Nothing's more critical than a free press—and there are 100+ changes corporate media could make to how it operates that'd improve how it serves America and have nothing to do with Trump's BS "fake news" claims. Step 1: don't use being under assault as an excuse to change nothing.
1/ No more "surrogates" on cable TV. No more pundits being asked to speak on topics they know nothing about. No more bringing on morons just so we see someone from "the other side." Make candidates earn their airtime by having something to say—don't just base invites on polling.
2/ Lighten the use of the "breaking news" banner. Don't just focus on the events of the moment—spend significantly more time giving folks summaries of major stories that are too complex to follow in real time. Stop covering random crimes/disasters as though they're national news.
3/ If you report on new polls daily, you're not reporting on anything, as all the polls will contradict one another—so do a *single* poll-of-polls story once a week and that's it. Stop reporting on what the president says and start doing deep dives on what he has actually done.
4/ Cut out the BS hostility against social news websites. Acknowledge when social media is getting to stories or uncovering new aspects of stories before you do. Embrace certain components of citizen journalism. Be more willing to admit errors. Stop interviewing people who spin.
5/ Focus more on the future and the past than the minutiae of the present—that's where the real stories are. Don't run from personal opinion—just be significantly more transparent about it. Stop covering random campaign events or random spats between famous people or politicians.
6/ Improve your fact-checking and sourcing. Use fewer anonymous sources. Use media's natural leverage to get sources on the record for attribution, or to compel bad actors (for instance the White House press office, which refuses to do pressers) to return to responsible behavior.
7/ Do more with podcasts. Do more with forms of journalism besides reportage, such as the long interview and investigative journalism and recap articles and fact-checking summaries. Invest in new journalistic writing practices, like curatorial journalism and immersive journalism.
8/ Pool your resources; professional jealousy has no place in an ecosystem with fewer resources than ever before. Instead of banning your reporters from social media, see whether you can find generative ways for them to interact with readers and benefit from readers' knowledge.
9/ Stop pumping up books with minimal content by celebrities or celebrity journalists. Instead push books that are replete with well-researched content and actually educate people rather than just entertain them. Acknowledge that stories are complex and need multiple explainers.
10/ Cover far fewer stories in much greater depth. Use technology far more than you do to find and explain and visualize the news. Get out of the studio and specifically out of New York City much more than you do. Do not limit your guest lists by who lives in New York City or DC.
11/ Run social media accounts that make a serious effort to be engaging and relevant and written in a style conducive to each platform. Don't go in fear of the creation of viral content. Do more to report good news and weird news; do less concern-trolling (e.g., crime) reporting.
12/ Run longer and better cable TV segments rather than shorter blocks with narrow aims and superficial commentary. Don't comment on stupidity or hatefulness merely because it exists and seems briefly spectacular. Don't talk down to your audience or coddle its viewing prejudices.
13/ Be willing to have younger and older correspondents than you currently do. Be willing to have less attractive anchors and field reporters if they have talents and perspectives and ways of communicating that your current camera-ready staff do not. Don't be so afraid to fail.
14/ Embrace interdisciplinary approaches to discussing the news, putting experts in different areas in conversation with one another even if you know they'll disagree—rather than simply having multiple experts in the same field repeat one another's analyses. Don't avoid scholars.
15/ Ethics and morals exist, as do best practices, as do valuable conventions, as do core journalistic principles. If one party—for instance right now the Republican Party—is tempting you to abandon any of these in order to hold onto your viewers, don't capitulate. Be brave. /end
