Journalism

WHAT HAS journalism come to? That appeared to be the question posed Jan. 17 by TV's best drama, "The Practice." In the episode, a journalist accused of being an accessory to murder was put on trial. His crime? He was the TV executive in charge of a news program that aired on assisted suicide. And, of course, the jury convicted.It was great television. I'd expect no less from one of my favorite shows. But the episode disturbed me -- not because journalism can't sustain criticism, but because it is so deserving of it. Clearly, the show mirrored the public's skepticism of American journalism, and coming off one of our worst years in recent history, we have only ourselves to blame.

The time has come for us, as a nation, to resolve this wrenching issue, so that we can move on. This issue has been with us for far too long, weighing on our minds, sitting heavy on our hearts, bloating the intestines of our national consciousness with the twin gases of partisanship and hate.I am referring, as you have no doubt gathered, to the bitter controversy concerning the location of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. This controversy got started when I wrote a column in which I stated that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is located in Paris, France.

AMES, Iowa -- To some, Michael Gartner's job, lifestyle and address change 5 1/2 years ago might have seemed dramatic, abrupt, even sad. Before: He sits at a big desk in a big NBC headquarters office in New York's Rockefeller Center, looking down on the famed ice rink, dining upstairs in the Rainbow Room; Tom Brokaw and Bryant Gumbel work for him; he's one of the most powerful, well-paid men in television.After: He sits at a desk -- no office -- in the middle of the cramped newsroom of a small central Iowa newspaper, helping 20-year-old reporters write city council stories as Union Pacific trains rumble and toot along tracks 100 yards from his desk.

Norman MailerBest known for his highly successful novel "The Naked and the Dead," he invented a style of journalism that captures all the color and complexity of a novel.Mailer has been better admired for his journalism than for his fiction writing.Both critics and readers regard him as belligerent and egotistical. Mailer was actually jailed and fined during Washington peace demonstrations in October 1967. He wrote about the demonstrations with "The Armies of the Night."Pub Date: 10/11/98

If we have learned nothing else in this summer of Monica Lewinsky headlines, CNN retractions and the rise of "citizen-reporters" on the Internet, it is that journalism is undergoing tremendous change.Cable television and computer technology have obliterated traditional news cycles and leave many wondering whether accuracy -- the first rule of journalism -- is about to be lost in cyberspace.In cities nationwide, daily newspapers continue to close, eliminating the competition that inspires vigorous coverage of the news.

CONCERN about journalism's credibility and hence future is growing. While the worries are legitimate, their current focus may not be hitting the mark.One source of anxiety has been the recent slew of lapses in ethics or judgment: A reporter's questionable acquisition of information, a columnist's over-inventiveness, a network's careless handling of a controversial story, a magazine writer's fictional accounts passed off as news.Quick actionAs damaging as these incidents may appear to be, they drew attention precisely because they are so unusual.

A SPATE of misdeeds in journalism has fed speculation that things are worse than ever, much-revered standards have gone out the window and a lot of journalism is pure fabrication.Time out, please. A lot is going on here. In my judgment, most news organizations are more careful than ever to assure the integrity of their work. But there is more reporting, there are more outlets and there are more pressures. And there are more breakdowns.The most recent failures may not have much of a pattern, except that they were exposed.

Editor's note: This week, 2,000 journalism professors and journalists from around the world gather in Baltimore to assess the state of the trade. We thought these guests and our readers might find it amusing to hear what the most famous of Sun reporters, H. L. Mencken, had to say about the state of the trade in his 1927 essay "Journalism in America." 'One of the agreeable spiritual phenomena of the great age in which we live is the soul-searching now going on among American journalists. Fifteen years ago, or even 10 years ago, there was scarcely a sign of it. The working newspaper men of the Republic, of whom I have had the honor to be one since the last century, were then almost as complacent as so many Federal judges, movie magnates, or major-generals in the army.

I HEARD ONE of those smart TV commentators suggest there's something profoundly wrong with a public that craves and buys the supermarket tabloids that buy celebrity photographs from sleazy paparazzi, such as those who chased Diana, Princess of Wales, to her death.I know that public. There's hardly a household in my extended family without a fresh edition of a gossip sheet in the living room or bathroom. I visit relatives and I always find tabs among the reading material. I always check them out. I read them in slow checkout lines.

HAVRE DE GRACE -- Journalism, it seems, is not in high repute these days. Even before the death of Princess Diana forced thousands of commentators to learn how to spell paparazzi in order to denounce press irresponsibility, the news media had been taking hits from all directions.The press is variously seen today -- as it has been seen for at least a century -- as pompous, trivial, ignorant, elitist, populist, inaccurate, sensationalist and dull, among other things. And while at times it may be all of those, it is also the most self-absorbed of institutions, endlessly fascinated by itself and what it modestly sees as its mission.

In Melanie Coates' journalism class at Catonsville High School, students work with two media outlets in mind: the traditional Comet newspaper and its new online edition. "I know that's the way things are going," Coates, the journalism adviser, said of her decision to start the site. "We need to try and figure out how to make this work for ourselves." Mirroring the industry, high school newspaper students and advisers are setting their sights on the Web, complementing the traditional print product or even switching to online news exclusively.

The newsroom of The Diamondback, the student paper at the University of Maryland, College Park, retains the feel of an old-school city room. Framed front pages line the walls and bound volumes of yellowing issues collect dust on tables. Daily meetings are oriented toward producing the next morning's newspaper. The staff members know it might be the last newspaper they ever work for. As the industry sheds jobs by the thousands and papers close or go digital-only, there is a rethinking of journalism education.

The Dagger, a local news Web site, doesn't do newspaper writing and reporting (or you could say newspapering) the way it is taught in journalism school. But it may be a glimpse into the way news will be covered in the future. The site, at daggerpress.com, is produced by four or five former journalists who worked for community newspapers in Harford County, plus a PTA activist ("advocate," she prefers) who covers education issues. They write for free, mostly for the thrill of having a voice and influence that some of them lost when they'd left reporting for other jobs.

Reese Cleghorn, former dean of the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism who earlier had been associate editor of the Detroit Free Press, died yesterday of complications of coronary disease at his home in Washington. He was 78. "I think Reese was probably the most outstanding dean of an American journalism school in the second half of the 20th century," Eugene L. Roberts, former managing editor of The New York Times who has been a member of the journalism faculty at Maryland for the past decade, said yesterday.

Alvin H. Levin, a retired Pikesville photographer and teacher who enjoyed collecting vintage trains and toys, died Sunday from complications of Parkinson's disease at a hospice in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 86. Mr. Levin was born in Baltimore and raised in Hollins Street, where his grandmother was a neighbor of newspaperman and author H.L. Mencken. After graduating from City College, Mr. Levin earned a bachelor's degree in 1943 from what was then Western Maryland College and a master's degree in education in 1951 from Arizona State University.

Timothy A. Franklin, who has led The Baltimore Sun through five award-winning and tumultuous years, announced yesterday that he would step down as editor to take a job in academia. He will be succeeded by J. Montgomery Cook, who for the past year has been director of content development for The Baltimore Sun Media Group. Cook will begin Jan. 1. Franklin, 48, will start a sports journalism center at Indiana University, his alma mater, and hold an endowed chair. As editor, he said he was proud of the investigative and watchdog journalism the newspaper has produced and its moves to bolster its online presence.

Lionel Van Deerlin, 93 Congressman, journalist Lionel Van Deerlin, a former California congressman who served nine terms during the 1960s and '70s before returning to his journalism roots by writing political columns for the San Diego Union-Tribune, died Saturday at his home, two days after slipping into a coma, the newspaper reported. He was elected to Congress in 1962 as a Democrat in a region dominated by Republican lawmakers. Mr. Van Deerlin championed congressional ethics and was among the first congressional leaders to voluntarily disclose his personal financial records.

THE NATIONAL MALL AND ITS MONuments. The cherry blossoms. The National Archives. The Georgetown waterfront. The museums at Smithsonian Institution. The monotony. Washington, D.C., is a great weekend getaway town, but after a few visits, many of its traditional attractions ultimately fall under the heading of "been there, done that." Fortunately, the city has a plethora of new attractions dedicated to such institutions as journalism, law enforcement and science. That's why as soon as the Washington weather turned warm, I opted for a weekend there with my 11-year-old daughter Nyaniso in tow, discovering the city's new offerings while adhering to a $500 budget.

John M. "Jack" Lemmon, a veteran newspaperman who was the managing editor of The Evening Sun from 1979 to 1991, died of a heart attack yesterday morning at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The longtime Towson resident was 80. Mr. Lemmon, whose newspaper career spanned four decades, was born and raised in Mount Pleasant, Ill., the son of a businessman who admired H.L. Mencken and introduced his young son to the famed Baltimore newspaperman's journalism. After stints as a journalism professor and editing jobs at The Washington Star and The Washington Post, Mr. Lemmon was hired to run The Evening Sun, where decades earlier Mr. Mencken had earned his fame as a reporter and columnist.

New technology is not automatically making for more democracy - nor is it pushing old media elites into the background, as many analysts have predicted. While longtime giants of American media, such as Time Warner and NBC, are successfully adapting to the digital landscape, citizen journalists and bloggers are emulating old media "gatekeeper" ways by restricting access to other new voices once they get established online. Those are among the findings of the State of the News Media 2008 report issued today by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a research organization based in Washington.