Jurek Martin, one of the longest serving US-based British correspondents, has unleashed a full-frontal attack on the state of American political journalism.
The Financial Times columnist writes: "Let me state without equivocation that, in the 40-plus years I have been familiar with American political journalism, it has never been as poor as it is today...
"Once I hung on every written and spoken word – but now, with very few exceptions, there is nobody to read or hear who excites much thought or genuinely informs."
In his article, headlined "The rising poverty of American political journalism", he refers to his "sense of loss" being made more acute by news of the death of the Guardian's Simon Hoggart, a one-time Washington correspondent.
Martin writes: "The thing about Hoggart, even more than his noted acerbic wit, was that he did his legwork and homework, in that he actually talked to politicians without falling in bed with them. He was also an equal-opportunity observer, debunking left and right regardless."
He contrasts this journalistic approach with what he calls "the American journalistic malaise" that "is rooted in the crippling reliance on public opinion polls." He writes:
"They are, in reality, but snapshots of sentiment at a moment in time yet they have assumed the aura of a Holy Grail, containing all eternal truths.
If the public speaks in a 1,000 person poll, what reason is there for the journalist, who cannot possibly talk to that many, to get off his or her duff and find out more or, heaven forbid, actually question their findings?"
He also blames 24-hour television, which demands an endless supply of talking heads, for adding to a "coarser and more opinionated" political discourse.
He accuses Fox News of an obsession with the 2012 burning of the US embassy in Benghazi in order to stymie Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions.
Noting that US news outlets have squads of reporters on Hillary-watch - "at the expense of proper coverage of what is going on in politics here and now" - he writes:
"The same practice of pack journalism at its worst applies to coverage of President Barack Obama. Conventional wisdom, buttressed by polling, is that he had a bad year in 2013, especially after the botched rollout of the website for his 'Obamacare' health care reforms...
"Lost in this banal wash was the undeniable fact that the Republican party arguably had a worse year, having shut down the government and with its establishment and Tea Party wings approaching internecine warfare."
Martin, a former FT foreign editor was twice the paper's bureau chief in Washington, knows of what he speaks. Will any US political reporter pick up the gauntlet to defend their journalism?
Source: Financial Times
