Winter 1999 - Spring 2000

Commemorative Double Issue

What you [see] here is a collection which reflects the substance of the first 53 years of the conversation journalists have engaged in about their rights and responsibilities in the pages of Nieman Reports. At times you will find an article that opened a new argument or ended an old one. Throughout you will hear the voices of journalists committed to their work challenging colleagues to raise the standards of discovering, reporting, writing and editing the news in a context meaningful for navigation within a free society. – Bill Kovach

Journalism
Introduction
By Melissa Ludtke, Editor
1947: Freedom for What?
Only a Responsible Press Can Stay Free, Hutchins Commission Finds
Excerpt from the Hutchins Report
1947: Press Reaction to Hutchins Report
By Walter Lippmann, et. al.
1947: A Free and Responsible Press
A Review of Free Press Report
By Louis M. Lyons
1950: The Captive Press
How a Senator Can Monopolize the Loudspeaker
By Douglass Cater
1951: How Best Prepare for Newspaper Work?
Nieman Fellows answer the question.
By Edward A. Walsh
1954: Handouts to the Country Editor
By Evan Hill
1959: The Pursuit of Journalism
By Thomas Griffith
1959: Birthday Address To the National Press Club
By Walter Lippmann
1960: Newspapermen and Lawyers
By Anthony Lewis
1960: The Catholic Issue
By Archibald MacLeish
1961: Are We the Best Informed Nation?
By James W. Markham
1963: For That Hole in the Forms
By Edwin A. Lahey
1960: Asking Rude Questions
By Harry S. Ashmore
1964: Calvin Coolidge and the Press
By Louis M. Lyons
1966: Custodians of the City
By Harry S. Ashmore
1978: Uphill All the Way
By Alden Whitman
1979: Covering the Women’s Movement
By Peggy A. Simpson
1971: The Xerox and the Pentagon
By Herbert Kupferberg
1979: Yes Virginia, There Is an Agnes
By Jerome Aumente
1983: Press Performance: Enough Is Too Little
Encouraging words on a new and healthy phenomenon—the press is taking a hard look inward and examining itself.
By Eugene C. Patterson
1986: The Us-First Syndrome
By Sam Zagoria
1986: Standards and Principles
The market for mediocrity has diminished the incentive for excellence.
By Ted Koppel
1989: Has Money Corrupted Washington Journalism?
Money, money, money makes the world go ’round—but what does it do to journalists?
By James S. Doyle
1990: The Impact of Public Opinion Polls
Do they shape or measure opinions?
By Bill Kovach
1991: Investigators’ Checklist
Every campaign adds another important item— what will it be this time?
By Ann Marie Lipinski
1991: Operation Washington Shield
Administration’s manipulation of news embraced diplomacy and politics, as well as the battlefield.
By Murrey Marder
1992: Popular Music
Political and social realities can be discovered in serious criticism of the medium.
By Anthony DeCurtis
1994: The Old and Future Labor Beat
A veteran reporter complains that the press is ignoring blue collars and unions speaking for them.
By Murray Seeger
1996: Feasting on the Seed Corn
Media critic says that newspaper executives cutting into news coverage are risking the future for short-term gains.
By Alex S. Jones
1996: A Grueling Standard to Live By
By Carole Kneeland
1996: Needed: Long-Haul Commitment
By Melanie Sill
1998: This Is Watchdog Journalism (6 comments)
By Murrey Marder
1998: Making Sense Out of a Tragedy
By John Schwartz
1999: Using Education Data to Build a Story’s Foundation
By Carol Napolitano
Objectivity
Introduction
By Melissa Ludtke, Editor
1950: Backdoor Editorializing
What are the sound limits of ‘background’ reporting?
By John L. Hulteng
April 1952: The Cult of Incredibility
By David Manning White
1955: The Seven Deadly Virtues
By Wallace Carroll
1970: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thou Shouldst Be Living at This Hour
By Wallace Carroll
1968: The Newsman—Society’s Lonesome End
By Wes Gallagher
1971: A Case for the Professional
By Wes Gallagher
1970: The Quest for Objectivity
By Eric Sevareid
1971: White Newsmen and Black Critics
By Lawrence Schneider
1994: Expert Journalism
Portland (Maine) newspaper reframes the idea of objectivity to bring readers more forceful interpretive reporting.
By Lou Ureneck
1999: The Role of Reporters’ Judgment
Here are excerpts from the Watchdog Journalism Conference, May 15, 1999, at Harvard University.
Watchdog Conference
Sources
Introduction
By Melissa Ludtke, Editor
1958: Attribution of News
Memo to All Hands
By Alfred Friendly
1981: Weighing Sources—Anonymous and Otherwise
The Fiction of Janet Cooke and the Pulitzer Prize Surprise
By Clark R. Mollenhoff
1984: Confidential Sources: Testing the Readers’ Confidence
By Gene Foreman
1986: CIA Rarely Tells the Press What it Wants to Know
It only reluctantly tells Congress some of what it wants to know.
By Howard Simons
1999: Reporters’ Relationships With Sources
Watchdog Conference
1999: When Reporters are Shut Out By Sources
Watchdog Conference
First Amendment
The Bill of Rights
1980: The New Reality
By Anthony Lewis
1990: A Supreme Court Decision Fosters Litigation
A private citizen raises high the standard for justice—but pays a price.
By Eugene Roberts
1991: The Bill of Rights in Pictures (1 comment)
By Nieman Photographers
Race
Introduction
By Melissa Ludtke, Editor
1948: The Southern Revolt
By Hodding Carter
1948: The South and the South’s Problem
By Harry S. Ashmore
1956: A Negro Reporter at the Till Trial (5 comments)
By Simeon Booker
1962: The Reporter in the Deep South
By John Herbers
1962: Prince Edward’s ‘Massive Resistance’
By John Alfred Hamilton
1968: A Newspaper’s Role Between the Riots
By Philip E. Meyer
1978: Covering the Real Politics
By J. Anthony Lukas
1979: Nonwhite America: The ‘Unseen Environment’
The managerial ranks of newspapers are a purer white than Ivory Snow.
By Robert C. Maynard
1992: We Weren’t Listening
By not tapping into rap’s message of violence media failed to prepare public for rampage.
By Harold Jackson
1998: Roy DeCarava Retrospective
By Lester Sloan
Electronic Media
Introduction
By Melissa Ludtke, Editor
1949: The Newspaperman Meets Television
By Lowell M. Limpus
1951: How Can Newspapers Meet Competition of Radio and Television?
By John S. Hayes
1952: Al Capp Views the Networks
By Al Capp
1959: The Square Eye vs. the Written Word
By Malcolm Muggeridge
1966: LBJ Should Hold Formal Press Conferences
By Richard L. Strout
1981: A Conversation With Fred Friendly
1985: Media Power and the Dangers of Mass Information (1 comment)
The national media are no longer just observers and messengers, but are now lead actors in government.
By Michael J. O’Neill
1994: A New Agenda for Journalism
A Call for Action to Stake Out the Role of News in the Emerging Technological World
By Katherine Fulton
Photography
Introduction
1952: Does Press Freedom Include Photography?
Consider the record of smashed cameras and the arbitrary barring of news photographers.
By Joseph Costa
1974: Words on Pictures
By Steve Northup
1982: Fragile Moments
A sensitive photographer deals with the difficult assignments.
By Bill Welch
1998: Photo Essay
By Michele McDonald
1999: Using the Camera to Peer Inside
By Beatriz Terrazas
International News
Introduction
By Melissa Ludtke, Editor
1961: Congo: Reporter’s Nightmare
By Henry Tanner
1964: Why Diplomats Clam Up
By John Kenneth Galbraith
1972: Reflections on Vietnam, the Press And America (1 comment)
By Peter Arnett
1982: Endangered Species
By David Lamb
1983: China Reporting Revisited …
By James C. Thomson, Jr.
1983: … The Crucial 1940's (1 comment)
By Walter Sullivan
1983: Freedom of the Press
Is the Western press listening to its colleagues in Third World countries?
By M.G.G. Pillai
1988: In Memoriam: Percy Qoboza (2 comments)
Nieman Fellow 1976
By Dennis Pather
1992: China and the Foreign Press
Sources’ visceral fear gives way to ironic wariness, although security agents seem ever present.
By Sarah Lubman
1992: The Kept Mexican Press
Cash handouts to publishers, editors and reporters determine what newspapers print.
By Raymundo Riva Palacio
1993: Scouts Without Compasses
War in the Balkans is forcing correspondents to rewrite their guidelines.
By Sylvia Poggioli
1997: What Happens When the Cameras Leave?
By Ann K. Cooper
1997: One David, Two Goliaths
The Struggle for Independent Media in Burundi
By Bryan Rich
1998: Questioning If Guilt Without Punishment Will Lead to Reconciliation
The black press relives its own horrors and seeks justice.
By Mathatha Tsedu
1999: In Yugoslavia, the Consequences of Not Reporting the Truth
Journalists’ failure to report honestly empowers tyrants.
By Chris Hedges
1999: Reporting Stories in Russia That No One Will Publish
Those who own and control the media want to secure political influence, not uncover political corruption.
By Yevgenia Albats
Curator's Corner
The Roots of Our Responsibility
By Bill Kovach