Our commitment to credibility

A newspaper that chooses to employ a public editor makes a strong pledge to its readers of its intent to strive to be faithful to the enduring core values of ethical journalism – accuracy, fairness and balance.

Journalistic credibility has never been more important to media organizations and their readers and viewers. In this digital universe, where anyone with a laptop and an axe to grind can command the privileges once monopolized by the relative few who controlled printing presses and broadcast licences, determining who you can trust to provide you with essential information matters greatly.

You can get information just about anywhere these days. Information overload fills all of our lives with so much noise and confusion. But news and information you can trust, gathered ethically, and written and presented fairly – what the best journalism aims for – is another thing altogether.

"Journalism is the only brand of information designed to help us as citizens in a democracy," Bill Kovach, of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, told a gathering of news ombudsmen I attended at Harvard University last month. But, he warned, "Neither journalism or democracy is going to survive this transition into a digital world of unlimited information unless journalists of this generation get it right."

The ombudsmen, idealists all, agreed with Kovach's conviction that accurate, fair and balanced journalism can help build a better world, by guiding citizens to informed judgments in selecting governments and establishing the social and economic priorities that determine the quality of life within our communities.

Kovach speaks to the loftiest ideals of journalism that all journalists fervently believe in, but – as readers clearly tell us – we too often fall short of.

What explains this distressing gap between the reality of what journalists produce and the high ideals we hold true?

As the new public editor of the Star, my role involves serving our readers by asking that question each and every day, to hold our newspaper and online journalism up to a light for readers – to examine it, explain it, defend it and, when necessary, criticize it. It's a job that's often referred to as the loneliest job in journalism. It surely won't be an easy task, but it is increasingly essential to media organizations committed to transparency and accountability.

This role is many-faceted but unified by the Star's long-standing commitment to journalism's core values, as well as the guiding light of the Atkinson Principles set forth by legendary former Star publisher Joseph E. Atkinson. He believed that a newspaper should contribute to a better world through the pursuit of social, economic and political reforms.

The Star has long had clear policies on ethical behaviour for its journalists. It helped create the Ontario Press Council, and was among the first Canadian newspapers to appoint an ombudsman. According to the membership rolls of the U.S.-based Organization of News Ombudsmen, the Star is now the only Canadian newspaper to employ a full-time public editor/ombudsman, a fact that speaks volumes to this news organization's commitment to credibility in an alarming period of newspaper industry retrenchment.

Still, as editor-in-chief Fred Kuntz told Star journalists this week in establishing an editorial credibility committee to review and update Star policies and practices relating to ethical journalism, "We cannot be complacent."

Indeed, no media organization can risk complacency. Studies tell us you don't trust journalists (but Canadians are less distrustful of their news media than Americans). The latest indictment, from the U.S.-based Project for Excellence in Journalism, concludes: "The public has come to view the news media as less professional, less accurate, less caring, less moral and more inclined to cover up rather than correct mistakes."

Kovach's warning to the ombudsmen's conference was even more dire: "If we don't improve journalism, it will die."

For idealistic journalists, including this new public editor, those words provide powerful motivation to stand up for journalism's enduring values.
 

Kathy English is the Star's new public editor. She can be reached at publiced@thestar.ca.