Lost Inside the NYT and Other Lessons in Pro-Democracy Journalism

May 08, 2024

Top Story: Lost Inside The New York Times and Other Lessons in Pro-Democracy Journalism

Twitter. Twitter. Twitter.

Often an angry cesspool.

On rare occasions, a good place to hear bad arguments debunked by good people.

This week, the not-so-smart conversation in question took place between the annoyingly overconfident Ben Smith, editor of Semafor, and the risk-averse-in-all-the-wrong-ways Joe Kahn, executive editor at The New York Times.

In an interview published in Semafor, Kahn insisted, at Smith’s good-ol-boy urging…that preserving democracy is simply not the job of the journalism community and that the topics journalists cover ought to closely follow what polls — no matter how flawed — indicate readers care about.

If democracy isn’t top of the list. Don’t cover so much democracy.

Not so fast…came the loud cries from the good people of Twitter, working overtime to make sure 2024 does not mark the end of freedom as we know it.

These people, like us here at Reporting Right, believe that just as a doctor would not ask a patient to decide if they needed a life-saving surgery, the journalism community should not rely on its readers to decide what to cover.

Extremist are putting our democracy at risk. And it is our job to share this wide and far.

While the interview ruffled a lot of pro-democracy feathers, it also provided some of our favorite people an opportunity to defend pro-democracy journalism.

Here’s what they had to say:

The Radical Right’s Threat to Democracy Is the Big Story

“As a Veteran Reporter, I've Always Valued Neutrality. But Trump's Threat To Democracy Should be the Biggest Political Story of 2024.”

John Harwood, CNBC’s former chief Washington correspondent

We Need to Inform the Public

“More than anything else, voters must be informed of the implications before choosing to potentially break their democracy, because that decision can’t be easily reversed.”

Brian Beutler, editor of Off Message

Calling Trump a Threat to Democracy Is not Pro-Biden; It’s Pro-Democracy

“Asking the press to get it right on Trump’s threat to democracy is not remotely the same as being in the tank for Biden. To equate the two makes everyone dumber.”

Jay Rosen, NYU journalism professor

Ignorance Is a Tool to Break Democracy

“Trump thrives on his supporters’ intentional ignorance and denial of his misconduct.”

Mark Jacob, founding editor at Stop the Presses

We Can’t Do Business As Usual Journalism

“At bottom, the dilemma is this: When one of the candidates is running on an express vow to wreck the political and legal systems…do typical conventions of political reporting—really get the job done in communicating what that means?”

Greg Sargent, reporter at The New Republic

We rest our case.

Tips on Doing the Kind of Pro-Democracy Journalism Your Readers Will Appreciate (But Joe Kahn Wouldn’t.)

Do not practice both-sidesism when one side is lying.

Wrong: This NYT piece — As Democracy Frays Around Them — suggests that the fears Republicans and Democrats have about our fragile Democracy are equally rooted in fact; when in fact, the GOP has lied and continues to lie to its constituents about the most basic stuff (like who won the last election.)

Right: Cover Republican fears. But understand they are based on lies. Report that. It’s actually a more interesting story.

Story Idea: Is there a candidate running for office on your beat who lies a lot? What are those lies. And do their friends and family also believe them? Does anyone in their life challenge them? What's that like?

Do not write light-hearted features about people on your beat fearing they will go to jail if Republicans win.

Right: Do listen and report the words Donal Trump and other right-wing extremists are saying about what they will do to people once in power.

Story Idea: Are Republicans currently passing laws that send people to jail for things that aren’t even considered crimes? Report that.

Do read history.

Do read about how journalists and other power brokers underestimated Hitler’s intentions.

Do report on the very real ways people’s lives will be harmed if more radicals in your state take office.

Story Ideas: Does an extremist candidate cry freedom at every turn while voting to restrict the freedoms of voters, women, parents, families, immigrants, and the poor? Report that!

Also In The News

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Hitlerland

by Andrew Nagorski

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Executive Editor Kyle Spencer

Managing Editor Christen Gall

Our Board of Advisors

Alex Aronson, executive director of Court Accountability

David Armiak, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy

Connor Gibson, founder of Grassrootbeer Investigations

Maurice Cunningham, retired associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and author of Dark Money and The Politics of School Privatization.

Isaac Kamola, associate professor of political science at Trinity College, founder of Faculty First Responders and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War

Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe distinguished professor of history and public policy at Duke University and author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America

Ralph Wilson, founder of the Corporate Genome Project and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War

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