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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsReuters instructs its reporters to cover Trump as it does other authoritarian regimes
Link to tweet
In a message to staff today, Reuters Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler wrote about covering President Trump the Reuters way:
The first 12 days of the Trump presidency (yes, thats all its been!) have been memorable for all and especially challenging for us in the news business. Its not every day that a U.S. president calls journalists among the most dishonest human beings on earth or that his chief strategist dubs the media the opposition party. Its hardly surprising that the air is thick with questions and theories about how to cover the new Administration.
So what is the Reuters answer? To oppose the administration? To appease it? To boycott its briefings? To use our platform to rally support for the media? All these ideas are out there, and they may be right for some news operations, but they dont make sense for Reuters. We already know what to do because we do it every day, and we do it all over the world.
To state the obvious, Reuters is a global news organization that reports independently and fairly in more than 100 countries, including many in which the media is unwelcome and frequently under attack. I am perpetually proud of our work in places such as Turkey, the Philippines, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Thailand, China, Zimbabwe, and Russia, nations in which we sometimes encounter some combination of censorship, legal prosecution, visa denials, and even physical threats to our journalists. We respond to all of these by doing our best to protect our journalists, by recommitting ourselves to reporting fairly and honestly, by doggedly gathering hard-to-get information and by remaining impartial. We write very rarely about ourselves and our troubles and very often about the issues that will make a difference in the businesses and lives of our readers and viewers.
We dont know yet how sharp the Trump administrations attacks will be over time or to what extent those attacks will be accompanied by legal restrictions on our news-gathering. But we do know that we must follow the same rules that govern our work anywhere, namely:
Dos:
--Cover what matters in peoples lives and provide them the facts they need to make better decisions.
--Become ever-more resourceful: If one door to information closes, open another one.
--Give up on hand-outs and worry less about official access. They were never all that valuable anyway. Our coverage of Iran has been outstanding, and we have virtually no official access. What we have are sources.
--Get out into the country and learn more about how people live, what they think, what helps and hurts them, and how the government and its actions appear to them, not to us.
--Keep the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles close at hand, remembering that the integrity, independence and freedom from bias of Reuters shall at all times be fully preserved.
Donts:
--Never be intimidated, but:
--Dont pick unnecessary fights or make the story about us. We may care about the inside baseball but the public generally doesnt and might not be on our side even if it did.
--Dont vent publicly about what might be understandable day-to-day frustration. In countless other countries, we keep our own counsel so we can do our reporting without being suspected of personal animus. We need to do that in the U.S., too.
--Dont take too dark a view of the reporting environment: Its an opportunity for us to practice the skills weve learned in much tougher places around the world and to lead by example and therefore to provide the freshest, most useful, and most illuminating information and insight of any news organization anywhere.
This is our mission, in the U.S. and everywhere. We make a difference in the world because we practice professional journalism that is both intrepid and unbiased. When we make mistakes, which we do, we correct them quickly and fully. When we dont know something, we say so. When we hear rumors, we track them down and report them only when we are confident that they are factual. We value speed but not haste: When something needs more checking, we take the time to check it. We try to avoid permanent exclusives first but wrong. We operate with calm integrity not just because its in our rulebook but because over 165 years it has enabled us to do the best work and the most good.
Media Contact:
Heather dot Carpenter at thomsonreuters dot com
[Reuters PR Blog Post]
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN15F276
DanTex
(20,709 posts)C_U_L8R
(45,020 posts)Go journalists ! We're rooting for you.
As the memo suggests, don't rely on the Trump folks for anything,
develop your own sources.
fleur-de-lisa
(14,628 posts)Girard442
(6,084 posts)Illegitimi non carborundum
still_one
(92,394 posts)AlexSFCA
(6,139 posts)Unfortunately, media has failed us and it provided trump with enough basis to discredit it. All msm need to do live fact checking (requires a team) whenever interviewing somebody - especially someone who has a history of lying. CNN did sonmuch malpractice by simple presenting two opposing sides, both exaggerating, no fact checking; no coverage of people's lives in rust belt. This is reality show, not journalism. I hope they are truly changing. For all I know, CNN should stop prtisan opinions for a while and build itself up with strong fact-based investigative journalism.
How is it, here on DU, we cover more important topics and in depth? How is it the media only now is catching up on Bannon with info we knew for months?
How is it the media has completey failed to talk about how putin's russia has been trying to undermine democracy in EU and the US.
So many things need to be covered that are beyong Obamacare. The media needs to take some leadership instead of providing what masses want to hear. Masses need to get educated about what's going on.
dalton99a
(81,570 posts)That ought to hurt the emperor's feelings.
mn9driver
(4,428 posts)Let Fox and Breibart be the Propaganda organs that everyone makes fun of.
BainsBane
(53,066 posts)To continue to repeat his tweets and official statements, even when they are lies, turns the press into a propaganda organ for the state.
mcar
(42,372 posts)MrModerate
(9,753 posts)No Donnie, the world isn't as dark and deadly as you make it out. People of good will with integrity and smarts still substantially outnumber your shitweasels.
And we'll still be here after you have all cannibalized each other.
Madam45for2923
(7,178 posts)SticksnStones
(2,108 posts)When the battle is over truth and constitutionality, lawyers and journalists are the front line.
And we citizens are the rank and file behind them.
JudyM
(29,274 posts)Cha
(297,655 posts)--Get out into the country and learn more about how people live, what they think, what helps and hurts them, and how the government and its actions appear to them, not to us.
Excellent!
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN15F276
malchickiwick
(1,474 posts)ananda
(28,876 posts)Good for them!
thinkingagain
(906 posts)I never thought I'd see my country on the same list as another "authoritarian regimes"
such China, Russia, N Korea and radical Islam
at least European Union President Donald Tusk's just listed it the Trump administration
When will the Republicans wake up and stand up to him before it is to late and all of our friends have turned their backs on us
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,437 posts)but extremely sad that it's come to this- that the US Media is treating its coverage of our country-the freakin United States of America- as an AUTHORITARIAN country.
tenorly
(2,037 posts)ailsagirl
(22,899 posts)Hekate
(90,793 posts)This is very heartening.
Reuters Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler gives wise advice...to his reporters.
Now if only someone would give US some wise advice as to how to deal with the authoritarian regime of the orange Liar-in-Chief - who was elected only because of massive GOP voter suppression, cyber-attacks against the Democrats, the Clinton campaign, and the election itself by a foreign power, and, finally, by a letter to Congress meant to do damage to Hillary Clinton only 11 days before the election from an FBI Director who clearly violated the 1939 Hatch Act.
If only someone could give us some wise advice as to what WE should be doing about this
lying, demonic monster and his authoritarian Republican Congressional cohorts.
Peaceful Protester
(280 posts)Trump's executive order shows he is willing to go to great lengths to appease his base while obscuring the fact he promised them a Muslim ban during his campaign. He claims his executive order is merely about security. Yet, many experts believe this will make us less, not more safe. Meanwhile, even Israel thinks it is a bad idea.
Trump has business ties in many countries throughout the Middle East, but none of those countries are named in his executive order. Most of the 9/11 terrorists came from Saudi Arabia, a country not mentioned in the executive order.
In Battle for Iraq, a PBS Film, soldiers in Mosul deal with unidentified people asking for help. Yet soldiers help these people when they can. Over the years, soldiers have learned they must treat locals with dignity and respect to gain their trust and support. Somehow amidst the fighting and chaos they are able to keep their cool and quickly assess potentially dangerous situations. We can and must learn from these brave and honorable men and women who defend us on the front line.
Trump's executive order is not so much about security as it is about Trump himself, power, control, appeasing his base and fear-mongering.
References:
Trump, who campaigned on a Muslim ban, says to stop calling it a Muslim ban
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-who-campaigned-on-a-muslim-ban-says-to-stop-calling-it-a-muslim-ban-630961d0fbcf
Giuliani: Trump Told Me He Wanted A "Muslim Ban"
https://jonathanturley.org/2017/01/30/giuliani-trump-told-me-he-wanted-a-muslim-ban/comment-page-2/
Countries where Trump does business are not hit by new travel restrictions
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/countries-where-trump-does-business-are-not-hit-by-new-travel-restrictions/2017/01/28/dd40535a-e56b-11e6-a453-19ec4b3d09ba_story.html
Battle for Iraq | FRONTLINE | PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/battle-for-iraq/
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Squinch
(51,004 posts)Kelly Ann couldn't give a valuable piece of information if her life depended on it. And we don't need to subject ourselves to her constant river of lies.
progressoid
(49,999 posts)was because all they did was parrot whatever press release they were given.
Do some investigative journalism for a change!!!!
calimary
(81,466 posts)--Become ever-more resourceful: If one door to information closes, open another one.
--Give up on hand-outs and worry less about official access. They were never all that valuable anyway. Our coverage of Iran has been outstanding, and we have virtually no official access. What we have are sources.
I GUARANTEE there are people very eager, ready, and willing to take up the other side to enlarge upon the expanding systemic opposition to trump within government - AND outside of government. I felt that way when the media whored itself to bush/cheney, and did what they were told and bowed to the threats - so WE who depended on the whole truth were severely short-changed. And it cost at least 4,000 Americans in Iraq their lives, sacrificed on the altar of bush/cheney's unwanted, unnecessary, and abominable war. There were TONS of people available to be talking heads, writers, columnists, roundtable experts. There were armies of people, scientists, nuclear specialists and inspectors, and war opponents of EVERY stripe (and some sexy, too, because they were celebrities).
But OMG, Heaven Forbid we lose ACCESS!!! Sadly, they'd have been far better off without it. They would have had nothing but objective truth, separate from the administration's agenda and ulterior motives. They would have been forced to cover and pay attention to the other side, which had been locked out as far as getting its message to the public. Nobody wanted to cover them. Nobody wanted to take photos of the returning flag-draped coffins from the war - you'd be fired if you did. And they were AFRAID. They were totally intimidated. Chicken-shits! They should have turned in their press passes and badges and dogtags and resigned in disgrace, every last one of them, and gone into garbage collecting - the real kind, with the trucks and the king-size cans left out along the curb for Trash Day the following morning, not the figurative or metaphorical kind. There were TONS of people who would have given their eye teeth to get some face time, to get their message out, to give equal time to the other side, to counter the constant and ruthlessly-propagandized drumbeat for war. The so-called news "pros" CERTAINLY should have turned in their presidential kneepads. I suspect some of those were personally autographed.
SHAME on every last miserable useless one of them.
williesgirl
(4,033 posts)sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)AgadorSparticus
(7,963 posts)burrowowl
(17,645 posts)Sad
MadDAsHell
(2,067 posts)Nowhere in his statement does Mr. Adler say "treat this like an authoritarian regime." He simply says "Let's continue to do our job like we would anywhere."
There's enough bad shit out there to get Trump on, I'm not sure why multiple DUers are resorting to completely misrepresenting Reuter's statement. Is it really worth a few recs?