Could Too Much Transparency Be Bad News?

Recent decisions by the network news organizations to develop blogs to help viewers understand their editorial decision processes have received mixed reaction from the news media itself, according to the Los Angeles Times. Media critic Jeff Jarvis, who operates the blog BuzzMachine, told the newspaper: "The irony of journalism is we expect everyone else to be transparent and we're not. That's not going to fly anymore." But some media watchers suspect that the blogs, in which reporters are already complaining about having their stories killed or about editors turning a blind eye to some controversial subjects, may turn out to be a platform for whistleblowers and the disgruntled. Bob Garfield, co-host of NPR's On the Media, remarked in the Times article: "I think this whole thing is going to be a short-term phenomenon. ... There will be too many incidents cropping up in which the bloggers will be at cross-purposes with their employers." And Bob Schieffer, the temporary anchor of the CBS Evening News, expressed concern that unveiling the give-and-take at editorial meetings could be misread by viewers. "We should be judged about what we put on television, not about what we were thinking about or what was going through our minds," he told the Times.
2005-12-20 17:34:21