VOICES
More Than A Mouthpiece
The power and the limitations of the editorial page
When the Boston Herald newsroom erupted in protest even before the actual appointment in January of a former Massachusetts Republican political operative as deputy editorial-page editor, a Boston University journalism professor e-mailed a media critic asking what the fuss was about. Editorial writers are hired guns to write the publisher's opinion, wrote Mike Berlin in the e-mail to the Boston Phoenix, so it doesn't really matter who they are. The important line to be drawn, he wrote, is the one that keeps a publisher's slant out of news copy.
But editorial writers serve as more than the publisher's alter egos on the editorial page. On well-run, influential editorial pages, in fact, editorial writers usually have freedom to set the agenda. Page editors, particularly, have this power, with access to the publisher often equal to that of the top newsroom editor. The Boston controversy over Virginia Buckingham, the former Massachusetts Port Authority executive director, and her leap from the political world to the number-two job on the editorial page highlights both the limitations and the power of editorial writing.
Editorial writers are indeed often chosen because they agree with a publisher's general outlook, but at many papers they do much more than figure out what he or she would say and then parrot it. Some have real freedom. Robert Reinhold, the late New York Times reporter and for a time my colleague on the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times, said he once witnessed a New York Times publisher call to find out what his own paper's position was. More than two decades on editorial boards have demonstrated to me that the structure of relationships between the editorial page and publishers differs across the country. Indeed, personal chemistry often can determine how issues get decided on the editorial page.
This goes to the heart of the controversy about the appointment of Buckingham, who resigned as head of the agency with authority over Logan International Airport amid charges of mismanagement after the September 11, 2001, hijackings. Her lack of journalistic training and her service in the political sphere suggest that she may act in a political way in her new job. If she does, this could harm the integrity of the editorial page.
Editors at most big papers make many independent decisions about what appears in the unsigned editorials. A busy publisher can't always be watching what someone who comes out of politics does in his or her name at lunch or on the telephone. It's okay to produce a partisan page, but readers should not skip it because they think it is too tied to power brokers. There should be no obstacles to any page's ability to make clear and independent calls, praising or criticizing friend or foe alike. Like a chief speechwriter, a good editorial-page editor or writer searches for the memorable phrase. But editorial-page editors' work gives them clout to serve the public interest, if they know how to use it. They generally are versed in their papers' past positions, knowledge today's itinerant publishers may not have. More important, because they follow news closely, and have sources, they know best when to decide or change positions. There is no question about who gets to make the final call, especially on such high-profile decisions as endorsements. But a smart publisher recognizes that subordinates also can keep his or her newspaper out of trouble, or strengthen its position on controversial issues, or enrich the discussion.
The value of a nuanced position may not always be immediately apparent. As editorial-page editor of the Stamford Advocate in 1986, I argued in meetings, unsuccessfully, that Governor William A. O'Neill of Connecticut, a Democrat, deserved reelection. The publisher reversed me, but saw value in having an editorial that reflected the strengths and weaknesses of both candidates. (And when an endorsement of the Republican candidate, Julie Belaga, appeared, the editorial did just that. U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd wrote to say that we had made O'Neill's strengths so clear that we should have gone ahead and endorsed him.)
An editorial writer won't survive many big disagreements with a publisher. But just as a savvy writer can steer a newspaper away from embarrassment, a writer whose credentials are chiefly political may one day prove to be a liability. The critical editorial that doesn't get written. That hired political gun on the editorial page may be a loose cannon.
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