For Christi Harlan, the news business is 24/7, so even when a reporter is not working, there's still no place to express his or her personal opinion, she told an audience at the D.C. Pro chapter’s Nov. 11 forum on “The Press & the Public.”
Harlan is a former Wall Street Journal reporter who has worked on Capitol Hill as a press spokeswoman and is now head of media relations at the American Red Cross.
She was joined on a panel by broadcaster Steve Taylor, a former ABC correspondent who has covered the White House and current D.C. Pro board member, and Andy Alexander, whose stint as ombudsman at The Washington Post ends in February.
In her remarks, Harlan discussed a comment made about three weeks before by journalist Juan Williams on the Fox News Channel and his subsequent firing. He said he gets nervous if he sees people in Muslim garb on a flight. William’s main employer, NPR, fired him for the remark, which he made as a Fox commentator, a job his NPR contract allowed him to do.
If he hadn’t been fired for expressing that personal opinion, Harlan said, “I couldn’t trust him on anything else.”
Williams also had warned against blaming all Muslims for the actions of “extremists,” but it was the first comment that drew criticism and one for which he later apologized. Williams’ supporters, including Taylor, said he shouldn’t have been fired, because other on-air NPR personalities have given personal opinions they had to apologize for but they were not fired.
One area that raises concerns about reporters’ giving their opinion is in blogging or their use of social media, such as Facebook. Alexander said reporters at the Post are encouraged to engage in conversations with readers using social media but without giving their personal opinions. It “would be suicidal for the Post to tell reporters to state their opinion,” he said, noting there is a fire wall at the paper between the editorial pages and the news reporting.
Taylor, who moderated the panel, said he thinks chasing the concept of objectivity is like “a will-o’-the-wisp,” and that the principle journalists must strive to adhere to in their reporting “is what we all learned in the schoolyard — how to be fair.” Turning fairness into “a professional practice” ought to be the goal, he said.
The Nov. 11 event, held at the First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, drew about 35 people. It was aimed at bringing together journalists and members of the community for a conversation about ethical, credible news and why it matters.
It was the first of three programs organized by the chapter with a grant funded by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation and awarded by the national SPJ organization.
The second in the series is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 22, on the Ballston campus of Marymount University in Arlington.
More details will be announced soon on the chapter website at www.spjdc.org.