what stories to cover in order to further their agenda. Then it easily slips into choosing what facts to present and which one to leave out. From there facts are spun or presented in such a way that the reader comes away thinking they mean something other than what they meant. From there it?s easy to move into pure lying.

[buzz harsher]

Truth is whatever advances the revolution, comrade.

[Lefty]

Yeah, Renna. I'm for all those neutral bots out there that just do facts. I'd love to read a ticker tape every morning.

I mean, think of those folks in Oklahoma that make bombs for the DOD. I think it's fascinating to see stories on how they are trying to make the world a better place (after all, who would admit to trying to make the world a worse place?) and, by the way, they need a job to feed their families.

The world is full of rich stories with many different angles. I want to see them all.

[Roger L. Simon]

No, no, no. Harsher's all wrong. It's not the left-right thing. It's the "social" thing. The Times meant they want to enhance CAFE society and what really concerns them is that they're being superceded socially by the blogosphere... all of the print people are now that Kay Graham has passed from the scene... They're worried the real social since has passed over to the bloggers... like Brian Linse smokers at the Grand Havana Room, for instance!

[Arthur Silber]

Thanks for the mention, Matt. Well, I focused on the "creating" news part because of the most recent controversies, obviously. I take your point about "enhance society" -- but, in a very general sense (a *very* general sense), isn't that what any writer is doing, or hopes to do? Even if you are (hopefully) reporting news, rather than "creating" it, aren't you thereby trying to improve the overall quality of discourse, etc.? I think it can be argued that you are. As always, though, it depends on exactly what is meant. In any event, I find the entire statement very carelessly and ambiguously worded, to say the least. They clearly need a bit of assistance over there, and probably have for some time.

[Kevin Baker]

Buzz harsher beat me to it.

[Balagan]

accurately reporting the truth will do more to enhance society than their biased agenda-driven infotainment ever will.

[Theda Pittman]

Paranoia flourishes. Enhancing society by reporting fully and truthfully is hardly a far left, far-rightous, or communist plot. The Times didn't do that and has provided a remedy - one that seems to be receiving far more attention than it deserves. Move on.

[Robert Prather]

Lefty,

If they want to turn the Times into a paper of pure commentary, that's fine. They should just say so. In the mean time they should try to remain detached from the story and report facts.

[Jason Rylander]

I think you are all seeing what you want to see.

"Creating" is a perfectly appropriate word if you believe the writing process to be anything other than rote mechanics. Every story is a creation of the writer; the choices of detail, words, nuance--can only be described as creating. It's what separates good writing from bad, and it has nothing to do with whether you are reporting facts or opinion. Yes, you have to get the details right--it's paramount if you want to be taken seriously--but there is a creative art in how you tell a story.

And if you don't think a newspaper "enhances society" why do you read it? For that matter, why even publish one? A newspaper is society's continuing education--that's why we care about the NY Times. Most of us want citizens who are knowledgeable about world affairs and empowered to act on that knowledge if they so choose. A newspaper's job is to educate and inform. How can that not enhance society?

The Times has made quite a few mistakes of late. This press release isn't one of them.

[joe]

So you don't think "creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment" enhances society? Or you don't think that's a worthy goal?

[Kirk Parker]

Jason,

> Creating" is a perfectly appropriate word if you
> believe the writing process to be anything other
> than rote mechanics.

In the sense you mean it, sure, it's appropriate. But in light of recent stuff at the Times, e.g. all the hype about the Masters, who can blame us for thinking first of "manufacturing news"?

[Challeron]

I just think it's funny that everyone's been accepting the word of any paper whose credo is "All the news that's fit to print" ... which implies that there may be a lot of things that never get reported....

[Joanne Jacobs]

When the San Jose Mercury News was working on a "mission statement," I participated in endless, agonizing discussions on this sort of thing. I suggested our mission was to put out a newspaper, but nobody listened to me. We ended up with coffee mugs about the Merc being the "essential source of information."

A good newspaper does "enhance society" and strengthen democracy. But newspapers should concentrate on informing readers and let the enhancement take care of itself.

[gerry garvey]

Jason asks:

'And if you don't think a newspaper "enhances society" why do you read it? '

Uh, because I hope it'll inform and/or entertain me? I for one do not purport to know if that is good for society. And please feel free to read papers for your own reasons, don't worry about whether it is good for me or the rest of us..

[Todd Fletcher]

Enhancing society is generic enough as a goal, but how do you actually do that?

I would say reporting accurately and fully does enhance society, but if a journalist is so inclined to report that way, their goal would probably be "to report accurately and fully", rather than to "enhance society".

The latter implies a definite activism, which is what I think Matt was geting at in his objection.

[cinquo]

why is journalism so sacred? why must its mission be wrapped in esotoric mysteries? why do we let these snakeworshippers astound us with their hocus-pocus?

simply put, the true purpose of newspapers is to sell newspapers. everything else is just packaging, marketing or hogwash!

[old maltese]

Joanne -- very good point. It's like 'growing the economy', isn't it? It's a non-sequitur. Better to say that you be productive, and everybody else be productive (or least stay out of the way), and *then* the economy grows.

[Forbes Tuttle]

Much of this is paralysis by over analysis. Joanne's got it right--let the enhancing take care of itself. The NYTimes seems to have been over run with consultants: the moose prop to signal a communication issue, the corporate-speak in a press release, an inarticulate mission statement. The Times is a newspaper for god's sake, the need to state a mission strikes me as pathetic. Every day the paper is published is a mission statement. Needless, I stopped reading the Times three years ago as it had lost my trust for anything except their vision of enhancing society--and I wasn't buying it!

[bo]

Cinquo gets the gold star in this thread. All the rest who are agonizing over "society" are sucking the air out of the room. The piece is funny, period. Thanks, Matt! Now - need - to - breathe......

[Kevin Carson]

I'd prefer a press on the model of the nineteenth century U.S.: openly partisan, with frankly politicized reporting. Fake "objectivity" just means treating the shared assumptions of the intellectual elite as self-evident and putting them beyond examination. The truth comes out much better through the adversarial process, when both sides ruthlessly cross-examine each other's evidence and arguments. And by the way, the "both sides" argument ignores the fact that mainstream "liberals" and "conservatives" share about 80% of a world-view, and that these shared assumptions never even become an issue.

And a journalist who genuinely pursues truth will at times act as the journalistic equivalent of an amicus curiae on behalf of readers, pointing out when the *objective* factual record contradicts what one or both sides of a dispute are saying. The pseudo-"objective" journalists we have now, on the other hand, identify objectivity with simply writing "he said" stories with no attempts at independent research. In other words, "objectivity" means being lazy and credulous.

The problem with today's press is that investigative reporting is almost dead (except in the alternative press), and the vast majority of column-space is taken up by material generated by government or corporate PR machines.

[Billy Beck]

"Move on." (Theda Pittman)

We're talking about an institution that has proudly harbored the evil of Walter Duranty for almost half its history to date.

Wipe that insipid smiley-face and don't bloody tell me to move on, because some things really do need to be dragged, kicking & screaming, or dead. If you're not up for it, then you can sit it out, but some people know what's important.

[Jabba the Nutt]

Buzz, shut up you running dog capitalist lackey. You're not advancing the revolution.....and that's the truth...ssspppplllllltttt!!! ;^)

[Kevin Shaum]

They probably did mean "creating" in the "art of writing" sense rather than the "manufacturing news" sense. Even so, it's a "gaffe", as Michael Kinsley defined the term: inadvertently speaking the truth.

[Eric]

"All the news that's fit to create"

[Drudge]

Hold on to your hats! Sit back and get ready for the sparks to fly!

Because, guess what, The LOS ANGELES TIMES is next. (Have you read THEIR mission statement lately?)

[Anonymous]

alternative papers have no spin

mainstream papers are just corporate or government PR machines

gee, no spin from kevin today either

[Bill Quick]

Enhancing society by reporting fully and truthfully is hardly a far left, far-rightous, or communist plot.

Cool. Let me know when NYT starts doing that sort of reporting.

[Abe Kaho]

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