Truth is More than What Happens

True/Slant is a new online publication slated to launch at the end of March. You don't hear too much about new print publication launches these days. The full migration to digital news is well under way.

Billed as a cross between The Huffington Post and Slate, True/Slant sounds intriguing. It looks like Springthistle Design is building initial html/css/images for the customized WordPress build.

Some of the early contributors are Mark Drapeau and Leafy Living. Another characteristic of the digital environment and new media model is the emphasis on who contributes. The old model was built around a process and distribution. The new model is built around content. In this model, content creators need to have more of a personality as they are in direct contact with their readers. True/Slant already has a Twitter account.

The line "news is more than what happens" was written by Jock Whitney as chronicled in The Last Editor by Jim Bellows. I see the connection. It was Frank Lloyd Wright who said that truth is more important than the facts. The importance of truth comes to the fore in the journalists code of ethics - seek truth and report it. 

To give you a personal example, I was recently in a call with a writer for a business publication in another city, one I have not worked with before. I was asked to confirm information I was not privy to and therefore could not honestly do. The editorial choice was to go to print anyway on the basis of hearsay.

Print newspapers are indeed becoming more aggressive as they're facing a steep decline in subscriptions over digital and eventually competing mobile news destinations. Personally and professionally, I do have a problem with something being published that does not reflect the truth. It seems to me that opinion is getting a better deal these days. Will the pendulum swing back?

What do you think?

Comments

[Carolyn Ann]

I doubt things will ever return to "just the facts, Ma'am". Between Fox News' "opinion as news" style, bloggers who have to add something to the story, the readers who demand that something, and the detached 'conversation' of Twitter, sober, accurate, non-judgmental, reliable BBC-style journalism is going the way of print journalism.

It's almost as if "it" didn't happen, if no one spins the story. The truth of something depends entirely on the associated spin? What's worse is that no effort is made to provide competing views with anything but ridicule! It even extends to the communication medium: some people are skeptical of blogs (a wise idea!), and others revere them (not a good idea). It's related to the mawkish idea that "if it's on Fox, it must be accurate. CNN spins thing a liberal way". The converse, that Fox spins its news coverage to reflect an ideology, is not addressed. Blogs such as The Daily Kos do the same thing.

I recently read a comment by Sandra Tsing Loh, in her Mar 09 The Atlantic article "Class Dismissed", that I think captures the sentiment:

"The search for self-expression has evolved into a need to have that self-expression unchallenged, which in turn necessitates living among people think and feel just as you do."

It's a powerful idea, but necessarily a good one! It's also increasingly accurate. Unfortunately.

Carolyn Ann

[Jeff]

I truly hope that investigative journalism prospers in the news/reporting industry's transition from print to online/digital. The question is: can they develop a successful online business model?

One advantage of anytime/anyplace reporting and digital technology is that journalists can easily share their information gathering results.

I have a friend that recently won a Pulitizer for local reporting; I'm going to ask him what he thinks about the future of investigative journalism and the reporting of truth.

Jeff
Glendale, WI

[Susan]

I do wish the pendulum would swing back, but don't think that it will. Unfortunately, the media as a whole has dug this hole themselves. By not confirming information, verifying that sources are correct, and working to compete with such tools as Twitter, they have created distrust amongst their audiences. I'd like to think that a balance could be created, but it's going to take a lot of work. There are still places and people the media have access to that others do not, so that would be an opportunity to start creating trust with the audience again - through solid reporting, not assumptions.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Carolyn Ann - not providing competing views or a way to have a civil debate is a problem of today's news organizations. I see CNN catering to the masses for opinion sound bytes more and more, instead of requiring the official version to explain itself. Diversity or reports is not viewed as a strength anymore. Alas that is why everyone ends up doing what everyone else is doing and we get to where we are...

@Jeff - this is an awesome contribution to the conversation. For the record, I root for true journalism and have been a long time admirer of the work that Amanpour and so many other reporters do. As a PR professional and a citizen, I object to questionable tactics for the fast buck. Like everything else in life, to me ethics are important to keep things in the proper perspective.

@Susan - the pendulum has indeed swung the other way at the moment. Critical thinking is important, as are facts. But I think they both get the short end of the stick when nobody is there to help create an environment where truth has its place. Becoming popular and entertaining has its cost, too. Once you start, it's never enough.

[Liz]

There was an article in The Economist last week saying that the newswire agencies like AFP and Reuters are not doing badly at the moment, so maybe newspapers should be leaving the news reporting to them.

I've always felt that where newspapers really add value is in analysis and opinion pieces. And personally that is content I would be more likely to pay for.

Accurate, unbiased news reporting is so important though. I also don't like at all the 'fast buck' road many publications are going down.

[Rich Becker]

Valeria,

Opinion will get the better deal as long as publications aim to comfort the comfortable, which means readers.

We have so many options, most people will turn the channel anytime they don't want to hear an opinion that does not validate their preexisting beliefs. The phenomenon allows us to find "our" truth based on biased facts, encouraging us to focus all the more on what seems to be.

Best,
Rich