I wrote an email to Washington Post reporter Sara Goo about her
front-pager about the Transportation Security Administration's new VIPER plan to put roving security teams onto trains and buses and other mass transit. (The plan has already been
rolled back.)
My complaint was a general one: we claim a distinction between news and opinion, but all news articles these days about the Federal government are really point/counterpoint opinion pieces masquerading as news. "We think this is a very good approach" says a TSA spokesman; "This is absurd" says a guy who used to work for Northwest.
My complaint is the stenography over journalism one. My complaint is that she was emphasizing opinion about the policy, whether it's good or bad, over the facts of what the policy is.
She was confused by my comments. I think she took me for a freeper.
Garrett,
Thanks for your email. My job as a reporter is to write a fair and balanced story that offers as many points of view as possible on an issue that is the subject of news. I am not offering my own opinion nor making a judgment in the story about whose point of view is superior. To only present one side of the story---such as the official government side of the story as you seem to suggest--would not be fair nor balanced.
I am confused by your comments. You seem to be suggesting that if TSA has a policy change to announce, they should do so in the op-ed section? I completely disagree. This is news. It's not opinion.
Sara
She's confused, I'm confused. I thought fair and balanced was Fox.
Fox News has used the mark "Fair & Balanced", sometimes depicted as "Fair and Balanced" (the "Trademark") to distinguish and brand FNC's distinctive method of newsgathering and reporting.
Fox vs. Penguin, complaint.
If Fox News and the Washington Post share this distinctive method of reporting; if Fox News and the Washington Post share this registered mark to identify and describe themselves, are Fox News and the Washington Post the same thing?
