The downsizing of journalism undermines its watchdog role

The downsizing of the newsrooms has consequences for the public’s right to know but also for the capacity of the media to assume their watchdog role. The lack of resources inevitably leads to dropping stories that require too much time and energy and these stories are often the most crucial to democracy, the respect of human rights and the rule of law.
Investigative journalism is the first victim of the media crisis. Others therefore have to step in to compensate “in the interest of the public”.

This development has been demonstrated in California with the investigation into the murder of Chauncey Bailey, the editor of the Oakland Post. Soon after the killing in 2007, in an initiative that refers back to the murder of Arizona journalist Don Bolles in 1976 and to the creation of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), “a group of reporters, some retired some out of work”, writes Tim Arango of the New York Times, “with support from foundations and the University of California (Berkeley), banded together to continue his investigation into a local business (…) and to the role of the police in the investigation”.
Their investigation led to a series of revelations that rocked the city and led to a flurry of other investigations into the behaviour of the local police.

The lesson here for journalism and human rights defenders is clear. As Robert Rosenthal, the executive director of the Center for Investigative Reporting stated, “the decimation of local media precluded large-scale investigative work”.
The priorities of the media in assigning stories, their equation between their status as a business and their role as a public interest institution, are all issues that should be reflected upon. However in the absence of a strong commitment to watchdog journalism this essential function has to be performed. And increasingly it is being done by people “out of journalism”.
In foreign news it has opened a boulevard for investigative NGOs like Human Rights Watch or Global Witness or “interpretative” entities like the International Crisis Group.
As this trend is registered in most “beats” this is a major indictment of the press. And an added reason for journalists to rethink…

To know more about that story, go to the New York Times www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/business/media/23bailey.html
And to the Center for Investivative Reporting website www.centerforinvestigativereporting.org