There was exciting news on Monday for political journalism. Billionaire media entrepreneur Robert Albritton announced that he is bankrolling “the next great Washington newsroom.”
It’s a bold attempt to seize the mantle of the Washington Post, which was gutted by its own billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, last month.
Albritton, who founded then sold Politico, said he will rename and double the size of his existing 50-person digital news outlet called NOTUS, which stands for news of the United States. NOTUS was launched in 2024 as a politics-and-policy news site and a training ground for aspiring public affairs journalists.
Dana Milbank, whose trenchant Washington Post political column was axed by Bezos’s MAGA-friendly henchmen, said on Facebook that he will resume it at what he described as a “scrappy and fearless national news organization” funded by “a public-spirited media owner who uses his billions to support journalism above all else, who isn’t afraid to hold the powerful to account and who cares deeply about the Washington community.”
In a memo to his staff, Albritton said the new newsroom will not change NOTUS’s core principles, the first one of which he identified as “Our commitment to producing non-partisan journalism that’s trusted by readers from every part of the political spectrum.”
But here’s the thing: That can’t be done.
A whole lot of people on the far-right side of the political spectrum are so steeped in disinformation and conspiracy theories that they won’t trust any form of journalism that fundamentally engages in truth-telling.
Too many existing newsrooms try to win those folks over with a so-called “objectivity” that creates false equivalences between things that are largely true and things that are largely untrue. They fail to clearly state obvious conclusions.
But I don’t think those things actually win anyone over. And they end up doing the rest of the public a grave disservice.
If I were launching a new Washington newsroom, it would engage in blunt truth-telling. And one of its top commitments would be to convert people who have fallen prey to propaganda and lies, not cater to them.
This newsroom would actively try to wean people off Fox News and other vectors of disinformation by exposing and debunking their deceit.
It would identify what issues Americans are most ill-informed about, would produce content full of context and background about them, and would encourage its audience to share that content widely.
It would recognize that these are profoundly abnormal times, and that the political journalism reflex not to take sides doesn’t apply if one side is the truth and the other is a lie. It would acknowledge the urgency of the moment, and would sound the alarm.
It would absolutely be non-partisan. In fact, more than that, it would be anti-partisan, because partisans twist facts to suit their goals, which is antithetical to independent journalism. For instance, it wouldn’t shy away from reporting on how both of our political parties have failed us and have been corrupted by money.
And yet, it would not create false equivalence between the conduct of the two parties, one of which now consistently traffics in deception and fantasy and is led by a dangerously unstable and destructive president.
It wouldn’t mince words; it would report the evidence of Trump’s derangement, including his untrustworthiness, his instability, and his incoherence. Then it would reach the obvious conclusion. It would call out his hostility toward minorities and women. These are essential facts, not things to dance around or both-sides about.
It would espouse and defend common-sense American values – very much including those that are under attack from the MAGA movement.
It would be proudly pro-democracy, exposing and decrying authoritarianism and any attempts to prevent votes from being cast and counted.
It would champion cherished American values like diversity and pluralism, and not be afraid to call out the evils of racism and misogyny.
It would advocate for free speech, and identify those who threaten it.
It would not assume that everyone fully understands core constitutional propositions including the separation of powers, the Bill of Rights, and even democracy. So it would take time to explain them. Same with the laws of war.
These are not Democratic values. These are American values. These are journalistic values.
And its editors would consistently ask reporters to address a question that is often ignored: Why?
Why is this person lying? (What are they trying to accomplish?) Why is Trump so angry all the time? (Because he’s deranged.) Why does Trump lie so much? (Because he’s a con man.) Why are so many courts finding almost all of Trump’s major initiatives to be illegal? (Because he’s running a criminal enterprise.)
I think such a news site would find a huge audience. I believe there is a widespread hunger for Washington reporting that doesn’t try to appease the know-nothings, but instead validates what intelligent, engaged people are seeing in front of their own eyes.
And I’ll hope for the best.
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Also see:
- How a great nonprofit news organization would cover national politics (December 12, 2024)
- What the next generation of editors need to tell their political reporters (January 31, 2021)
- Press Watch mission statement: Political journalism needs a reset (September 23, 2021)