Journalist calls for stronger ethics
Blames profession for credibility loss
By MARY BETH ALLEN
Of the Emerald
David Behrendt, Milwaukee
Journal editorial writer, called for
“stronger ethics and better per
formance” from journalists and
blamed the profession for “dwindl
ing credibility and public support”
of the press in the annual Ruhl
lecture Monday night.
The audience of about 75 in
cluded journalism instructors and
students, as well as area profes
sionals in the field.
“I think the press does a good
job most of the time, and a great
job some of the time,” said
Behrendt, the journalism school's
Ruhl visiting professor. He added
that the journalist’s job is to ad
dress the problem of “the bad job
they do too much of the time.”
Behrendt expressed concern
about the “present uncertain
health of the First Amendment."
He said that the current Supreme
Court justices have not been
overly eager to rule in favor of the
press in First Amendment-related
cases. “We have very little free
dom to gain and a lot to lose,” he
warned.
Behrendt sees public support of
the press as vital to its unfettered
survival, and he says that support
is currently at a low point. Practic
ing journalists are the ones to
blame for that lack of public confi
dence, Behrendt Maintains.
“If we keep chipping away at
our own credibility, we can t ex
pect to retain citizen support,” he
said. “It would be naive to think the
courts are not influenced by public
sentiment,” he stressed, "and we
are surrounded by increasingly
vocal and effective press critics ”
The reaction of many news
paper people to such criticism, is a
"disgustingly self-serving defen
siveness,” said Behrendt. Often
editors will feel a false sense of
security in the support their own
papers receive and ignore public
attitudes toward the press as a
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whole, a tactic Behrendt com
pared to “rats scurrying to leave a
sinking ship.”
One of the "creeping chips” in
the credibility is an abundance of
reporters with tremendous egos,
who feel they are “better and
brighter than anyone else.”
Behrendt says “readers detect
such arrogance and react against
it.”
Another chip is reporter’s ten
dencies to hobnob with powerful
public officials and become "too
cozy with powerful people,” said
Behrendt. He also criticized
newspapers’ willingness to cater
to special interest groups and
"sacred cows,” as well as the
press’ tendency to sensationalize
street crime while ignoring white
collar crime.
Bahrendt came down hard on ad
vocacy journalism, saying such
slanted articles are “often very
readable — but are they credi
ble?” He says he does not be
lieve, as advocacy journalists do,
that objectivity in reporting is a
myth. He said there are such
things as “controlled biases.”
Behrendt is especially strident
in, and according to the question
and answer session after his re
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most disagreement, his conten
tion that journalists should steer
clear of any public office or politi
cal controversy.
“Stay the hell out of public life,”
he advised “Such detachment is
essential.” Behrendt said if people
want to be “movers and shakers,"
fine — “go move and shake. But
don’t come back.”
The quest for the Pulitzer Prize
has been as detrimental to good
journalism as it has been helpful,
said Behrendt. He lambasted
what he called “the current fetish
for investigative journalism,” say
ing the old-timer who “vacuum
cleans the courthouse for 30
years” is more valuable than the
“young punk journalist” who ap
proaches his beat with the attitude
that all public officials steal.
Behrendt ruefully called his
speech a “litany of laments.” He
said, “It is time for some extra ef
forts at self-policing,” and that
“touching, informed indepen
dence, stronger ethics and human
decency” are overdue and a cure
for loss of press credibility.
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