9/13/05
Publisher, The Seattle Times
9/15/05
“Whoever would overthrow
the liberty of a nation must
begin by subduing the
freeness of speech”
Benjamin Franklin,
U.S. Statesman, 1722
American democracy is in crisis.
It is still a wonderful 200-plus year experiment.
But the question is: can we make it past 300 years?
It’s a critical question since no other democracy has survived beyond three centuries.
The clock is ticking and we are not paying attention.
It is true that our democracy has a constitutional foundation of checks and balances which is probably better than any other has had. This should enhance our chances for survival. But only the four legs of the if that foundation’s stool remain strong and balanced.
The Executive, the Legislative, the Judiciary and the independent press – our 4th Estate.
A press free from the control, manipulation and abuse of the powerful. A press independent of the government it is supposed to monitor, examine and hold accountable.
Today we are at risk; we are in crisis because the four-legged stool is beginning to topple from imbalance.
The free and independent press leg if fast crumbling.
The Judicial is under siege.
The Legislative leg has abrogated its independence to the Executive branch and, to the powerful and wealthy.
As editorial journalists you have accepted a noble calling. A calling with a very special role in a free society. It is your responsibility to lead the fight for our democracy.
Some of you fight this fight with a vigor and passion worthy of our muckraking forebearers.
But,
As a whole, WE – publishers, editorial page editors, edit writers and columnists are failing miserably in our collective responsibility …
to preserve our democracy …
to preserve an independent and diverse press …
and
to ensure all Americans are included in the American Dream.
Eight years ago I spoke to you in Madison, WI when it was my privilege to be honored jointly by NCEW and NABJ with the Ida B. Wells award – the first Caucasian to be so honored.
Ida B. Wells is a wonderful award which recognizes Crusading Independent Journalism with a passion for Inclusion, Tolerance and Social Justice.
In keeping with that moment, my comments to you back then focused on the themes of diversity and editorial timidity.
I said then that I believed there was a great malaise affecting our editorial voices – large and small – across the country. And nowhere was that malaise better illustrated than in our newspaper industry’s shameful record on race, diversity and inclusion. Shameful as employers – and – shameful for our editorial timidity on the topic.
After all, if we don’t hold ourselves and our owners accountable how can we be the conscience of our society?
Sadly, our nation’s progress on race and tolerance isn’t any better today then it was eight years ago.
Embarrassingly, the newspaper business has actually regressed in its minority employment.
And, now we have the Patriot Act, which erodes freedom for all of us, but especially those of us who look or seem “different.”
In general, newspaper editorial voices across the country today almost ignore our country’s backsliding on inclusion in our higher education system and in our economic dream.
Yet, inclusion is a basic principle and moral imperative of American society. And, it is also a practical necessity.
No democracy will survive if all its citizens aren’t part of the Dream.
People must have hope that they will have a fair shot at the spiritual and economic opportunity that comes with inclusion.
We, America’s editorial pages, should be the intellectual, moral and practical leaders to ensure the American Dream is inclusive.
Unfortunately, the “timidity” of our voices that I referred to in Madison is still a fact today.
We are safe, status quo, establishment and conflict-adverse.
We need look no further than race and inclusion to see how true this is.
If on this one issue, we collectively spoke to the responsibilities we accepted as opinion journalists, we would make many lives better and we would help save America.
In addition to inclusion, there is one overriding issue on which we need to shed our timidity and step up to our journalistic responsibilities.
That issue is the obscene concentration of economic power sweeping America today.
It is undermining the “sense of community” and the “thirst for civic involvement” which is the lifeblood of democracy.
Steadily through the last three decades, big business, Wall Street and sophisticated moneychangers have wiped out local business ownership and co-opted both our regulatory agencies and our legislative process.
Yes – as you probably expect me to say – the greatest immediate danger is the frightening level of newspaper and media ownership concentration.
But the threat of “economic concentration” is far bigger than one industry, even ours.
Look at the regulatory alphabet –
FCC, FAA, SEC, EPA, FDA and so on –
They have all become captive of the giant corporations and powerful entities they were supposed to regulate and control for the benefit of the American citizen.
We, in the press, are supposed to be watchdogs. Protecting our citizens’ rights and their safety. But our ownership model, and its concentration of control, has for the most part turned us from the citizen’s watchdog into the corporation’s lapdog.
Localism is critically important.
The loss of it, is a major issue in all lines of American business.
This is a topic we need to examine closely.
Localism leads to community engagement and investment. It connects people with each other and their communities.
Yet, it is disappearing and our communities and democracy are suffering because of this loss.
You name the industry – drug stores, jewelry stores, funeral homes, car dealers, brick manufacturers, realtors, banks, restaurants, wineries – local ownership has either died or is in the last stages. Certainly this is true with newspapers, radio and t.v.
Concentration of Economic Power combined with the Loss of Localism is a complex problem, which we rarely address. But at the end of the day, Public Policy is both the cause and the solution.
It’s new laws we pass and old laws we rescind. And it’s the regulatory processes and agencies we establish and fail to hold accountable on behalf of the public.
To wit – repeal of the Glass-Stiegal Act in the early ‘90s was a sop to large banks. It had a devastatingly negative impact on our local communities and never provided the so-called public benefit the large bank lobbyists and CEOs falsely promised.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was a sop to big media. It wiped out local radio and created the monstrosity called Clear Channel.
And now the FCC has become the handmaiden of big media – wiping out the last vestiges of local media and independent community journalism.
Just look at the numbers –
- Five corporations now own the majority of U.S. media.
In 1983 it was 50.
Think of the implications. In just 21 years the number was reduced by 45. More than an average of two per year.
- Newspaper circulation.
Something like 750% of American newspaper circulation is controlled by large absentee chains.
Only about 15% of American newspapers remain independent and connected to their local communities.
Absentee corporations and Wall Street ownership were not created for values-based stewardship and local community benefit. They exist for one fundamental reason – to maximize near-term profits and asset value for their often-faceless institutional owners and professional moneychangers.
I must pause here to acknowledge there are always exceptions to the rule. There are some newspaper chains and absentee owners who remain values-based and good stewards of journalism and of the communities they serve. Two examples are represented here. One private and one public. The Newhouses, stewards of our host Oregonian and McClatchy – a public company which wears both the name and the values of its founding family.
Too frequently though, absentee corporate ownership squeezes out all values other than financial.
Values like journalism and diversity require both an emotional and a financial commitment. Neither of which is tolerated by Wall Street.
Thomas Jefferson once said he “foresaw the days American democracy would have to fight the rapacious capitalists.” Jefferson was referring to the natural tendency of the powerful and wealthy to squeeze out these other fundamental American values.
This inevitable battle between democracy and its rapacious capitalists has become an unfair fight. In addition to losing their primary weapon, their independent watchdog journalism, citizens have lost two other important protections:
· Regulatory oversight
and
· Legislative access and influence
Let’s take the FCC and the Telecommunications Act as an example.
The Center for Public Integrity recently reported that, since 1997, the media industry spent $1.1 billion on lobbying and political contributions for Congress and the FCC.
An astonishing figure.
Imagine if that had been spent on independent journalism and commentary.
In a single recent year the Center uncovered that the Newspaper Association and the Broadcast Association spent $2.8 million on just FCC staff travel and gifts.
That this kind of access and influence money is spent by the powerful in their never-ending quest for more is a travesty.
But it’s shameful that the American public had to rely on The Center for Public Integrity to report this, and, that it remains an untold story in America’s mainstream media and newspapers.
Lonely as it is being one of America’s last independent publishers, I remain the eternal optimist.
Our democracy is simply too valuable for smart, principled people not to defend. Last year when the FCC attempted to rescind its important ownership rules and unleash the next, and perhaps final, great wave of media consolidation, the public spoke up by the millions. And they woke up Congress. With little mainstream coverage, the nascent anti-media concentration grassroots movement is growing and having a positive impact.
The media companies are working the FCC and Congress hard. This will be a difficult battle and the outcome remains uncertain.
You are part of the solution.
But I am a realist.
Newspaper ownership does matter.
Some ownership won’t tolerate populist or controversial opinions, especially if they are counter to the corporation’s business interests.
Indeed, when a beleaguered John Carroll resigns, we should all take notice.
There are both overt and covert limits on what we can say as journalists. We all know what the sacred cows are at our respective newspapers.
It’s a bad career move to cross the line.
Still, you are journalists. You chose this calling because of its higher purpose. You chose this because you want to make a positive difference. You chose this because you believe in the four-leg stool of American democracy.
The preamble of your own NCEW Basic Statement of Principles says:
“Editorial writing is more than another way of making money. It is a profession devoted to the public welfare and to public service. The chief duty of its practitioners is to provide the information and guidance toward sound judgments that are essential to the healthy functioning of a democracy.”
Each of you has a sphere of influence in which you can advance the cause of a healthy, functioning democracy.
Your challenge is to capture the opportunities you do have to be bold and courageous in the pursuit of:
- a society which is truly based on justice, fairness and inclusion for all citizens.
And
- to vigorously oppose further concentration of power and economic wealth in the already rich and powerful at the expense of the people.
If you accept this challenge, American democracy has a fighting chance.
Thank you.
Addendum
· Detroit and Newspaper swaps
· Death Tax
· Gene Roberts
· Project for Excellence in Journalism
· Free Press
· Consumers Union
· Access and Diversity
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