Overt politics aside, the uproar over The New York Times' decision to publish a story on the secret U.S. government program to track terrorist money highlights a big problem the news media are facing these days.
Poor PR.
Yes, poor PR. What does that have to do with a national security issue like this, you ask? Everything.
In the Times last Sunday, the newspaper's public editor, Byron Calame, devoted his column to the decision to publish the story. I found one comment to be particularly telling.
Roughly 1,000 e-mails have come to me, about 85 percent of them critical of the decision to publish the story and a large fraction venomous.
Eighty-five percent? That's huge. And I'm sure most journalists would find that number astounding. To them, the issue is not so lopsided, at least judging from all the news coverage I've read. And that's the problem.
News organizations today assume that readers understand what they're all about -- that reporting and publishing stories like these are the fundamental role of a free press in a democratic society.
My point is this: Why make that assumption?
When you devote as much time as the news industry does to celebrity stories, gossip, etc., why should the public believe or understand its "true calling?" News media organizations can't have it both ways.
If you're going to go nuts promoting an interview with Angelina Jolie, for example, it's hard to argue there's other work you do that should be treated differently. Hard, that is, unless you really work at it.
The news media have to refocus attention on what they're all about, particularly as new entrants to the mediascape -- blogs, podcasts, etc. -- continue to fragment audiences. There are many, many great journalists out there who do/can do terrific, serious work. And serious reporting has never been needed more.
So why not hang the industry's hat on that? Talk about it and embrace it -- rather than running away from it for fear of losing some readers/viewers. Those folks are good as gone anyway.
Focus on the core consumers, instead.
