Irish Times: Should it appoint a Public Editor/Ombudsman?

national | arts and media | opinion/analysis Wednesday August 11, 2004 23:53 by Michael Hennigan - Finfacts finfacts at finfacts dot ie 087 2474328

The appointment of an independent Public Editor by the Irish Times, would be consistent with its mission statement and its aspiration to remain a 'natural authority.'

The Irish Times charitable trust which owns the Irish Times was set up in 1974 when the five existing shareholders were bought out. One of them Thomas McDowell remained in management control of the operation for the succeeding 18 years and the corporate structure remained a traditional hierarchical one. The Editor states on the newspaper's website: 'The Irish Times is the national forum for the thinkers and doers in Irish society. We offer a platform for critical, constructive and divergent comment in the different spheres of business, politics and public affairs generally. We have moved in recent years from being the newspaper of record to the newspaper of reference. Most important of all, The Irish Times occupies a special position as a pacemaker for change in the society which it serves. We aim to lead and shape public opinion to a greater degree than of our competitors because we have both the natural authority and the means, through our interested and receptive readership, to do so. We are prepared to champion specific causes, as we have always done, while recognising that these causes have changed over the last decade.'

Fifty years after Irish American demagogue Senator Joseph McCarthy was exposed on US national TV as a fraud and bully and 30 years after President Richard Nixon's resignation following nationally televised hearings, the several investigation tribunals, which are currently operating in Ireland, appear to have had little impact on the national consciousness. The success of the political establishment in keeping the cameras out because tribunals are subject to similar rules as the Courts was a massive and effective stroke. Baby steps have been taken to provide greater transparency in public affairs but the Freedom of Information Act provisions have already been restricted and little has really changed apart from the impressive efficiency of the Revenue service. The media had generally wilted during the long years of corruption because of fears of legal action and the protection/toleration that a significant number of the public gave to obvious wrongdoers. Even today, it is RTE, the publicly funded broadcaster, which is to the forefront of bringing significant issues to the attention of the public. Budgets for investigations appear to be pretty small in the print media and exposure of wrongdoing in the business sector, when it rarely happens, depends on inside whistleblowers.

The Irish Times is in a special position both because of its mission statement and tax-exempt status. It should be to the forefront in both being an example of the transparency it seeks in the public sector and in subjecting its mission statement to independent judgement. It should also be prepared to have an innovative system for the involvement of its entire staff. Today the public reads information on media companies when competitors engage in one upmanship bitching. There is surely a better way. Besides, there is often a wide gulf between a company's aspirations as stated in its mission statement and reality. It's time the newspaper considered appointing an independent Public Editor/ombudsman.

Last year following the fallout of the scandal at the New York Times in which a reporter Jayson Blair falsified stories, Daniel Okrent a former Time magazine editor and author (who had never met the NYT's Executive Editor, prior to getting involved with the newspaper) was appointed the Public Editor. He is responsible for addressing readers' concerns and investigating the newspaper's ethical decisions. Every 2 weeks, the newspaper publishes his responses to readers' issues and he doesn't pull any punches- for example; 'if you're examining the paper's coverage of these subjects from a perspective that is neither urban nor Northeastern nor culturally seen-it-all; if you are among the groups The Times treats as strange objects to be examined on a laboratory slide (devout Catholics, gun owners, Orthodox Jews, Texans); if your value system wouldn't wear well on a composite New York Times journalist, then a walk through this paper can make you feel you're traveling in a strange and forbidding world.' Okrent said in relation to a decision to kill off sports columns that disagreed with the paper's editorial-page stance on the Augusta National Golf Course's refusal to allow women into its membership ranks: "The spiked columns were inexcusable."

The appointment of an independent Public Editor by the Irish Times, would be consistent with its mission statement and its aspiration to remain a 'natural authority.' Every company tries to conceal dirty linen that has nothing to do with commercial competitive considerations. A newspaper organisation should aim to be different. In addition, given the charitable status of the Irish Times, the organisation structure should have more in common with a cooperative than a conventional corporate structure. All employees should be members with genuine mechanisms for two-way communication and a real role in decision making.