At a time when we need reliable media, the media is becoming ever less reliable. Public trust in it is low. While broad-based accusations of “fake news” against the mainstream media may be largely spurious, embarrassing examples of false stories surface with some regularity. Recent examples include the Special Counsel’s repudiation of a widely circulated BuzzFeed report, the Covington high school boys fiasco, and the Jussie Smollett hoax. Such media misfires stem from excessive and uncritical reliance on anonymous sources, mindless echoing of social media feeds, rushing stories to publication in order to scoop the competition, and failure to seek verification of stories deemed “too good to check”.
Serious questions of tendentious or at least dubious editorial judgment frequently arise as well. One recent example is the Washington Post’s initial failure to publish Vanessa Tyson’s sexual assault allegation against Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax versus its decision to run full speed with Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation against Brett Kavanaugh. There is no apparent substantive justification for the Post’s starkly different treatment of the two accusations. Indeed, Tyson’s story seems, if anything, the more worthy of publication. Both accusers are serious people who leveled serious charges against prominent public figures. Tyson’s charge of actual rape by Fairfax was more severe than Blasey Ford’s allegation that Kavanaugh drunkenly groped her. Tyson’s account also was more plausible on its face since she offered full specifics while Blasey Ford could not provide many key details.
The Post explained its decision to decline Tyson’s story as follows:
“The Post, in phone calls to people who knew Fairfax from college, law school and through political circles, found no similar complaints of sexual misconduct against him. Without that, or the ability to corroborate the woman’s account—in part because she had not told anyone what happened—the Post did not run the story.”
This explanation doesn’t hold water. At the time the Post published Blasey Ford’s accusation, there were no similar complaints against Kavanaugh either. Likewise, there was no independent corroboration of her account—just a couple of somewhat vague statements she had made to third parties. Notably, the Post had the ability to seek independent corroboration of Blasey Ford’s account but made no serious effort to do so. She named “two other teenagers” who were present when she was assaulted, one who was a close friend of hers. However, the Post merely left messages for them on the day it published her story. When Senate investigators contacted the two individuals shortly after the story appeared, evidently without difficulty reaching them, neither corroborated her account.
On the surface, all that’s left to distinguish the two cases is that one of the accused is a white Republican while the other is an African-American Democrat. Thus, critics can easily portray this as an example of bias—political, racial, or both—on the part of a leftist, elitist publication.
Unfortunately, media outlets rarely embrace the kind of transparency, candor and accountability regarding their actions that they demand from those they criticize. In fact, they are regressing. Several major news outlets, including the Post and the New York Times, abolished their internal “ombudsmen”. This not only freed them from somewhat arms-length internal critics but left the field open for less knowledgeable sources with their own biased agendas to fill the gap in media criticism.
Clearly, there is a need for greater self-awareness and critical self-examination on the part of the media. A first step in this direction would be for the Post and others to restore the ombudsman position. While this is far from a solution, it would at least show some openness to serious criticism and accountability. Surely it would also do more to promote increased public trust in the media than sponsoring Super Bowl ads.