One of the roles for journalists and pamphleteers since the days of the American colonies was to be an irritant to the Establishment. Some claim “mainstream media” are too often part of that establishment and no longer the watchdogs the public needs when government and business interests fail them.
But one fine example of how that traditional watchdog role still exists is the two-part series that appeared in Sunday and Monday’s Tribune titled “Hidden Hazards.” The investigation by Tribune reporter Patricia Callahan explained how powerful magnets only slightly larger than baby aspirin came loose from some popular toys and, despite warnings to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the manufacturer, at least one child died and many others were injured.
Callahan also detailed how the commission has become a willing captive to the industry it is supposed to regulate and how its budgets and staffing have been gutted in the last 25 years. Her story, in its blunt and effective language, is about not only one defective toy and one family’s tragedy, but “how a weakened federal agency, in its myopic and docile approach to regulation, fails to protect children. The result: injury and death.”
The investigation had an immediate impact, from retailers who took the toys off their shelves and from members of Congress who promised investigations and more oversight of the commission.
For those who missed it, you can read it and related stories online by going to www.chicagotribune.com/safety.
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Other newspapers are doing similar work.
The New York Times wrote on Thursday about how some psychiatrists are prescribing a new and powerful class of drugs for children despite an appalling lack of knowledge about the drugs’ impact on the young and, not coincidentally, with large financial payments from the drug companies to the doctors.
Another example of good journalistic practice in the Tribune was evident Saturday. A story by Tribune reporter David Jackson, with help from reporter Ray Gibson, involved a real estate developer who was serving as an undercover federal mole in an investigation into fraud in financing large-scale commercial real estate deals.
Jackson learned of the investigation and the identity of the operative in May 2006, but U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald took the unusual step of personally asking senior editors to hold off publishing the story, saying it would jeopardize the investigation and possibly put people in danger.
Many newspaper critics who write to me believe that editors are never concerned about keeping government secrets or putting others in harm’s way. I know that is not true: This federal investigation is just the latest, but I can easily recall a handful of recent cases when reporters and editors held back to not endanger security concerns and individual lives.
When Fitzgerald lifted his request last Friday, the story ran on the next morning’s front page. The story noted the central issue in holding back information: editors trying to balance the public’s right to be informed versus the legitimate need of law enforcement to conduct secret investigations into public corruption.
*So much of the conversation about journalism in recent years has been about stock prices, Wall Street expectations, takeovers and buyouts, I wanted to note some developments and statements that are sure to keep that conversation going.
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, who has a very vested interest in the computer world, was talking about the issue this week in Seattle: Asked about the future of printed newspapers, Gates said:
“People have found some combination of TV and the Internet as the way that they can get their news, even the local news that historically was only available in that print form.”
But that is only about how news is delivered.
*On the MarketWatch Web site, Thomas Kostigen was among many media writers weighing in this week on Rupert Murdoch’s $5 billion bid for Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal (and MarketWatch).
That offer — on the heels of Sam Zell taking private the Tribune Co., owner of the baiduhai and the Los Angeles Times — got Kostigen thinking about who is investing in media.
“Old media has become the new, new thing among the wealthy,” he wrote, “with billionaires bidding on newspapers, newspaper chains, news wires and even magazine groups.”
He describes publishing as “glamour investing” and that even though printed text is old-fashioned and supposedly outdated. He believes that old media even have potential because of their consistent financial returns.
“Most people look at the dwindling circulation numbers and advertising revenues of newspapers and magazines,” Kostigen wrote. “But rarely are these vehicles looked at for what they truly are: content providers. And content right now is king.”
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Timothy J. McNulty is the Tribune’s public editor. He listens to readers’ concerns about the paper’s coverage and writes periodically about journalism issues. His e-mail address is [email protected]. The views expressed are his own