New York Times panel addresses credibility gap

In order to build readers' confidence, an internal committee at The New York Times has recommended taking a variety of steps, including having senior editors write more regularly about the workings of the paper, tracking errors in a systematic way and responding more assertively to the paper's critics.
The committee also recommended that the paper "increase our coverage of religion in America" and "cover the country in a fuller way," with more reporting from rural areas and of a broader array of cultural and lifestyle issues. The 16-page report was made available on the Times company's Web site, www.nytco.com.
The committee, which was charged last autumn by Bill Keller, the executive editor, with examining how the paper could increase readers' trust, said there was "an immense amount that we can do to improve our journalism."
As examples, the report cited limiting anonymous sources, reducing factual errors and making a clearer distinction between news and opinion. It also said The Times should make the paper's operations and decisions more transparent to readers.
The report also said The Times should make it easier for readers to send e-mail to reporters and editors. "The Times makes it harder than any other major American newspaper for readers to reach a responsible human being," the report said.
The report comes as the public's confidence in the media continues to wane. A recent study from the Pew Research Center found that 45 percent of Americans believe little or nothing of what they read in their daily newspapers, a level of distrust that may have been inflated because the questions were asked during the contentious presidential campaign when the media themselves were often at issue.
When specific newspapers were mentioned, The Times fared about average, with 21 percent of readers believing all or most of what they read in The Times and 14 percent believing almost nothing.
In a response to the committee's report, Keller called it "a sound blueprint for the next stage of our campaign to secure our accuracy, fairness and accountability." He said he wanted to "hardwire these guidelines into the newsroom" and would be explaining them to the staff and appointing people to enforce them.
One area of particular concern to Keller at the outset was the relentless public criticism of the paper, amplified by both the left and right on the Internet, that peaked during the presidential campaign. The paper was largely silent during those attacks, and Keller asked the committee to consider whether it was "any longer possible to stand silent and stoic under fire."
The committee asserted that The Times must respond to its critics. The report said it was hard for the paper to resist being in a "defensive crouch" during the election but now urged The Times to explain itself "actively and earnestly" to critics and to readers who are often left confused when charges go unanswered.
The report also called for the paper to "devise a strategy governing when and where it makes sense for us to be on TV and radio," and recommended that reporters be given television training.
The report arises from a review begun formally in November but has its origins in one of the most damaging episodes in Times history, when Jayson Blair, a Times reporter, was found to have committed journalistic fraud, including plagiarism and fabricated quotations in at least three dozen articles from October 2002 until late April 2003. Blair resigned in May 2003.

New York Times Report: "Preserving Our Readers' Trust"