WELCOME to the debut of “The Truth Is!”, a blog of reporting and commentary that aims to be informative, thoughtful and provocative. At least initially, the blog will have a strong heartland flavor by virtue of the connection of a number of us to Cowles family journalism. I am former editor of the Des Moines Register’s opinion pages. Another contributor, Michael Gartner, is former editor of the paper; he later served as president of NBC News. Another former Register editor who has agreed to contribute, Geneva Overholser, is director of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg school of journalism. Followers of the blog will have access also to the work of Herbert Strentz of Des Moines, a close Register and other newspaper watcher who once headed Drake University’s journalism school. Bill Leonard, a longtime Register editorial writer, will add insights.

“The Truth Is!” will be supervised by my daughter, Marcia Wolff, a communications lawyer for 20 years with Arnold and Porter (Washington, D.C.). Invaluable technical assistance in assembling and maintaining the blog is provided by my grandsons Julian Cranberg, a college first-year, and Daniel Wolff, a high school senior.

If you detect a whiff of nepotism in this operation, so be it. All of it is strictly a labor of love. —Gil Cranberg

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Gilbert Cranberg: FALSE EQUIVALENCE IN THE NEWS

Time magazine, or more accurately, one of its columnists, James Poniewozick, made an important journalism point in the publication’s Oct. 21 issue. Poniewozick observed that the habit of news organizations to seek to appear neutral sometimes leads them to twist the news. “This month’s fiscal crisis,” he wrote, “is one such situation. One party (in fact one wing of the Republican Party), seeking the delay or elimination of Obamacare, precipitated a government shutdown and threatened a default on U.S. debt. Period. There was no corresponding threat or demand on the Democratic or White House side."

“What do you do,” he asked, “when the facts of a situation are such that to describe them accurately will make you sound biased?” You do exactly what Poniewozick did, to his credit, and call it the way you see it.  

According to Poniewozick, “Much of the big-picture news coverage has been clear on this. But as the crisis dragged on, more news stories framed it as old-fashioned gridlock between two equally culpable, stubborn, useless sides.” Time cited stories in the Washington Post, CNN and Politico it said were in the latter category. Or as Time wrote in the head on Poniewozick’s piece, there are times “when blaming both sides isn’t accurate news.”

Time performed an important journalistic service in running Poniewozick’s column, giving it good play and putting a hard-hitting head on it.

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