“The ombudsman is one of those rare individuals who can ride both sides of the fence,” said Larry Nighswander, director of Ohio University’s School of Visual Communications. He was speaking during a session at one of the Organization of News Ombudsmen’s meetings. “The role of the ombudsman is to help both sides better understand what is right for your particular publication.”
“What you represent, which is the capacity to listen outside the newsroom, and to critique, is a very important one for our profession,” said Maxwell King, then editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer. That’s key, he said, “for a profession that is not particularly good at introspection and self-criticism. Most newsrooms I’ve been familiar with over my 32 years in the newspaper business are better at self-righteousness than they are at self-criticism.”
As you read this column, your friendly neighborhood Listening Post editor expects to be returning from the annual meeting – this year in Turkey – of the increasingly international Organization of News Ombudsmen. The ONO (as in “Oh, No!”) meeting provides an opportunity for us sacrificial lambs to commiserate, but it also is a good time for Post readers to get a reprise of what this Listening Post column, which normally appears here each Thursday, is all about.
Our titles and duties vary from paper to paper, and not all ombudsmen write columns. But each is designated by his or her newspaper’s management to address readers’ complaints and questions about articles and, along the way, explain how the newspaper works. In this Listening Post column, I am authorized to air readers’ criticism and my own, and provide answers from the staff members who produce The Palm Beach Post.
While we can provide a public hearing when readers have no other recourse for concerns, we can’t give orders because we’re not a part of management. Just as we can criticize, we also can defend coverage or news decisions. Our recommendations may be accepted or ignored. To my mind, this is primarily a readers’ forum in which the crucial elements are reader concern and staff response. I get to express my opinion, but my 2 cents’ worth is tertiary. More important to me is to provide background that enables you to have an informed opinion.
The recent growth spurt in the 70-odd member ONO has happened mostly outside the United States. It could be that non-U.S. papers are more willing to require accountability from management. Only 38 of the roughly 1,500 daily papers in the U.S. have an ombudsman, whose titles are often given as reader representative, public editor or reader advocate. Former Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee said too many editors are “scared of being publicly criticized.” But the ombudsman there “is part of the fabric of the newspaper.”
New York Times editors over the years had refused to hire an ombudsman, calling it a public-relations gimmick. That changed with recent revelations of news fabrications by now-former reporter Jayson Blair. Bill Keller, the new executive editor, acknowledged in a note to staff members that he agreed with an independent committee’s recommendation that the Times “can profit from the scrutiny of an independent reader representative. A pair of professional eyes, familiar with us but independent of the day-to-day production of the paper, can make us more sensitive on matters of fairness and accuracy and enhance our credibility.”
Just as a corrections column on Page 2 – as this one maintains – is evidence of a newspaper’s commitment to correcting mistakes quickly and openly, so is the commitment to having an ombudsman. Our columns may air our dirty linen, but ombudsmen help improve our papers’ accuracy and – a much more challenging concept – fairness, by airing readers’ concerns.
As Gina Lubrano, ONO secretary and San Diego Union-Tribune ombudsman, wrote last month: “Had Jayson Blair never entered the Times newsroom, the paper would still have had need for an ombudsman. An ombudsman does not operate as a shield for editors, but has an obligation to make sure they know what readers are saying and what concerns them. With its decision to appoint an ombudsman, the Times has given readers a clear signal it cares about credibility, accuracy, fairness and accountability. It’s a huge step, one long overdue.”
C.B. Hanif is an editorial writer and ombudsman for The Palm Beach Post. Items for Listening Post may be sent to lp@pbpost.com
