Title: Journalism needs to practice transparency in a different way to rebuild credibility
Headings: Journalism needs to practice transparency in a different way to rebuild credibility
Journalism needs to practice transparency in a different way to rebuild credibility
What does transparency look like now?
Where transparency falls short
Competence, integrity, benevolence
How not to do transparency
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Content: How not to do transparency
To understand how the more nuanced definition of transparency borrowed from organizational business research can help news organizations build trust, consider the cable news network CNN. It recently hired Sarah Isgur Flores, a spokesperson for former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, to lead its 2020 election coverage. As The New York Times noted, Flores was hired as a “political editor, not a pundit, and departing an administration in which the president routinely criticizes the news media, including CNN.” CNN’s own media reporter, Brian Stelter, wrote about the hiring and the associated outcry about a political hack being placed in charge of supposedly objective reporting. His reporting verified the initial report from Politico, and Stelter wrote about Flores’ previous employment in his lead. It was an attempt to bring transparency to CNN’s actions. But CNN executives would not speak for attribution with Stelter to defend the hiring, instead preferring to provide anonymous responses. So, while Stelter attempted to tell the “story behind the story,” he was rebuffed by his own network. This was confusing for audiences trying to understand Flores’ hiring as a political editor. If CNN had accepted a definition and practice of transparency that included accuracy, disclosure and clarity, perhaps they could have given better thought to how this hire would be perceived and how they might publicly comment on it.