{"id":14861,"date":"2023-10-03T03:38:15","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T10:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=14861"},"modified":"2023-10-04T04:02:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T11:02:20","slug":"lessons-for-the-press-in-the-age-of-trump-politico-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=14861","title":{"rendered":"“Lessons for the Press in the Age of Trump”, Politico Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Marty Baron method.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack Shafer is <\/em>Politico\u2019s senior media writer. He has written commentary about the media industry and politics for decades and was previously a columnist for <\/em>Reutersand <\/em>Slate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jack Shafer, The Fourth Estate, 10\/03\/2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Washington<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not every editor has the patience that Marty Baron exhibited to capture smoke and turn it into fire the way Baron often did. Andrew Harnik\/AP Photo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you seek a detailed tour of Martin Baron\u2019s consequential eight-year tenure<\/a> as the executive editor of the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>, his new book\u00a0Collison of Power: Trump, Bezos, and the Washington Post\u00a0<\/em>will efficiently plot you a course from his arrival at the struggling newspaper in 2013 to his departure in early 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written in the flat-affect style of a series of historical highway markers, Collision of Power <\/em>visits all the stations of the cross of Baron\u2019s spectacular makeover of the Post<\/em>, which the Graham family unloaded on Jeff Bezos less than seven months after Baron took its helm. One of the great news scoops of the decade walked into his office in Baron\u2019s first year when former Post<\/em>ie Barton Gellman brought his Snowden files package<\/a> to the paper. Other reportorial triumphs followed on his watch with the predictability of spring and fall migration: Coverage of the Secret Service\u2019s security lapses<\/a>, an unflinching look at poverty and the food stamp program<\/a>, the establishment of the paper\u2019s \u201cfatal force\u201d database<\/a>, revelations about former President Donald Trump\u2019s bogus philanthropies<\/a>, the unmasking of Roy Moore\u2019s sexual misconduct<\/a> and the paper\u2019s coverage of Russian meddling<\/a> in the 2016 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baron\u2019s astonishing Post <\/em>run followed the paths he tread at the Boston Globe <\/em>and Miami Herald, <\/em>where he busted the Catholic church<\/a> for sexual abuse and led distinguished reporting on the Eli\u00e1n Gonz\u00e1lez story<\/a> and the disputed 2000 election<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a consistent body of great work under one editor demands an explanation. Lots of editors get lucky when a big story breaks their way, but nobody gets lucky long enough to accomplish what Baron has. One would think that Baron had mastered a secret unknown to other editors or controlled a genie who granted him unlimited wishes that allowed him to steer the Post<\/em>back to greatness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the very least, you would expect in writing a 548-page travelogue of his Post <\/em>years, Baron might take a stab at disclosing a few clues about how he did it. But, no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"This
The mystery of Marty Baron turns out not to be much of a mystery at all. | Flatiron via AP Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Except for a few admissions about his taciturn personal style and a brief account of his hereditary medical woes<\/a>, Baron shies from sharing any interior views that would illuminate his successes. No bragging. No false modesty about owing it all to the wonderful people who worked for him, either. No memorable aphorisms<\/a> outside of, \u201cWe\u2019re not at war with the [Trump] administration, we\u2019re at work.\u201d He offers less insight on his method than a truck driver would in a first-person podcast about his Chicago to Los Angeles run. Instead, Baron gestures to mile-post after mile-post of superb work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Baron doesn\u2019t explicitly spell out his formula, we can still glean it from the principles of journalism that have guided his work and which he discusses at the book\u2019s end. The mystery of Marty Baron turns out not to be much of a mystery at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Baron had a couple of things<\/strong> going for him when he arrived at the Washington Post<\/em>. The paper\u2019s financial decline in the age of the internet had led to years of cost-cutting and newsroom buyouts under both of his predecessors, Leonard Downie Jr.<\/a> and Marcus Brauchli<\/a>. But Baron had proved at the Boston Globe<\/em> that he could do plenty \u2014 if not more \u2014 with less. This was probably why Post <\/em>Publisher Katharine Weymouth called him in to replace Brauchli, easily the best decision she ever made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baron also immediately commanded the respect that the newsroom had denied Brauchli, who hailed from the world of financial journalism, and continues to deny the paper\u2019s current executive editor, Sally Buzbee, who rose to top editor at the Associated Press<\/em> but seems to lack the scopious knowledge and curiosity a general interest daily demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baron had other advantages. The Post<\/em>\u2019s status as a news institution was tarnished but it was still the Post<\/em>, still the leading paper in the capital where whistleblowers and sources sought it out. A nitwit appointed Post <\/em>executive editor could probably wring a couple of great stories out of it before they sacked him. And, as mentioned earlier, Baron was the beneficiary of new owner Jeff Bezos\u2019 decision to reverse the paper\u2019s contraction by investing real money with just a fraction of his wealth. Even so, Baron\u2019s paper read better than Brauchli\u2019s in the months before the Bezos genie appeared. Could anybody who had stepped into Baron\u2019s position have poured similar gravy onto the Post <\/em>mashed potatoes as he? Would a different editor have reserved more resources for its neglected Metro and Style sections? There\u2019s no way to test that counterfactual. But we can say without reservation that Baron found ways to do much more with more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We should, however, avoid the temptation to credit Trump for Baron\u2019s good fortune at the paper. Yes, page views soared at the Post <\/em>and most outlets during his presidency and Trump provided the compost from which the newspaper could be reborn, but if the \u201cTrump bump\u201d is a sufficient explanation for Baron\u2019s achievement, why isn\u2019t every top editor who worked during the Trump years covered in similar glory? Another counterfactual to be tested when we finally discover the multiverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talking to reporters who\u2019ve worked with Baron does not help unlock the mystery of his success. They\u2019ll tell you he\u2019s a cipher but also a stickler for accuracy. That he always demands more reporting. That he\u2019s an expert at developing a story \u2014 the best illustration of that talent being how he turned what could have been a story about errant Boston priests into a story about a corrupt global institution. Not every editor has the patience that Baron exhibited to capture smoke and turn it into fire the way Baron often did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Marty Baron method. Jack Shafer is Politico\u2019s senior media writer. He has written commentary about the media industry and politics for decades and was previously a columnist for Reutersand Slate By Jack Shafer, The Fourth Estate, 10\/03\/2023 Not every editor has the patience that Marty Baron exhibited to capture smoke and turn it into fire the way Baron […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14861"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14861"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14868,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14861\/revisions\/14868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}