Fall 2004 (Convention Special)

 

 

CONVENTION ROUNDUP

-- THURSDAY NIGHT --
Paul Krugman, Princeton economist and New York Times op-ed columnist, spoke to the AOPE and the public at the National Constitutional Center. He talked about his "Great Unraveling" thesis, which holds that the Bush administration is attempting a radical makeover of both foreign policy and domestic policy to the benefit of corporations and the detriment of the poor and middle class. "If you're not frightened, if you're not alarmed ... you're not paying attention."

-- FRIDAY --
Opening session: "How We Did On the Elections."
Foreign affairs panel: Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Trudy Rubin said the media must hunt for the Bush administration's real motivation in its Iraq policy, suggesting the idealistic light the policy is sometimes cast in is misleading and a handy "cloak." Harvey Sicherman of the Foreign Policy Research Institute had a slightly more positive take on the administration, saying its foreign policy was similar to past administrations in that it was a blend of idealistic and "realpolitik" impulses. Middle East Forum honcho Daniel Pipes was sharply critical of America's Iraq policy, saying Iraq wasn't worth any U.S. lives or money and questioning whether the war would help the United States deter terrorism.
Ombudsman panel: NewYork Times ombudsman Daniel Okrent says he agrees with critics who believe his newspaper and newspapers in general have little ideological diversity, and that it would benefit newsrooms to have more people who are conservative or religious. Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler said he didn't think that applied to his paper in the slightest. Lillian Swanson, former Philadelphia Inquirer reader’s editor, spoke of the frustrations she sometimes encountered in trying to get top editors to acknowledge her critiques.
Lunch speaker: Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, offered a downbeat assessment of where Bush's activist foreign policy would take America. "Defying America is the great act of nationalism in the world today," he said. As someone born in India, he said, he was "used to generic Third World anti-Americanism," and that's not what he sees anymore. Instead, it's much more intense, and, he fears, deep-rooted.
Get younger/more diverse panel: Dawn Fallik, a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer, spoke of her newspaper’s brainstorming sessions involving young staffers who felt their lives were barely reflected in the Inquirer’s pages. Bruce Schimmel of Philadelphia's Citypaper ridiculed specific attempts to target an audience by saying his approach -- targeting smart, sophisticiated, worldy and intellectually curious readers -- had yielded a highly diverse readership in the process. Tim Whitaker of Philadelphia Weekly said having a young staff had made it easy for him to figure out what stories captured a young audience. Phyllis Kaniss of the Annenberg School discussed how using high-school age writers helped “connect kids with their newspaper.”
The suburban strategy: Members of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s op-ed staff talked about how they solicited op-eds for the zoned editions. Janet McMillan spoke of the satisfaction of giving room to people “we never hear of – the old, minorities, young people.” She also spoke of the value of personal essays, in which contributors “tell us a story that illuminates an issue.”
Numeracy in newspapers: Temple University math professor John Allen Paulos talked of the statistical incomprehension he found in the media, the inability to make the distinction between coincidence and causation, and how “the tyranny of the anecdote” often trumped sober evaluation of data. Michael Delli Carpini, an analyst of polls for the Annenberg School, said the media often misunderstood and misused polling data, but said that sometimes polls were used correctly in ways that reflected their power to interpret the political and cultural landscape.

-- SATURDAY -- (Photos)
Op-ed pages and how they portray war: Chris Hedges, the New YorkTimes reporter and author of “War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning,” said the media had gone far too easy on the Bush administration when it came to Iraq. He said Bush, and Bill Clinton as well, were far too quick to use indiscriminate military might to achieve their goals, and that the carnage of innocents he had witnessed had rarely, if ever, been adequately impressed upon the public at large.
Where to find free stuff: Chris Reed, op-ed columns editor at the Orange County Register, talked about his arrangements with certain Web sites to reprint their columns in return for nothing more than a plug for the Web site. He also talked about how many think tanks were eager to write op-eds du jour; they just need to be asked. John Timpane, Philadelphia Inquirer opinion-page editor, talked about the use of excerpts from other sources. “Fair use” allows use of 200- to 250-word chunks without compensation was the conclusion of Inquirer lawyers, he said.