Farewell, Washington News Council/ Long live News Councils!

At the annual Gridiron West Dinner in November, 2007, the Washington News Council "toasted" Jill and Bill Ruckleshaus

My dad helped create the Minnesota News Council, one of the first in the U.S. of an important "third space" for media and community members to communicate about fairness and accuracy in media. For three years, I served as president of the Washington News Council, the fourth such body in the U.S. and an important forum for media fairness.

This weekend, I said goodbye to that board--a great group of people from across the state, half with media connections and expertise, and half with rich experience in public and civic affairs.

Here are my notes on what I said to them:

The Washington News Council: What’s possible now?

My major learning (or relearning): It’s hard to create a mediating institution in a polarized world.

It’s amazing that the News Council has made it through 10 years. My hat’s off to John Hamer, without whose daily dogged pursuit of fairness and accuracy in media we wouldn’t be here.

Working with John has been exciting, exhausting, sometimes challenging. But, as one of you said when I was working on John’s evaluation last year, there aren’t many people on the planet so dedicated to media transparency and accountability, and doing something constructive and creative about it daily.

Highlights of my years with the News Council:
• the hearings: every time we have one, it demonstrates the importance of improving communication about the way media work
• the forum in Spokane on coverage of Mayor Jim West: We demonstrated how an outside agency can help a community process and heal from a difficult situation – and examine journalistic ethics at the same time.
• The 2005 Gridiron Dinner: we honored Bill Sr. and Mimi Gates with great humor, aplomb, and financial success
• The amazing analysis of 10 years of coverage by the Spokane Spokesman-Review of the River Park Square redevelopment project, which property the newspaper company owned.

My biggest disappointments:
• when neither KIRO-TV nor the Seattle Post-Intelligencer showed up for those excellent hearings, where they could have been more transparent, and perhaps convinced more News Council members that their coverage was reasonable;
• the 2006 Gridiron Dinner, where Tom Foley was honored (along with Slade Gorton) and didn’t show up (we produced a cardboard cutout), and I was in a traffic accident on my way into town from which I’m only now recovered.

One of the things we’ve been working on in Journalism That Matters, our traveling think-tanks on the future of journalism, is adding a 6th W to the canon of journalistic w’s (who what where when why): And that is, What’s possible now?

So, what’s possible now with the News Council?

➢ helping the media make sense of its evolving role in the new news ecology
➢ helping the public make sense of where to find news we can trust
➢ involving more young people so the Council stays relevant & multi-media
➢ proving utility through continued hearings, web-education, educational programs
➢ be a model of a kind of institution that helps re-invent communication, community storytelling, vetting for truth.
➢ Give people tools for talking, for constructive conversation with and about (and creating new) media

How?
> Don’t just respond to complaints, highlight great reporting in various media
> Provide educational events that present new insights & action steps for both media and audience
> Create a website that helps citizens find news & info that’s truly useful to them – and shows them how to vet it
> Find new revenue streams that will support the news council’s work


Finally, I leave you with Silha’s two rules for a better life:

KISS & DBATA

KISS: Keep it simple, stupid!
DBATA: Don’t be afraid to ask!