Washington Watchdogs: An Endangered Species?

;'-If it wasn't obvious before the economy decided to stop cooperating, it is now: newsgathering operations are in trouble. All three news networks have faced layoffs in the past year. CBS News didn't even have beat reporters for most of the presidential primaries. They either could not afford it or refused to make difficult decisions to fit it in the budget. As for newspapers... well, if you don't know that newspapers are in dire straits, you probably aren't reading this blog.

Because coverage of Congressional and Washington-based news can often be a difficult sell to readers -- who wants to read about the bureaucracy of dealing with bureaucracy? -- newsrooms in Washington are being cut and slashed with little regard for their civic functions. Can the traditional Washington watchdogs be saved? Should they be saved? Does this open the door for new, leaner operations to become the new watchdogs? Let's see where the night takes us...

6:15 p.m: Welcome one and all to American University! Tonight's American Forum features:

• Mark Whitaker, SVP and Washington Bureau Chief for NBC News. Whitaker is the former Editor of Newsweek. He was brought on at NBC to replace Tim Russert after Russert passed away last June.
• Melinda Wittstock, Founder, CEO, and Executive Director of Capitol News Connection (CNC), an organization that provides localized coverage of Capitol Hill goings-on.
• Bill Kovach, Founding Chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists (CCJ), a non-profit dedicated to journalistic principles and ethics. Kovach was formerly the Washington Bureau Chief for The New York Times.
  
• Suzanne Struglinski, Senior Editor of Provider Magazine, a health care issues periodical published by the American Health Care Association (AHCA).
• Tyler Marshall, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist. He has been at the Los Angeles Times since 1979 and currently serves as their Hong Kong Bureau Chief. For our purposes, he was a diplomatic correspondent in Washington from 1996 to 2000.

Our moderator tonight is Professor Wendell Cochran of American University's School of Communication. Professor Cochran has been with the school since 1992 and has practiced and taught journalism for over 40 years (including the last two as this blogger's Faculty-in-Residence). We should be getting started in about 15 minutes. Sit tight! Keep hitting F5!

---

6:33 p.m.: We seem to be running a bit late. Professor Cochran is over at the side of the room (looking snazzy in a proper suit) conversing with the people handling the audio.

---

6:48 p.m.: And here we are. Our panelists have arrived. Is there one missing?

---

6:49 p.m.: Danna Walker lets us know that we are live on C-SPAN starting at 7 p.m.

---

6:51 p.m.: I'm pretty sure Bill Kovach is the missing panelist. Looks like we're down to a foursome.

---

7:00 p.m.: MUSIC UP!

---

7:01 p.m.: Cochran introducing the forum, asks, "What's so special about Washington journalism?" I can think of 535 very special things...

---

7:02 p.m.: "The cop has left the beat." A heck of an important beat.

---

7:04 p.m.: Marshall and other colleagues recently published a report about tonight's topic. He says they found three major trends: Mainstream media, major news organizations were cutting staff; significant increase in "niche" media, comprised of magazines, newsletters, online publications like Roll Call, CQ, and Politico. I'd also throw FiveThirtyEight.com in there. Marshall also notes ClimateWire, a periodical about climate change issues that costs thousands of dollars to subscribe to, but has nonetheless found success; and an increase in foreign correspondents.

---

7:08 p.m.: Marshall continues: This is a reversal. Reporters used to cut their teeth at the niche pubs, then join the mainstream media. Now this "byline migration has reversed."

---

7:09 p.m.: If we accept that talented journalists are finite, this is a problem. I don't accept that.

---

7:10 p.m.: Whitaker reports that ratings at NBC are strong.

---

7:13 p.m.: NBC is still facing the same pressures as the newsmagazines and newspapers, who are in even worse shape. Like Marshall, he sees this decrease in traditional media sources causing a decrease in anonymous sources willing to come forward and blow the whistle on bad situations.

Confidential sources need: Trust in the reporter and trust that the news organization will legally defend their claims. Whitaker worries what we'll lose the ability to get those sources as experienced reporters leave the profession (or major news orgs).

---

7:15 p.m.: Struglinski used to be a Washington correspondent for a small-town paper. She shares Whitaker's concern about confidential sources. Specifically, she thinks that personal relationships with members of Congress might deteriorate as local papers leave Washington.

How does this or that affect Salt Lake or Orlando? This could be a real issue.

---

7:16 p.m.: Cochran notes that Wittstock's CNC can pick up some of that slack.

---

7:17 p.m.: Wittstock is using a lot of management buzzwords, but I hear some lessons. Her reporters have to do 10 different stories relating to 10 different locations on one given story.

7:18 p.m.: There is an extremely loud pipe right outside the room. The mics probably won't pick it up but my ears are extremely angry

---

7:19 p.m.: Wittstock: Sometimes I'm asked "Are you local press or are you national?" Answer: Does it matter?

Me: From a business standpoint, yeah, it definitely matters. I probably don't want to read about Des Moines if I live in New York.

---

7:20 p.m.: Marshall: Last year, there were 14 correspondents reporting for Indiana outlets from Washington. Today there are two.

---

7:21 p.m.: Further, Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) has no trouble getting national exposure, but DOES have trouble getting it back home in Indiana.

---

7:22 p.m.: Marshall: Hearing about how Congress voted by their press releases is not objective.

---

7:24 p.m.: Whitaker: Getting information from the Internet is like drinking from a fire hose. You need interpreters.

---

7:25 p.m.: Whitaker: Back when newspapers had lots of money, they had a lot of redundancy. That's going to go away. But major news organizations need to watch out and not eliminate essential things like investigative reporting.

---

7:26 p.m.: More Whitaker: Local is interpreting "local" to mean "in my backyard." What Congress does affects your backyard! Cochran follows up: Iraq is a local story too.

---

7:26 p.m.: That pipe is driving me crazy.

Struglinski: People deserve more from journalists than just dumping feeds of committee hearings on them.

---

7:27 p.m.: Obama spoke with a bunch of local reporters about the stimulus. More than one paper that had cut its Washington bureau flew reporters in. "It's about being in the room." Trust. Relationships. These are the words being thrown around. Journalists have to be on the ground.

---

7:28 p.m.: Wittstock gives an example of a congressman from the Cleveland area who changed his vote on a piece of legislation after telling CNC the opposite. They caught up with him and got him on mic saying that his district was under two feet of snow, so nobody would care. Apparently, the Cleveland Plain Dealer did care.

---

7:32 p.m.: Marshall: "The business model is collapsing around us." "At one point the mainstream media was very rich... [t]he collapse has been very swift."

---

7:35 p.m.: Is the decrease in Washington correspondents attributable to the Internet? Whitaker: Yes, but we can also blame ourselves for putting our material on the Internet for free. He also notes that the business model is deteriorating. Classified ads and newspaper ads are no longer the most efficient method of advertising.

Wittstock: We all have to be active on the Internet. "How can we monetize the Web?" Me: You figure that out and you'll be a very rich person.

---

7:36 p.m.: Wait, wait... Facebook still isn't turning a profit? Wittstock just said so. How can ANY ad-based service turn a profit on the Internet if even Facebook can't do it? And Facebook is also ridiculously good at targeting ads.

---

7:37 p.m.: Marshall: Blogs, web are still expanding.

---

7:37 p.m.: Question about working in journalism. Struglinski: The skills (asking questions, looking for information) are still the same. Just take a risk and be willing to work for a publication you've never heard of.

Whitaker: Even more skills, including Web and video skills are extremely important, but there is still no replacement for good writing.

---

7:41 p.m.: Cochran: There is a reputation that Washington is very elitist. Whitaker: We have done things to make the public "less impressed with us than they might have been." Cites an inability to ask Bush the tough questions in the run-up to the Iraq war. Refuses to call out any one organization.

---

7:42 p.m.: Whitaker: "At the end of the day, it costs money... If you want to be in Iraq, stay in Iraq, be safe in Iraq... you don't want to be on your own. You really want a news organization that's going to help keep you safe." Security in the Middle East is probably in the tens of millions for each of the three major networks. That's eight figures each, not collectively.

---

7:44 p.m.: Wittstock: "Taking it a level down" can mitigate the costs. She cites crowdsourcing as extremely important.

---

7:46 p.m.: One student is worried about a rise in video news releases (VNRs). Whitaker: I hope the public can tell the difference. Don't be so sure about that, Mr. Whitaker.

More Whitaker: We are a video-oriented culture. Television is both its own medium and a vehicle for getting print reporting to a larger audience. In other words, television is saving newspapers.

---

7:48 p.m.: Marshall: Foreign correspondents know their constituencies very well. They don't "have an axe to grind." However, they don't have much access. Marshall calls that a reversal of an American correspondent overseas.

Considering Obama's appeal in Europe -- remember his world tour last summer? -- he would probably do well to bring them in more. Except that they don't help him electorally, at home... where it matters when it comes time to be re-elected.

---

7:51 p.m.: Cochran on the business of making money in news, cites Italy as an example of a country that subsidizes the media, but also exercises control over it. A free press costs money.

---

7:53 p.m.: Struglinski makes fun of news orgs that don't know how to use blogs, just that they need them. She's right. Chuck Todd blogs daily at MSNBC with his essential links and tidbits. Charles Gibson, in my humble opinion, has a rather forgettable blog.

---

7:55 p.m.: Ah, the old "fast or correct?" question. Wittstock: "You can be fast and correct and still miss the story."

---

7:57 p.m.: Cochran wraps it up. Future of journalism.

Struglinski: "Being a journalist is the best thing you can ever do. It's a front seat to history."

Whitaker: "Right now it beats Wall Street." He's serious. He also mentions that there is more room for entrepreneurs in the media now than ever.

Wittstock: "If you want to avoid boredom, this is the best way to do it. Every day is different."

Marshall: "Probably the highest job satisfaction going."

Thanks for the encouragement.

---

7:58 p.m.: "Good night from American University."

---

8:06 p.m.: Quick thought (because I have another class in five minutes). News orgs that pull out of Washington are facing economic realities, but they are also passing the buck. True: You only need one reporter to break a story. You only need one reporter to shoot and edit video, write a story, and take still photos. That's fine. But, as was constantly alluded to, the more journalists you put on the ground, the better it's going to be for the press and for the people.

The technology should be aiding the craft, not replacing it.