Times editor: Journalism is lifeblood of democracy

By Bob Stuart

Published: November 7, 2008

LEXINGTON — Clark Hoyt’s distinguished 42-year career in journalism includes a shared Pulitzer Prize and a stint as the Washington bureau chief of the old Knight Ridder newspaper chain.

But Hoyt now has his most challenging assignment, serving as the public editor of America’s most famous newspaper, The New York Times.

In that job, Hoyt must evaluate the storied newspaper’s journalistic practices, and deal with daily criticisms from its readers.

He must do so without reading reporters’ stories or editorial columns before they appear in print.

Hoyt, who served as the keynote speaker Friday for Washington and Lee University’s 46th Institute on Journalism Ethics, is candid when he says he believes the newspaper does not report fairly.

He said a February story on John McCain’s possible romantic involvement with a much younger female lobbyist contained “no on-the-record sources’’ and supporting evidence of the affair.

Hoyt said the newspaper’s credibility took a hit with the story, and said a Rasmussen Reports study showed that two-thirds of those surveyed thought the story “was a deliberate effort to hurt McCain.”

And Hoyt did not spare Pulitzer Prize-winning Times columnist Maureen Dowd when he evaluated the many columns she wrote about Hillary Clinton.

He concluded in his own three-times a month column on The Times Sunday editorial page that Dowd’s tone and language in the Clinton columns was “over the top.”

And while conservative critics of the paper have said it went light on Barack Obama during the presidential campaign, Hoyt wants to make the record complete.

He said the paper was the first to report on Obama’s association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the first to report on Obama’s numerous failures to vote on issues while an Illinois state senator.

Hoyt said it was no surprise The Times endorsed Obama, since the majority of its opinion columnists are liberal. That does not mean the news coverage was skewed toward Obama, he said.

He maintains “there is a wall between the Op-Ed page and news. There is tension, not cooperation.”

Hoyt’s role as public editor grew out of a dark time in journalism for The Times.

A rogue reporter named Jayson Blair made up numerous stories while working for the paper, leading The Times’ management to create the position of public editor in 2003.

While journalistic credibility may have been redeemed over the five years since the Blair scandal, American newspapers are currently facing lean economic times.

Hoyt told a number of Washington and Lee journalism students that he cannot predict the future of newspapers, but still encourages them to become reporters.

He said society needs good journalism and always will.

“We need accurate, fair and reliable facts,’’ he said. “It is the lifeblood of a democracy. The demand for good journalism is still there.”