Feature

Former Tribune Editor Discusses Media Ethics in an Online World

By Elizabeth Vivirito, MPP'10

Jim Warren, former managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, visited the Harris School on Tuesday, November 18, and discussed news media in the United States. Among the topics he touched upon: quickly changing trends, interactions with democracy and politics, and the threat posed to the traditional model of journalism by the recent reduction in print newspaper readership.

"There was a time when carrying the New York Times under your arm was a symbol of refinement and prestige," said Warren, suggesting that declining newspaper revenues are a sign of diminishing cultural value. Even though the U.S. population has more than doubled since 1946, the number of newspaper readers has decreased.

Warren argued that a professional press corps plays a significant and needed role in the United States. "At best, journalism brings a sense of order to our society, outlining what is important for our citizens and politicians to hear," he said. "It is [also our] public mission to keep officials accountable." As journalism has accumulated a public trust over the past few decades, it has become a type of watchdog for politics.

By contrast, the proliferation of alternative media sources such as blogs, 24-hour news networks, and partisan outlets are causing the "death of newspapers as the primary source of news." According to Warren, these emerging news sources do much less fact-checking, in-depth investigative reporting, and care less and less about journalistic ethics.

The ramifications of this are huge, he said. Newspapers are closing foreign and some national bureaus and substantially cutting back on covering state politics. The result, Warren said, is that lobbyists and special interest groups will be able to increasingly impact state governments at the cost of the citizens.

In addition, mainstream media is increasing criticized. Warren pointed to a "concerted, successful conservative attack on what was purported to be an increasingly 'liberal' press in the last 20 years." He called out "think tanks and conservative groups who feed on a grotesque caricature of the news" as authors of this attack. Left-leaning critiques of the online blogosphere complement the movement, so the mainstream media is hit from both sides. Warren claimed the irony of this is that without newspapers, there would be no "new" media, which relies on the published work of newspapers. He cited Yahoo! and Google News as examples since they do not post original content.

If Warren's career is any indication of the future for the industry, it seems to be headed online. Warren recently left the Chicago Tribune over differences in opinion about the future of the publication. Last month, he began writing a regular column for the web-based The Huffington Post.

"The internet provides [journalists] serious opportunities to do good public policy work. The question is: does it pay?" Although Warren worked his way up through the traditional hierarchical structure of the news business, his advice today for young writers is to consider publishing online in particular issue-areas. "Start a blog-see what happens."