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Washington Post columnist William Raspberry, the 1999 Lovejoy journalism award recipient, used his address in November to take his profession to task for favoring conflict over substance and for reporting "what's gone wrong" to the virtual exclusion of "what's gone right." Raspberry, whose commentary appears in more than 200 papers and who is renowned for his analysis of race relations, politics and social issues, received the 47th Elijah Parish Lovejoy award on November 12. Addressing a near-capacity crowd in Lorimer Chapel, he preached what he practices: constructive journalism. "Our training, the news values we inculcate, the feedback we get from our editors--all these things encourage us to look for trouble, for failure, for scandal and, above all, for conflict," he said. Whether it's about the local school board or the U.S. Congress, the coverage is destructive if it causes readers to lose respect for the institutions of society. "The needs of a democracy--civil discourse--and the needs of a working journalist are at odds. One wants comity, the other loves conflict. It's a serious problem." It has become a lazy habit of reporters to seek bad news, Raspberry said: "We'll walk past a dozen successful families in search of the disaster that illuminates the pathology of the ghetto." Reviewing the importance of a free press and the privileges granted to reporters by the framers of the Constitution, Raspberry said, "Hell, we've got our own amendment--or at least part of an amendment. Doctors are granted no explicit right to practice their craft untrammeled. Lawyers aren't, nor are engineers or teachers. But journalists are, and it seems to me that that extraordinary grant of privilege must mean something beyond the right to hector Pete Rose," he said, using Jim Gray's controversial interview during baseball's recent World Series as an example. Calling for more good news is tricky, though. "If our pages were devoted to stories on Sunday School picnics and smoothly functioning agencies and B students, we argue, with such sweet reason, nobody would buy our papers," Raspberry said. He presented as a possible model the sports section, where "the sterling play and all the up-side good stuff" is reported right along with "the bad plays and off-the-field misbehavior, the lackadaisical effort and idiotic recruiting decisions." A critical difference between news and sports sections is that readers and editors expect sportswriters not to be indifferent to their teams' success. "But if my colleagues on the sports pages of the Washington Post make clear that they'd like to see the Redskins and the Wizards succeed, those on the news side often seem not to care whether our city or our nation succeeds." Before the speech President Bill Cotter presented Raspberry with an honorary doctor of laws degree and praised the combination of insightful analysis and common sense that has marked Raspberry's lifelong crusade for personal responsibility and social justice. The Lovejoy award is given each year to honor the memory of Elijah Parish Lovejoy, valedictorian of Colby's Class of 1826, who became the first American martyr to freedom of the press when he was killed defending his newspaper against a pro-slavery mob in Illinois. |
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