Should Only Reporters be 'Allowed' to Write Opinion?

Saturday, March 25. 2006

Should Only Reporters be 'Allowed' to Write Opinion?

In a column about the newspaper industry, Molly Ivins wrote something that got my attention:

Bloggers are not news-gatherers, but opinion-mongers. I have long argued that no one should be allowed to write opinion without spending years as a reporter -- nothing like interviewing all four eyewitnesses to an automobile accident and then trying to write an accurate account of what happened. Or, as author-journalist Curtis Wilkie puts it, "Unless you can cover a five-car pile-up on Route 128, you shouldn't be allowed to cover a presidential campaign."

Two points. One, in arguing that no one should be "allowed to write opinion" unless they've worked as a reporter, is Ms. Ivins implying that reporters are the only folks that can do the research often necessary to form opinion on complicated matters?

Does she really believe that? If so, it speaks volumes.

Two, in quoting author-journalist Curtis Wilkie, Ms. Ivins seems to be equating reporting on a presidential election campaign with opinion writing. That certainly seems an odd thing to do.

Unless I've misunderstood her, it seems that Ms. Ivins believes that only reporters should be allowed to write opinion, and that political reporting -- such as covering a presidential campaign -- is like opinion writing.

While I'm not surprised that this is what she may believe, I am surprised that she would write it down.

Posted by Tom Elia in Media at 13:37 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (16)

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Ms. Ivins wins her niche in the Helen Thomas Home for Deranged Hacks by advancing the notion that amalgamating the views of eyewitnesses has any necessary connection with obtaining an accurate account of what happened.

#1 Axel Kassel on 2006-03-25 21:23 (Reply)

Free speech for me, but not for thee.

Ivins is obviously not a big proponent of the 1st amendment.

#2 Purple Avenger on 2006-03-26 18:53 (Reply)

Is Jayson Blair allowed to write opinion? Just wondering.

#3 Seismic on 2006-03-26 21:56 (Reply)

Yes, but only about imaginary things and people.

#4 mojo on 2006-03-27 14:51 (Reply)

Hmm. How about this, if "journalists" are the only ones qualified to write opinion, then why don't they stop pretending to, "report facts", and let the blobs take over actually doing that? lol

#5 Kagehi on 2006-03-27 18:51 (Reply)

She is of course talking about writing opinion for newspapers. And she's quite right that real journalists make better opinion columnists than, say, some hackish young college dropout whose only experience is editing Angry Right books at Regnery. Coming to opinion journalism after a career in actual reporting, a writer actually knows how to cover what actually happened in a story, whereas if you pick a columnist from the welfare think-tanks of the Deranged Right, they will feel free to make up stuff.

Of course, given the conservative, pro-Bush bias of the MSM journalists -- the journalists who swallowed the WMD stories, reported Bush's claims about his tax cuts as though he was not blatantly lying, and make Iraq sound like less of a mess than it is ("good news from Iraq?" the MSM consistently understates how bad the news really is), promoting conservative establishment journalists to the opinion pages would not produce a more liberal opinion page. However, it would weed out the mendacious hacks of the Deranged Right, and that would be a plus.

#6 M.A. on 2006-03-27 19:23 (Reply)

So only reporters, but not say, lawyers, professors, economists, nor any other profession, should write opinion. Just reporters?

"The conservative, pro-Bush bias of the mainstream media?

Maybe it's time to give that bong a good cleaning....

#6.1 Tom on 2006-03-27 21:42 (Reply)

"The conservative, pro-Bush bias of the mainstream media?"

The same mainstream media that produced the inaccurate, pro-Bush reporting on WMDs, swallowed Bush's fabrications about the cost of his tax cuts? The mainstream media where Chris Matthews praises Bush's "sunny nobility" and where reporters like Bob Woodward are buddy-buddy with Bush administration officials?

There is no "liberal media" except possibly on the blogs. The MSM has been offering pro-Bush narratives for a long time now.

#7 M.A. on 2006-03-27 22:05 (Reply)

What incredible claptrap.

The "pro-Bush" reporting on WMD's? You mean the pro-French, pro-British, pro-Russian, pro-Chinese, pro-German, pro-Clinton, pro-UN reporting on the WMDs?

Do you really think Chris Matthews is pro-Bush? He's been against the war since the very beginning.

Bush's "fabrications" on his tax cuts? What fabrications are you talking about?

Bob Woodward is "buddy-buddy" with the Bush Administration? He's one of the most visible journailists in Washington -- his connections to every administartion since Carter have been as good as anyones'. This, therefore is evidence of his being "buddy-buddy with Bush's administration?

No liberal media except for the blogs?

Are you are professor, or are you less than 30-years-old?

#7.1 Tom on 2006-03-27 22:44 (Reply)

M.A.'s memory is obviously limited to January 21, 2001. The world began then for him. Nothing ever happened or even existed prior to that date in his universe. Certainly no one prior to this date ever had any doubts whatsoever about Saddam Hussein's clean hands when it came to WMD.

All that talk about UNSCOM, Desert Fox and UN Article Seven Resolutions that supposedly happened in the 1990s? All that stuff NEVER happened! With the help of Darth Rove, Bush totally mass hypnotized the nation into believing it!

All those stories and reports by the New York Times, CNN and Washington Post about Saddam, WMDs and terrorism in the 1990s? All made up by the Clin ... er ... Bush Administration!

Saddam never ever had any WMDs; the Bush Administration made it all up, starting all the way back when Saddam Hussein peacefully accepted the clamoring of the Iraqi people for his wise benevolent leadership and became the Lord Kumbaya of Iraq.

M.A. believes that it was the current Bush Administration that launched a chemical attack on Halabja in 1989 and then framed the saintly Saddam Hussein who only fed people into plastic shredders after George W. Bush Jedi-mindtricked him into doing so.

Don't you see?

#7.1.1 Martin A. Knight on 2006-03-29 05:23 (Reply)

I'd give my reply but I'm not allowed to.

#8 crack baby (Homepage) on 2006-03-28 09:07 (Reply)

The funny thing about her statement is the logical bind it puts her in. Essentially, if she earned her opinion doing things like compiling traffic reports, then she implicitly claims that the end report is just her opinion, although a hard-earned one. And strictly speaking, she is claiming that no one can write opinion unless they at least recognize that truth is hard to pin down, although actually pinning it down isn't necessary. Which is exactly what she didn't do with bloggers.

#9 Nathan Wazoo (Homepage) on 2006-03-28 22:49 (Reply)

"Should only reporters write opinion?" I wish they would write something other than their opinions, like maybe facts? Most intelligent people are capable of drawing their own conclusions (opinions) if they are given enough factual information. We don't need someone else to do this for us. Sure the bloggers give their opinions but typically they don't force them on you like the media attempts to do and besides the bloggers give you plenty of links to data sites from which their opinions are drawn, and best of all they (the bloggers) expose the opioniated lies and innuendo of the media reporters.

#10 docdave on 2006-03-31 16:59 (Reply)

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