Downie: Key to future of digital news will be…who funds it?

Retired Washington Post Editor Len Downie, speaking at the Nieman Foundation’s 70th Anniversary convocation led his keynote talk by telling the story of Daily Kos posting a false item about Sarah Palin during the GOP convention. Kos, he said, expessed no moral obligation to the truth. He posts what’s out there and lets people have at it.
Nothing new, Downie says. Early American journalism was full of false reports, partisan slander and junk. The debate over what constitutes journalism online is the same debate we’ve had all along. There’s no licensing or regulation, so anyone can be a journalist.
The net actually helps correct errors, malicious and otherwise, he notes.
But the dominant sites continue to be hosted by traditional news organizations.
As a counterpoint to Dail Kos, Downie offers the example of Talking Points Memo and Pro Publica, which apply the traditional journalistic disciplines of verification and collection of balancing points of view.
That, he suggests, is why the websites of traditional media and those (like Huffington Post that aggregate news from traditional sources) have the greatest audience.
Readers want credible news, collected under the same rigorous standards that govern the print edition of the Washington Post.
While readers clearly enjoy the vigor and speed of opinion bloggers and gossip bloggers, for news they seem to still prefer the Old School way.
As a self-described purist, Downie said he believes:
1. Journalists on the web must identify themselves;
2. The funding for a website should be disclosed;
3. Opinion and News should be clearly labelled and separated.
4. Photos and video should not be doctored
5. Journalism must serve the public interest.
“I simply do not see the digital world as some kind of alternative universe for journalism,” Downie said. Journalists who expect to be taken seriously online must meet the same expectations of accuracy, fairness and accountability journalists have always stood up for.
The question, he warns, is who will pay for the news. That answer, which is still not clear, will define the digital news future. In other words, as the Post editor has long been famous for saying…”Follow the money.”