A who's who of leading Washington correspondents and editors are convening in Washington, D.C., today for the inaugural Poynter Journalism Ethics Summit.
The summit is timed almost a year to the day when Donald Trump was elected president and began his assault as "Fake News" on the media. The summit is intended to focus on strengthening political reporting and increasing trust in the media is this polarized era.
The gathering is being held in conjunction with the release of a study commissioned to gauge the public's level of trust in the media.
Participants will engage with speakers on an array of issues:
- Findings of the Poynter Media Trust Survey
- Fairness or false equivalence: Is it impartiality or "both sides" journalism?
- Accuracy in an era of disputed facts
- Breaking through partisan echo chambers
- Avoiding the "enemies of the people" trap: Covering the president without politicizing the press
- The anatomy of Washington scandals — and how to cover them
- How to build audience trust through transparency in reporting
Poynter has engaged Scott Nover, with The Atlantic, to cover the summit and to tweet out what he's hearing. Here's his live coverage of his own tweets and the retweets of others at the conference. You can find a list of the participants here.
.@Acosta says a different kind of president requires a different kind of playbook for journalists, tougher questions #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Emily Goodell (@GoodellEmily) December 4, 2017
“We’re not part of the 'Resistance,' that’s not our job. But if journalism is under attack, we should resist.” – @Acosta says at #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
WHCA president @margarettalev says it feels like reporters in White House briefing room have become for the public a "proxy for all their frustrations” #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) December 4, 2017
"We all believe there is a value in the system that exists… so you do things like go to the briefing or attend a holiday party… there’s a value in the exercise. It doesn’t mean you don’t do other things like investigative reporting." – @margarettalev at #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
Acosta says he thought if CNN had gone to WH Christmas party: "Gosh, what would happen if I were the CNN international reporter in some war zone, covering the Rohingya, and there are pictures of Jim Acosta laughing…with the guy who just called us fake news" #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) December 4, 2017
“Where does this lead, where does talking this way and demonizing the media lead? That is a scary thought. I don’t think we’re off-base by thinking about that.” – @EliStokols at #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
.@acosta: People shouldn’t be coming up to me or getting into Twitter saying they want to kill me. A virus injected into our political bloodstream is potentially lethal – sometimes I get frustrated…I do see a pretty severe crisis in this country. #PoynterEthicsSummit https://t.co/BUbtVBvzp0
— Indira Lakshmanan (@Indira_L) December 4, 2017
.@acosta: People shouldn’t be coming up to me or getting into Twitter saying they want to kill me. A virus injected into our political bloodstream is potentially lethal – sometimes I get frustrated…I do see a pretty severe crisis in this country. #PoynterEthicsSummit https://t.co/BUbtVBvzp0
— Indira Lakshmanan (@Indira_L) December 4, 2017
“The both-sides construct comes under attack for good reason. I don’t think that it’s useful to do something straight down the line like that. You have to use your own expertise on a beat.” – @Reddy at #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
"There’s more safety in the center, but there may be less truth," @jayrosen_nyu says, talking about covering politics in an age of "asymmetrical polarization." #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
It's the job of the media to prevent lying from becoming a universal principle in politics – @jayrosen_nyu #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Ellen Clegg (@ellenclegg) December 4, 2017
“We made a conscious decision on my program not to talk to someone who was extremely accessible but had nothing to say.” — @NPRMichel
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
.@perrybaconjr: Majority of country is white and I want to hear what they think on race. We need to cover diversity of country better-from Black Lives Matter to Trump supporters. Factchecking POTUS isn't our main job & 20min talking about "covfefe" is a waste #PoynterEthicsSummit https://t.co/VRWzDtiyex
— Indira Lakshmanan (@Indira_L) December 4, 2017
How to restore trust in media, by @jayrosen_nyu: 1. Don't oppose Trump, oppose a political style where facts and truth are expendable. 2. Focus on people’s troubles, not issues created to get them angry. 3. Generate trust through transparency, not authority #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Rebecca Baker (@RBakerNY) December 4, 2017
Now, @brianstelter talks to @stephenfhayes, @peterbakernyt and @AngieHolan about asserting accuracy in reporting. #poynterethicssummit pic.twitter.com/UkP5WG6FkQ
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
"We have two fact-checkers in the Washington bureau… one on Trump and one who fact-checks us… We cannot afford to get anything wrong," says @peterbakernyt at #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
@peterbakernyt sez if you get something wrong it "will be weaponized" https://t.co/FedWp3h8tk
— amy eisman (@aeisman) December 4, 2017
"I'm sorry, there is no way you cannot believe the women when you know how the story was reported," says @stephenfhayes about the @washingtonpost's Moore reporting. #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
“For the most part, we don’t use blind quotes anymore… For the most part, our editors have decided to take out quote marks if the source is not named," @peterbakernyt
"Isn't that just pointing a backward hose at a raging forrest fire?" – @brianstelter#PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
“Even small mistakes are used to undercut the entire credibility of the press," says @peterbakernyt who admits he had a correction this morning. #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
"I'm worried about the people who can’t tell the difference between a news piece and an opinion piece," says @AngieHolan.
"Sometimes I barely can!" @brianstelter#PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
Here’s @Indira_L in conversation with @PostBaron #PoynterEthicsSummit pic.twitter.com/HjlPSGopKL
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
"There is a lot of junk out there or people who are motivated by malicious intent." – @PostBaron #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
“I would never write off anybody… but, there’s still about 25 percent of the American public that believes Obama was not born in the U.S. and is a Muslim. Certain people are going to believe what they want to believe.” – @PostBaron #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
“We don’t have rules about how [journalists] register as voters. I think a lot of people register as ‘Unaffiliated’ as I do.” – @PostBaron #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
.@PostBaron: We should have seen Trump — or someone like him — coming, “before he descended the escalator.” We won’t make that mistake again; reporters are covering every corner of the U.S. #poynterethicssummit
— Doris N. Truong (@DorisTruong) December 4, 2017
“It’s not like we had a love-fest with the Obama administration. We tried for 2 years to get an interview. We do better with the current president in terms of access than the last one." – @PostBaron #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
.@PostBaron says Trump is not shy about giving press access: "He likes to talk to the press as much as he demonizes us." #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Cristiano Lima (@viaCristiano) December 4, 2017
"The Washington Bureau of the @nytimes is now over 100 people. It was around 70 a year ago" @BumillerNYT #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
“We are moving from a ‘Trust Me’ era of journalism to a ‘Show Me’ period. And that means the ‘show me’ has to be imbedded in the story itself, b/c the story could be next to pix of somebody’s grandkids on Facebook.” @TomRosenstiel #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Kathleen Pavelko (@KPav) December 4, 2017
At #PoynterEthicsSummit, @TomRosenstiel says he's noticed three main trends in press-audience relationship:
1. Trust Me –> Show Me Journalism
2. Atomization of stories
3. Subsidizing journalism subsidies through ad revenue –> subscription and membership models— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
Sometimes you might get scooped by the Times or the Journal or the Palm Beach Post, but I'm glad that more people are interested in the things I'm researching. – @Fahrenthold #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
“The press should realize that the story isn’t about us… When Jared Kushner goes to CNN and says cut 25 percent of stats, that’s a big deal. When CNN announces that they’re not going to the White House Christmas Party, that’s chicken shit.” — @AlHuntDC #PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
.@JonahNRO: What's great about Project Veritas video is it “caught” a WaPo reporter saying they’re not going to get ahead of the facts, they’re going to be follow investigation where it goes. What makes this different is Trump is not normal, not normal times #PoynterEthicsSummit https://t.co/yVSPjccCWV
— Indira Lakshmanan (@Indira_L) December 4, 2017
Journalists are always fighting the last war. Scandals are all called -gate; wars are Vietnams. This is not like those, this is not normal. @JonahNRO: “Figuring out what’s next is like anticipating the running path of an escaped monkey from a cocaine study.”#PoynterEthicsSummit
— Kathleen Pavelko (@KPav) December 4, 2017
“The damage that Brian Ross did by getting that story wrong I think is significant… Getting it wrong, even for understandable reasons, is really, really damaging." – @JonahNRO #Poynter
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
"Trump tweets entirely too much. So do reporters" — @AlHuntDC. Yes, I tweeted this.#PoynterEthicsSummit
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
