My colleague at New York University, Jay Rosen, has an uncommon gift for reducing things to their essence, to a simple phrase. The most well-known, I’d guess, is his naming of “the people formerly known as the audience.” (His PressThink blog on this is 10 years old this month.) I’m also fond of “the production of innocence,” Jay’s formulation of how the political press attempts to be objective. Lately, though, I’ve been mulling a single word Jay uses to describe political reporters: “savvy.” He wrote on his blog: “In politics, our journalists believe, it is better to be savvy than it is to be honest or correct on the facts… Savvy is what they themselves dearly wish to be.”
Back when I practiced daily journalism, this characterization used to rankle me. Today, no longer reading political journalism through the lens of a daily practitioner, I’m rankled for a different reason. I’m increasingly unhappy with political reporting that seems aimed at the insider crowd.
(Disclosure: When I refer to political reporters, I know I’m speaking about me and how I spent some of my career, reporting and editing at The Des Moines Register and McClatchy’s Washington bureau. So there’s that.)
As Jay has written, there are many different manifestations of the “savvy” phenomenon. One that has long bugged me is framing policy proposals primarily – or only – through a political lens. Such as: “In a move to shore up blue-collar electoral support, President Such-And-Such today proposed….” As if that were the most important way for a reader to understand an idea that could end up affecting his or her life. I actually think this particular practice has subsided a bit, though it’s impossible to know.
But another example that has gnawed at me this campaign season is political reporters’ love affair with predictions, and I’m pretty sure this isn’t subsiding. I fear some reporters are moving toward the standard set by sportswriters, for whom predictions are a routine and casual part of their arsenal. Continue reading Journalism and the predictions game