The tougher type of journalistic integrity: Giving newsrooms enough money for public service

Tim Rutten wrote this week about a big-city media company, the one that employs him, but he said some things that ring true about journalism at any level, so we're sharing them with you. Rutten works for the Los Angeles Times, the parent firm of which was bought in 2000 by Tribune Co. -- which as of Thursday is now privately owned, by an entrepreneur named Sam Zell. His closing words to company employees were "We will compete fiercely but with integrity. We will work hard and have fun."

Rutten writes: "Journalistic integrity is a two-sided coin. One, more commonly acknowledged side simply enjoins reporters, editors and media executives to be honest and fair in the journalism they deliver to readers, viewers and listeners. As hard as that often is, it turns out to be the easy part. The other side of the integrity coin is the demanding one, because upholding it requires media executives and proprietors, which is what Zell has become, to keep faith with their readers and their communities.

"That can mean restraining a desire for ever-increasing -- or arbitrarily set -- profits in the interest of maintaining a sufficient level of journalistic service to readers, viewers and listeners and the communities in which they live. This is the test of integrity, which every publicly traded newspaper company and local television and radio company has failed miserably at over the last two decades. The era of corporate accumulation has been an unmitigated disaster for American journalism. Money has flowed like a fiscal Mississippi into the pockets of investors and fund managers, draining one newspaper and TV station after another of the resources necessary to serve their communities' common good. Nearly every American newspaper and local television station sucked into one of the chains -- from the largest to the smallest -- during that period is today a lesser journalistic entity of less real service to its audience than when it was acquired.

"That's what makes Sam Zell's daring purchase of Tribune not only a great financial opportunity but also a historic opportunity for American journalism -- a chance to demonstrate that private ownership can reestablish the link between good business and good journalism that initially was forged by familial proprietors. Zell already has indicated that one of the keys to devolving control of Tribune's newspapers to local managers is accountability. He plans, he says, to hold his publishers strictly accountable for their newspapers' performance. That's a great standard because it cuts two ways: Since he has assumed personal control of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, the people of those cities can -- and should -- hold Sam Zell strictly accountable for the integrity and quality of their newspapers." (Read more)