AP’s New ‘Accountability Journalism’ Is a Sham
Amidst charges of bias, the AP decides to put even more opinion in its articles.
As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for — you just might get it. For all those who have been concerned that the AP has not been fulfilling its mission to provide “unbiased news,” be assured they have heard you.
Now we may be getting something much worse.
The AP has decided it will now practice something it calls “accountability journalism.” But it has nothing to do with being “accountable” to readers seeking unbiased news. Instead, it seems to be more about holding politicians accountable to the personal conclusions of reporters.
If that seems like a stretch, here are some real-life examples of sentences found in articles practicing accountability journalism as collected by Politico:
- “John McCain calls himself an underdog. That may be an understatement.”
- “I miss Hillary.”
- “Obama is bordering on arrogance.”
- “The Democratic nomination is now Barack Obama’s to lose.”
As you can see, reporters are being asked to write in the first person, giving them permission to call it as they see it. They are also being encouraged to use language filled with emotion. This is such a vast difference from previous practices that it is even controversial within the ranks of the AP. It is the brainchild of the AP’s new Washington bureau chief, Ron Fournier, but anathema to his predecessor, Sandy Johnson, who has expressed concern it might destroy the bureau.
How can this style of writing and reporting be justified? Not easily. It requires a lot of words that take your mind in one direction, but fall apart with a small amount of analysis.
In an essay about accountability journalism that Fournier wrote last year, he outlined its four cornerstones. But each of the four begs the question “what’s accountability got to do with it?”
First, Fournier writes that accountability journalism means thorough follow-up. For example, he wants reporters to determine after the fact whether bills actually worked and to make sure promises were kept. This sounds good, but is this really a formula for accountability? For just about any program, those in favor will be able to produce arguments and statistics showing it worked, and those against will do the opposite. To which will politicians be held accountable?
Page 1 of 2 Next ->
Steve Boriss teaches the class "The Future of News" at Washington University in St. Louis, blogs at at TheFutureofNews.com, and offers services through The Future of News, Inc. to help news organizations, corporations, and agencies succeed in the emerging news environment.
 |
 |
 |
Podcasts |  PJM Home |
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
19 Comments
1. RE:I don’t see this as a remarkable significant change over what AP and much of the media has been doing for some time now. The media jettisoned objectivity (and their credibility along with it) some time ago. Why don’t we just admit that the Left has successfully hijacked the major media outlets> We can also claim that the mainstream media has been exposed as biased advocacy and activism operations. Their divorce from integrity happened long, long ago.
Really, this is beating a dead horse. The AP is beyond salvation. It’s time to move on.
Jul 25, 2008 - 4:46 am 2. TomJW:They changed, are they no longer the ‘Associated with Terrorists Press’?
Jul 25, 2008 - 5:10 am 3. TomP:I cancelled my subscription to the local paper. I won’t pay for the garbage that AP and other newswires pass off as honest reporting.
Jul 25, 2008 - 5:57 am 4. Evil Pundit:Perhaps there is a positive side to this.
The articles have always been biased, but now the bias will be more obvious. This in turn may make more people aware that they are being fed propaganda, not news — and hopefully lead to a further decline in MSM credibility.
Jul 25, 2008 - 8:21 am 5. The Wizard:AP, along with the other MSM, have walked away from Journalistic integrity and unbaised objectivity. The coverage of Obama’s Messiah Will Save The World tour is a prime example. It appears reporters today confuse journalism with blogs. Perhaps that is why MSM newspapers, which are biased to the liberal left, continue to lose money, readership and credibility.
Jul 25, 2008 - 8:22 am 6. Augean Stables » Is New AP Style Good For Journalism?:[...] Boriss, at Pajamas Media, does not like what he sees. In an essay about accountability journalism that Fournier wrote last [...]
Jul 25, 2008 - 9:09 am 7. ancientart:It seems to me too that the appointment of Fournier as head of the AP Washington bureau is an indication that AP is casting off the last vestiges of objective news reporting. Readers here might be interested in my column in today’s Aberdeen American News, “What’s black and white and yellow all over?”
http://www.aberdeennews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080725/OPINION02/807250360/-1/OPINION
Jul 25, 2008 - 1:34 pm 8. anonymous:What is happening to Greenland families:
Jul 25, 2008 - 4:13 pm 9. DonK:http://sioe.wordpress.com/
I left the AP in the mid-1990s after more than a decade and a half (lifestyle reasons). The wire service of today is nothing like the one I took pride in working for. The AP began to change in the mid-1990s, when many of the older hands began leaving for other jobs as the Internet began opening up opportunities. It started to fall off the cliff after Tom Curley, formerly of USA Today, took over as publisher.
The AP is no longer interested in telling readers/listeners merely what happened — its purpose in life for more than a century. Now, like many other media, it wants to tell readers what to think as well. However, like most mainstream media, the editorial staff is tilted well to the left, meaning that, whether consciously or unconsciously, more and more stories are politically biased. This would be anathema to me and the people I worked with; it seems to be the goal of the “new” AP.
I still have friends there (at least until the AP can find a way to get rid of them to save money; it’s trying to run out the older staffers and replace them with cheaper, less experienced people). My heart grieves for them — and for the readers who think they’re getting unbiased coverage when they are emphatically not.
Jul 25, 2008 - 7:46 pm 10. John Moore:This is really nothing than another ideology to allow journalists to do what they’ve been doing for a few decades. They now constitute a self-serving elite and this gives them the excuse to use their opinions openly in the news pages. In a way, it may be better, because it makes the biases of the reporters more obvious.
In 2004, when I was involved in the veterans movement against Kerry, I found how how biased the media really was. And to my surprise, in communications with journalistic opinion makers, I discovered that they had not problem with that. The term “citizen journalism” is another misnomer they use – it means journalists user their positions to “improve society” – i.e. propagandize for their causes.
Like so many institutions in America, journalism has been corrupted by a combination of elitist attitudes and left-wing ideologues.
We really need a system more like England’s. Tabloids on all sides, with the biases up front and part of the brand.
In a way, the tabloid parts of Fox News and CNN Headline now operate that way.
Jul 25, 2008 - 9:24 pm 11. ACLU Hates Boy Scouts, Love Hypocrisy : Stop The ACLU:[...] is speculation on my part. Instead of speculation we’ll call it Accountability journalism, like the AP, that way the ACLU can be held accountable to [...]
Jul 26, 2008 - 5:52 pm 12. If partisanship doesn’t kill the AP, it will just make them stronger « The Future of News:[...] make them stronger 7/27/08 Posted by Steve Boriss in AP. trackback My most recent article on PajamasMedia is a cautionary tale about being careful what you wish for — you just might get it. For all [...]
Jul 27, 2008 - 3:46 pm 13. Advocacy Journalism :: New MediaTheory:[...] others in positions of power accountable to what the journalist ‘knows to be true’. Here is Stoss’ summation. Accountability journalism is about holding politicians accountable to [...]
Jul 27, 2008 - 11:38 pm 14. Bugs:DonK: In my earlier years as a writer, I thought filing stories with the AP from remote parts of the world sounded pretty romantic. Now it seems a bit sleazy. I know I’ve changed since then; guess the AP has, too.
Jul 28, 2008 - 9:26 am 15. bill:http://news.iafrica.com/worldnews/1047240.htm
where’s the good old media?
Jul 29, 2008 - 4:10 am 16. BizzyBlog » Things I’d Like to Post About Today ….. (073008, Morning):[...] fully implements the sham known as accountability journalism. Steve Boriss’s subheadline at his Pajamas Media’s op-ed: “Amidst charges of bias, the AP decides to put even more opinion in its [...]
Jul 30, 2008 - 6:06 am 17. BizzyBlog » Speaking of AP: Looking at the Subscriber Mini-Revolt:[...] read about the wire service’s news brainstorm, “Accountability Journalism,” at this Pajamas Media column by Steve Boriss (”AP’s New ‘Accountability Journalism’ Is a Sham”). Yikes; you [...]
Aug 2, 2008 - 8:36 am 18. deguello:Excrement wrapped in fancy gift paper, is still excrement.Accountable to whom? Move on .Org? The left always
Aug 4, 2008 - 7:54 am 19. deguello:Accountable to whom? Move On.Org?
Aug 4, 2008 - 7:55 am