January 25, 2023
'NYT' Editor Dean Baquet's Next Gig: Leading 'NYT' Local Investigative Journalism Fellowship
- by Tony Silber , April 27, 2022
The New York Times announced this week that Executive Editor Dean Baquet, who is stepping down in June, will lead a new local investigative journalism fellowship at the paper. The year-long project will produce investigative reports focused on the state and local level, where journalism has been devastated by more than a decade of economic turmoil and cutbacks.
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“The decline of local investigative reporting is a national tragedy,” Chairman and Publisher A.G. Sulzberger said in a report published by the Times on Tuesday. “It means fewer and fewer people across the country have access to essential information about their communities — too often there is no one to track school board meetings; comb through court dockets; or reveal the significance of everyday developments in towns, cities and states. No watchdog to keep local governments honest. No one to pursue a tip or unearth hidden information.
“As a result,” Sulzberger continued, “it’s almost certain that corruption, injustice and wrongdoing go unnoticed. It’s our hope that this fellowship can play a small role in addressing this dangerous and growing societal gap.”
The fellowship is aimed at up-and-coming journalists, especially those with backgrounds underrepresented in newsrooms and investigative reporting, giving them an opportunity to focus on major projects and learn investigative-reporting skills from a group of veteran editors whom Baquet will select.“We want this fellowship to help seed a diverse new generation of great investigative journalists at a time when fewer organizations are able to support this essential work,” Sulzberger said. “And we want it to help equip people across the country with the information they need to perform their civic responsibilities.”
The Times will offer co-publication at no cost to local print, digital, radio and TV outlets in an effort to amplify the work of participants and to support other local media, the report stated.
Baquet, in a move announced last week, will hand off the newsroom to his managing editor, Joe Kahn, after serving for eight years in the top spot.
An interesting article appeared in the 4/27 Media Post noting NY Times Editor Dean Baquet is stepping down in June to lead the NYT’s Local Investigative Journalism Fellowship. The article refers to a NYT press release on 4/26 from Publisher and Chairman AG Sulzberger. In part, Sulzberger notes:
"The decline of local investigative reporting is a national tragedy. It means that fewer and fewer people across the country have access to essential information about their communities — too often there is no one to track school board meetings; comb through court dockets; or reveal the significance of everyday developments in towns, cities and states. No watchdog to keep local governments honest. No one to pursue a tip or unearth hidden information.”
A well-known phrase of media theorist Marshall McLuhan is relevant to consider. As McLuhan followers know, MM claimed medium is the message. It seems his statement has application to news messages, or news content. In effect, the disappearance of local context of media content has given rise to a national context of news. As a result, one speculates that bias in media is not just a result of political ideology but also the result of a national focus versus a local one.
Put another way, focus of a national context of news influences its local content. Is the national news context the greatest invisible "elephant in the newsroom” today creating biases in news? Might it be a factor as large as the political ideology of the journalist? But then, is political ideology related to national or local concerns in the same sense that it's related to global or nationalistic concerns?
Good news and bad news. The good news is our leading national media institution, is training journalists for gathering and reporting local news. The bad news is that our leading national media institution is training journalists for gathering and reporting local news. Will we have a return to local investigative reporting? Or will the result be that our local news is sent through a filter that “nationalizes” it?
Read Sulzberger’s interesting press release at ...
https://www.nytco.com/press/dean-baquet-to-lead-local-investigative-reporting-fellowship/
Whether the NYT’s national focus can coexist with an upsurge in local media (thanks to their efforts to fund the local investigative journalism) is a question that we might know after awhile.
John Fraim
New Albany, OH
https://midnightoilstudios.org