Speakers did not trot out the conventional wisdom on what we call the 'Fourth Estate'

If you’ve spoken with me or followed my online musings lately, you’ve heard me get a little hyped up about an event that has been long in the making and is a critical part of a useful series of community discussions about journalism today. It was a forum PBS co-produced with the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on consumer trust in media titled “Trust Us? How do you know we’re not giving you misinformation?” and it happened June 30. 

The lively talk, preceded by a meet-and-greet cocktail reception at the press club, brought together some 50 journalists, students and media professionals. But if you weren’t among them, you can still watch it as many times as you want by clicking here.

The discussion and question-and-answer period drew on the experience of three formidable journalists and was moderated by yours truly.   

The panel members were Terence Samuel, vice president of news and executive editor of NPR; Elahe Izadi, media reporter at The Washington Post; and Sam Fulwood III, dean of American University’s school of communication and a veteran journalist. I am the Public Editor of PBS and I come from a background of investigative journalism for big-city dailies in California and Texas, and as a foreign correspondent for two of them. 

There was a lot of talking – let’s face it: experienced journalists have a lot to talk about – but if you ask me, we actually got somewhere. 

Some of the conversation forced long hard looks at ourselves and no doubt proved discomfiting to those who romanticize journalism. At the same time, it was liberating to hear that we didn’t start out squeaky clean (Yes, it’s true, read on) and that there probably was not a true golden age of journalism after all. Fulwood drove home this point, urging us to read Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism by Eric Burns, and thereby disabuse ourselves of any thoughts that the profession started out as the noble one we like to reminisce about these days. It seemed to offer one contextual reason for why we’re still struggling with misinformation. It’s not an existential threat as many might believe. It’s just another in a long line of serious challenges.

Fulwood said the accounts of colonial-era journalism practiced by the likes of Benjamin Franklin and his brother would “put to shame anybody’s belief today that journalism (lacks integrity).” He said the Franklins “put out newspapers in colonial America (and) wrote the most libelous, scandalous gossip that had no back(ing), and they sold it, and people embraced that as news.” Fast forward today, he said, and people seem to think there was a golden age of journalism that Burns’ account would challenge.

 It’s going to be exciting as we build on the progress we made that night in the main ballroom of the press club. I hope you agree as you watch. And stay tuned for our next event.