Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy

Question: What is print media’s responsibility for accuracy? Some electronic media seem lax, but print media is a trusted source for news and considered opinions.

Last week the Wall Street Journal published a misstatement filled letter from President Donald Trump. In defense of its publication the WSJ stated, “We trust our readers to make up their own minds about his statement,” it continued. “And we think it’s news when an ex-president who may run in 2024 wrote what he did, even if (or perhaps especially if) his claims are bananas.” Really? Or was that an excuse for not editing out falsehoods or making contemporaneous disclaimers. Several current and former WSJ reporters and editors noted this was an exception to the prevailing WSJ standard.

Serious readers trust print media to report news accurately and to winnow out fantasy from sound opinions. Call me old fashioned, but I believe Joseph Pulitzer’s admonition, “What a newspaper needs in its news, in its headlines, and on its editorial page is terseness, humor, descriptive power, satire, originality, good literary style, clever condensation, and accuracy, accuracy, accuracy!” Easy to say, then, may be harder to achieve today, but it seems a high water mark worth serious consideration. Subscribers deserve it.

Maybe Trump’s prominence and persona caused this apparent editorial relaxation, but it is an important issue, especially with so much misinformation in the flow. Print media is the bedrock of news and considered opinion. If we lose that we are in more trouble than we imagine.

–– Gordon Hill

Maryville