NEW YORK \u2014 The New York Times has for generations printed its credo on Page 1 to inspire the faithful: \u201cAll the News That\u2019s Fit to Print.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
But times changed and the high church of journalism was challenged by radio and television news, which was followed by a tsunami of news, rumors, opinions and criticism on 24-7 cable news networks and the Internet. The result has been a subtle change in doctrine at the Times, although the Gray Lady\u2019s motto has stayed the same.<\/p>\n\n
Around-the-clock competition has \u201ccaused us to shift our emphasis from information as a commodity and play to different strengths \u2014 emphasizing less the breaking facts than the news behind the news, writing more analytically,\u201d said executive editor Bill Keller, speaking at last week\u2019s National College Media Convention.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe long ago moved from \u2018All the News That\u2019s Fit to Print,\u2019 to \u2018All the News You Need to Know, and What It Means.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n
Keller\u2019s address blended confessions about the newspaper industry\u2019s sins with a litany of praise for journalistic virtues. Journalists at the Times, he insisted, still practice what they preach, remaining \u201cagnostic as to where a story may lead\u201d and maintaining standards of accuracy and fairness that prevent the \u201copinions of our writers and editors from leaching into our news pages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
However, he also said he believes that \u201cinformation is not what people crave. What they crave, and need, is judgment \u2014 someone they can trust to vouch for the information, dig behind it, and make sense of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The question is whether critics, especially those in religious sanctuaries, will trust Keller\u2019s team to provide an unbiased take on the news and then, as a finale, pass judgment on \u201cwhat it means,\u201d said former New York Daily News reporter William Proctor, author of \u201cThe Gospel According to the New York Times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis intentional change in the motto \u2014 even if it won\u2019t be printed by the newspaper \u2014 suggests to me that editorializing is being placed on an equal footing with straight news,\u201d he said. The new motto seems \u201cto be saying, \u2018We\u2019re recognizing that opinion has a larger role than the editorial or op-ed pages. In fact, opinion now has a place in the news itself.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n
Meanwhile, critics may remember Keller \u2014 who won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting in the Soviet Union \u2014 as the Times columnist who once called himself a \u201ccollapsed Catholic\u201d and lashed out at Pope John Paul II and the Vatican for rejecting female priests, gay rights, legalized abortion and the sexual revolution in general.<\/p>\n\n
The struggle within Catholicism, he wrote, is \u201cpart of a larger struggle within the human race, between the forces of tolerance and absolutism. \u2026 This is, after all, the church that gave us the Crusades and the Inquisition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
However, as executive editor, Keller produced a 2005 manifesto urging his staff to improve religion coverage, avoid the misuse of loaded labels such as \u201creligious fundamentalists\u201d and hire qualified journalists who offer a diversity of \u201creligious upbringing and military experience, of region and class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Journalists at the Times, he said, must strive to escape \u201cour predominantly urban, culturally liberal orientation, to cover the full range of our national conversation. \u2026 This is important to us not because we want to appease believers or pander to conservatives, but because good journalism entails understanding more than just the neighborhood you grew up in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
This candor is refreshing, said Jay Rosen, who leads New York University\u2019s journalism program and has written a provocative essay entitled \u201cJournalism is Itself a Religion.\u201d The problem is that many journalists want to escape old-fashioned straight news, but they don\u2019t know what to call their new product. It\u2019s hard to distinguish between news \u201canalysis\u201d and \u201copinion\u201d writing that reflects the beliefs of the writer.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK \u2014 The New York Times has for generations printed its credo on Page 1 to inspire the faithful: \u201cAll the News That\u2019s Fit to Print.\u201d But times changed and the high church of journalism was challenged by radio and television news, which was followed by a tsunami of news, rumors, opinions and criticism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[112,458,487,595,597,720],"class_list":["post-1378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bias","tag-internet","tag-journalism","tag-new-york-times","tag-news","tag-religion-news"],"yoast_head":"\n