Look at Latin America, especially Brazil but also Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Chile. And look at all news media including radio, newsweeklies, TV, web, social as well as dailies. 1/x #Latam #AmericaLatina #periodismo
In Brazil the commercial dailies were compliant after the military takeover in 1964 but eventually became combative. They pushed boundaries of press freedom, got documents, revealed hidden truths. I saw the end up close and was impressed by their sophisticated techniques. 2/x
In Chile after 1973 the dailies were only very selectively oppositional. It was the weekly newsmagazines, especially Análisis, and Radio Cooperativa that pushed hard. Análisis journalists suffered for exposing secrets of the Pinochet regime. 3/x
The record of Colombian news media is also checkered but there’ve been showings of incredible courage. The daily El Espectadir was all but destroyed after publishing many exposés of atrocities and corruption. The weekly newsmagazine Semana published many brave columnists. 4/x
More recently, in Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia, leftist presidents and privately owned dailies/broadcast networks fought press-freedom battles for several years. The news outlets were hostile from the start but vengeance was swift and serious. Some outlets shut down. 5/x
Journalists from these countries would be in the best position to say whether or when newsrooms consciously put themselves on a different footing. It might be hard, because objectivity and neutrality were not universally prized as values. Some media set out to be combative. 6/x
But sets of practices - ways of handling docs, conducting interviews, receiving tips, operating in danger zones, etc. - had to be learned & enforced. Cultivation of regime contacts is important under military govts, for help in tough circumstances as well as information. 7/x
I’n surprised at how hard it seems to be for US news people to declare the ground they stand on to be opposition - not partisan - terrain. I cut my teeth on a downtown daily in Vancouver BC that was frankly oppositional as long as I worked there - first to a right-wing ... 8/x
... and then to a left-wing provincial government. As reporters we were held to the usual conduct norms - no conflict of interest, no fat white envelopes - but we were never discouraged from digging into apparent wrongdoing, debunking spin or exposing policy inconsistencies. 9/x
Later I landed at The Globe and Mail, a paper congenitally vigilant about due process, illicit official conduct & constitutional rights. Throughout its existence its editorial page has carried a stirring quotation about the inadmissibility of “arbitrary measures.” 10/x
The Globe’s affinity for liberal values against arbitrary or dictatorial tendencies isn’t just a feature of the editorial page. Since the 1970s I’ve seen extended reporting projects on police brutality, negligence in child protection, partisan corruption in public-works ... 11/x
... contracts, and more recently the inadequacy of police responses to reported rapes. These projects both inform and are shaped by editorial influences. In this The Globe is not alone. The Toronto Star has an explicit mission to pursue public welfare and social justice. 12/x
Another thought I find recurring in these harsh times for journalism is this: It’s not supposed to be easy. If some elected leader doesn’t hold press conferences, my instinct is to welcome the opportunity to make better use of time otherwise spent covering a performance. 13/x
What the times may call for can be summarized in a phrase: turning up the heat. We’ve seen some front-page and top-of-lineup editorials; maybe we need more, especially if inspired by original reporting. Maybe we need hard decisions about how reporters spend their time, ... 14/x
... prioritizing anything that looks like abuse of authority, especially at the federal level. I’d also suggest a close look at routines of story handling, and presentation. I’ve seen a lot of ledes & heds that effectively take a chronically mendacious president at his word. 15/x
Pay attention to the effect a news package will have on the screen and page. It’s OK to convey alarm when longstanding principles are torn up and thrown away. Pull on your tabloid pants and wade in. Singularity - the unusual, the shocking - is a legit news element. 16/x
The Latin American news people I mentioned, from aristocrat publishers to scruffy provincial reporters, felt journalism was a vocation - a mission, even. I felt it too, speaking with them. It seemed the only way to explain their persistence against threats and daily stress. 17/x
I felt that sense of mission again the other night watching Spielberg’s The Post, recalling the instinct for duty that welled up in Bradlee and Bagdikian, and then Graham and all the other publishers who ran the Pentagon Papers story in defiance of the Nixon White House. 18/x
American editors and publishers, exposing executive overreach is your tradition and your mission. Resolving to report every detail of a president’s hijacking of the judiciary and weaponization of the civil service shouldn’t require a lot of debate. 19/x
By reporting the details, summarizing the big picture and explaining how authoritarianism is being systematically substituted for democracy, you give your supporters the tools of active citizenship. You may wonder whether they’ll reward you. Just park that thought. 20/x
If by the end of 2020 American journalism can say it did its job, and helped the American people do theirs, it’ll be a pretty good look - one that will shine in many boardrooms and in every subscription campaign. 21/x
American reporters and editors, don’t let 2020 get the better of you. This is an extraordinary year; make extraordinary plans. Be bold. Be fearless. Plant yourself on the side of discovery and exposure. Assert the accuracy of revealed and verified reports. Underscore ... 22/x
... the connections between contemporary events, and between those events and history. Don’t shun interpretation. Search for the unprecedented, for cracking facades and always for humanity. From 🇨🇦: for your phones, power; for yourselves, the sleep that comes with courage. 23/23
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