Should journalists — including NPR journalists — ever be forced to choose between their profession and their country?
This dubious and hypothetical choice emerged in an interview published on October 12, 2001, in the Chicago Tribune between columnist Steve Johnson and NPRs foreign editor, Loren Jenkins.
The column purported to be about how news organizations are going to cover the war.
While managers from other news organizations made vague references to the confusion on the ground (“the fog of war” — Tom Yellin, ABC News), or to the unknowability of events (“Well find out in five or ten years what the real truth is” — Erik Sorenson, MSNBC), Jenkins was characteristically forthright in Johnsons column:
‘Smoke ‘Em Out’
“The best reporting is getting to a place and assessing it yourself,” says Loren Jenkins, senior foreign editor of National Public Radio. “Since Vietnam, the Pentagon has made this harder and harder for reporters to do, mostly because they blame the press for losing the war in Vietnam.”
Jenkins has 13 reporters in the area of Afghanistan and the Middle East, in the kind of all-hands-on-deck approach typical of news organizations response, and he says his marching order to the troops is to find where the Americans are.
“The game of reporting is to smoke ‘em out,” he says. Asked whether his team would report the presence of an American commando unit it found in, say, a northern Pakistan village, he doesnt exhibit any of the hesitation of his news-business colleagues, who stress they try to factor security issues into their coverage decisions.
“You report it,” Jenkins says. “I dont represent the government. I represent history, information, what happened.”
After that, an interesting phenomenon occurred: a modern day media version of “Telegram.”
Listeners of a certain age may recall the children’s game of that name; something is whispered in the ear of the child sitting next to you, who whispers it to his or her neighbor and so on and so on, until everyone has repeated what he or she thought they heard. By the time the last child hears the phrase, it ends up as something entirely different from what was first whispered…
‘Deformed Information’
The outcome in the children’s game is “deformed information.” As happened here.
After the Chicago Tribune, the story was picked up by the Wall Street Journal, then Fox News, then Rush Limbaugh, then the Boston Globe. A total of 30 newspapers and broadcasters repeated a version of the story.
I’ve received hundreds of e-mails from people who have read versions of the above, usually deformed in the retyping.
From Fred Klink in San Francisco:
Loren Jenkins is the Senior Foreign Editor for National Public Radio. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Jenkins stated that he has ORDERED his reporters to track down the U.S. Special Forces. He said, “The game of reporting is to smoke ‘em out.” When asked what he would do if the Green Berets were located, he said, “You report it. I don’t represent the government.”
Other listeners responded angrily to the implication:
From Tom Seeley:
You are a public institution and he an American. Where are your loyalties? To put the safety of our servicemen behind the blind rush to scoop the next media elite is beyond comprehension. I hope that this attitude doesn’t represent the values of your organization.
And one person telephoned to insist that he “saw” Jenkins on television making the statement.
NPR Responds
First, Jenkins says his remarks were taken out of context.
NPRs VP of News is Bruce Drake. He put out the following clarification:
“Let me assure you that Loren Jenkins neither believes nor intended to suggest that NPR would engage in reporting that would put in peril the lives of U.S. military personnel. NPR reporters, producers and editors always take into account whether our reporting might put lives in danger, or pose an unacceptable security risk. NPR would never knowingly compromise the security or safety of American military or national security operations by airing information that would endanger them. This standard is adhered to by the entire staff of NPR, and our reporting on the terrorism story and its aftermath is entirely consistent with this standard.
I hope you will judge us by what is on our air, and will share my view that the coverage we are providing our listeners is not only accurate and informative, but responsible.”
What NPR Would NOT Do
Drake is right. NPR would not and should not imperil the lives of American troops.
But three issues emerge:
- First, the Chicago Tribune columnist was either foolish or wickedly clever in asking what is a hypothetical question. Jenkins was sucker punched and led with his chin. As an experienced journalist, Jenkins should have sensed even coming close to that “issue” would end badly.
- Second, the eagerness of reporters and columnists to repeat second and third hand information without bothering to call NPR is truly astounding. Only one out of 30 newspapers called Drake to verify the quotes. For the record, the lone newspaper to follow a basic journalistic principle was The Union Leader in Manchester, N.H. This speaks badly about the standards and practices of some journalists and the newspapers that employ them. Columnists have more license to speculate, but this should not be at the expense of fairness or the facts.
- Third, and most importantly, there needs to be a place where issues of patriotism and journalism can be discussed calmly. We need to see if those values — normally compatible — can legitimately be reconciled in a wartime democracy. That discussion won’t happen for a while thanks to the Chicago Tribune, to Jenkins who spoke rashly and to those journalists who behaved more like typists than as reporters.
