Back in July I noted that Evan Smith was leaving his job as Editor of Texas Monthly to lead a new online Texas-centric journalism venture called the Texas Tribune.
I was openly critical and a bit cynical about this new venture, writing, “Evan Smith leaving Left-leaning Texas Monthly to launch ‘non-partisan’ Texas Tribune. I’ll believe that when I see it.”
Well, today we finally get to “see it”, as the Texas Tribune officially launched today.
Make sure to read their “About Us” page to get a better understanding of why their non-profit, on-line, State policy-centric (hopefully) non-partisan model of journalism very well could be the future of journalism.
Who is the Texas Tribune?
According to Smith, the Tribune’s mission would be:
A non-profit, nonpartisan public media organization. Our mission is to promote civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide concern…
My skepticism was (and remains) in the “non-partisan” portion of that statement.
The Texas Monthly is a left-leaning magazine. I believe Evan Smith leans the same way. The first two reporters that Smith hired were Elise Hu (formerly of KVUE News here in Austin) and her boyfriend Matt Stiles, a former government reporter at the Houston Chronicle.
While both are certainly capable and proven journalists, certainly neither would claim to live to the right-of-center.
Then there’s the money trail — as in, “Where did the money come from to fund this venture?”
The venture is being funded by John Thornton, general partner of Austin Ventures, a local venture capital firm:
Mr. Thornton is an active supporter of Texas Democrats, but claims he is “giving up partisan politics for the sake of the Texas Tribune.”
Despite his claims of leaving partisan politics behind, Thornton has donated $2400 to the campaign of Democrat Chet Edwards and $2400 to Democrat Bill White in June of this year. John’s wife, Julie, matched his $2400 donation to Chet Edwards.
So we have a Left-leaning editor, at least two left-leaning journalist, bankrolled by an active supporter of Texas Democrats. You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t quite buy their “non-partisan public media organization” claims without a bit of skepticism.
An open question to Mr. Smith: To your knowledge, are there any Conservative or Republican members of your reporting team?
But I will give them the benefit of the doubt, as I do believe that they are sincere in their goal of non-partisanship coverage (I make no such claim here in my little corner of the Interweb).
Initial Reaction
While it’s not quite off to an Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government launch — my initial impression is, “I’m impressed.”
First of all, the site is beautifully designed. But more than that, it’s easy to navigate and feature and content rich.
The newly launched Texas Tribune
But none of that will matter without the relevant, timely, well-written and well-researched content that they are promising. Judging by their first day out of the gate, I’d say that they are delivering on that promise (so far).
I’ll continue to monitor the team at the Texas Tribune and hold them accountable to their promised mission of “non-partisanship,” but I think that they are going to be a valuable source of information in the Texas political landscape. I know I’ll be a frequent (as in “daily”) visitor of their site.
I wish them tremendous success and best wishes in accomplishing their mission.
Read this review from The Nieman Journalism Lab for a good rundown of the new Texas Tribune.
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(Disclosure: In their “Other Blogs” section, they do link and aggregate the content from UrbanGrounds. A nice step in the direction of non-partisan. Though I’d love to see them add Blue-Dot-Blues to their blog list, as I think Michele puts out some of the most thoughtful and well written policy posts — from a Conservative perspective — in the entire Texas blogosphere.)
Thanks for the link, Robbie! (also, you’re a pretty awesome blogger yourself!)
I think we all know that the Tribune is going to be a left-leaning resource, but they did start out with some great political reporters at the same time. The sad truth is that many conservatives don’t get into journalism to begin with – it’s not a high-paying field, and it isn’t exactly family-friendly, among other reasons. The result of course is that the mainstream media is naturally left-wing. I know this isn’t the whole reason for the leftist nature of the MSM, but it’s a step toward explaining the problem.
Factual error – Stiles and Hu are actually engaged, not boyfriend/girlfriend. Also, they were two of five reporters initially hired, not necessarily the “first two.” You don’t mention the other three who were hired at about the same time, but maybe you didn’t have as much to say about them.
Do you have specific links to any of their left-leaning work? I haven’t followed their work long enough to see the bias you may have seen, but would love to be enlightened with your knowledge of Hu and Stiles.
Journalism is an imprecise science — would be curious to know your criteria for what constitutes a “left-leaning” journalist and by how many degrees of an angle it takes to get there. In my experience, journalists are usually way too busy worrying about getting stories done to engage in the machinations necessary to sneak biases past editors.
Omar, let me come at this point-by-point:
1) I didn’t get the memo in regards to Elise and Matt’s engagement. Congratulations to them. Though I think having a husband and wife reporting team is…a bit…odd. I’m not saying it’s a good or a bad decision by the Texas Tribune to hire this pair (and that’s what they are) — just noting that it’s an interesting decision. There is a reason that a vast number of companies have nepotism policies (forbidding the practice) — and it’s not borne out of arbitrary policy making.
2) As to the “other three” writers hired initially by Smith at the Tribune, I didn’t mention them, because I am not familiar with them or their work. I commented specifically on Elise and Matt because they were the first two writers that I read were hired by the Trib back in July. Plus, and more importantly, I have followed Elise and Matt’s work for the last few years and am familiar with them.
I see that the Trib lists 14 Writers on their staff (to include Evan Smith) — again, I ask, is a single one of them a self-identified Conservative? Or, are they all Liberal?
I didn’t accuse Evans, Stiles, or Hu of being biased journalist. I merely pointed out the fact they — like you — are Liberals. This isn’t an opinion. Of course, if any one of you would like to make the argument and present the facts backing up your Conservative or Republican credentials, I’ll be glad to post them and eat all the crow in the world for my error.
As a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman, you probably don’t believe your own paper to hold a Liberal bias, do you?
But the truth is that the overwhelming number of journalist self-identify as Liberals or Democrats. My concern with having an entire writing and reporting staff comprised of self-identified Liberals (even if they believe themselves to be “moderate” Liberals) is that it leads to group-think.
Greater diversity of thought in the halls of media power would be nice. However, I won’t spend a lot of time banging on the door of the local newspaper office demanding equal representation of ideas on the editorial board or in the paper’s news copy. It’d be almost as futile as Farouk Shami’s candidacy for Texas Governor.
I’d be interested to know if the newsroom at the Trib thinks that Glenn Beck is hack deserving of ridicule, while Keith Olbermann is the second coming of Edward Morrow. I’d like to know if they think that Tea Party participants are true grassroots citizen activists, or worthy or derision as “tea baggers.” I’d like to know if they believe that ACORN is a criminal enterprise worth investigating for their widespread and institutional criminal behavior, or if they are a legitimate “non-partisan” community organizing group.
When you have a newsroom filled with nothing but politically-like minded writers, who will stand up and argue that Fox News is a legitimate News agency, rather than join in the “Faux News” jokes? Who will provide the balance?
3) You don’t have to sneak biases past your editor when your editor shares your biases, or when your organization is institutionally biased.
Thanks for the tip, I hadn’t heard about this new venture.
In my experience, journalists are usually way too busy worrying about getting stories done to engage in the machinations necessary to sneak biases past editors.
Posted by Omar G. | November 3, 2009, 9:38 pm
Good grief. Drug studies have to be double-blind to avoid the bias of scientists. Frikkin journalists don’t have to ‘sneak’ anything. They get into journalism because they have a viewpoint in the first place. And ‘editors’ are hardly the world’s referee.
I’ll check it out.
Anything other than who/what/when/where and how is not journalism.
I have my own biases and finely tuned filters, so we will see what we will see.
Robbie — I don’t self-identify as “Liberal” or “Conservative.” I’ve been a published journalist since middle school and long ago learned that doing so is not compatible with the job.
I’m a little saddened that you made that assumption for/about me and posted it publicly because I don’t believe I’ve given any indication of that in my work and go out of my way to be apolitical on Twitter, my personal blogging and anywhere else I have a public presence. What have I posted/published/written that makes you believe that? Again, I’d love to see links to specific articles, not just generalizations. You kind of ducked that as far as Elise and Matt. What specific coverage of theirs led you to that conclusion? Or did you just make a blind assumption?
I don’t have Conservative or Liberal “Credentials.” Why should I? How would that help my career in any way to be pigeonholed?
If your view is “all media are Liberal unless they self-identify” otherwise, then it was foolish of me to even bother to comment here since you’ve made up your mind.
Why should TT staffers have to self-identify at all on their Web site? What journalist would want to do that? That’s a very good way to get fired from any news organization.
We’ve talked before on stories and I hope I showed you respect and treated you well. I find that I am not being given the same consideration based on your comment.
Omar, I’m sorry you feel that way. Calling you, Elise, or Matt a “liberal” is neither a criticism nor an indictment.
While you might not “self-identify” publicly as either Liberal or Republican, you know which one you are. You are a smart and informed guy. Surely you have opinions on abortion, immigration, social welfare, taxes, gay marriage, and a myriad of other issues that shape and define ones political identity.
I happen to believe that in your personal life you likely lean left. Again…not an indictment or condemnation. Just an observation.
And no, I have no links to support that your tech blogging for the AAS is biased in anyway. Nor do I even believe that to be the case.
As for Elise and Matt, again — I didn’t accuse them of biased journalism at either KVUE or the Chron. I simply noted that I believe that they are Liberals. Or Moderates. Or Progressives. Or whatever term people want to use. And, again, that’s not an indictment.
Though, I’m curious why I didn’t see you, Elise, Matt, or any other member of the local media hanging out at the happy hours and after-hours parties during the Defending the American Dream summit that was held in Austin on the same weekend as the Netroots Nation event that was taking place in Austin at the same time (the story for which you interviewed me)? Oh, that’s right…because everyone was hanging out at Netroots Nation. And not in their role as “journalists.” It’s because they were where they are most comfortable and surrounded by like thinkers.
There are numerous polls out there that conclusively illustrate that — unlike you — many journalists do self-identify. They might not do it openly, and only do so anonymously (for the professional reasons you stated), but they do self-identify, and they do so overwhelmingly on the Left.
My point…again…is that regardless of how hard one tries to maintain that personal and professional objectivity, when every single person in your organization holds the same ideology it is not in the best interest of true objectivity. Why do you think Anderson Cooper could get away with calling Tea Party protesters “tea baggers” repeatedly on air? Because he knew it was a shared opinion at his network and that their would be no repercussions for it.
At the worst end of the spectrum it leads to a Liberal paper like the NY Times squashing stories that hurt their candidate’s chances of getting elected.
The Tribune does not have a large enough body of work yet to determine if they are going to be just another institutionally Liberally-biased media institution. I’m cheering and hoping that they don’t.
Oh, and being pigeonholed as a Liberal in the media industry won’t hurt your career at all. Being a Liberal in the media industry is not like having a scarlet letter C hanging around our neck. In fact, it’s likely to do more to benefit your career than hamper it (see: Ezra Klein and Rachel Maddow). Being outed as a Conservative, on the other hand…
I’m impressed by their stated goal in response to the question of whether they will be truly non-partisan:
“Absolutely. Our only bias is in favor of Texas being the best place it can be, which means shining a light on the good being done and making as much noise as possible when the public interest is being subverted or ignored. It doesn’t matter to us if Democrats, Republicans, Independents, or Wiccans are in charge. We’ll call ‘em as we see ‘em.”
I hope this statement holds more substance than hot air and that they will always keep this promise in the forefront of their minds.
I think the Texas Tribune has the potential to be great. I’m glad you posted this, as I didn’t know about this new media outlet. They are in a position to provide invaluable, unbiased reporting that would benefit all the citizens of Texas. Best wishes to them as they forge a path into a new frontier of journalism.
Robbie —
You bring up a good point in that you DON’T know my religious views, how I voted in the last election (or if I voted at all), where I was raised and how being in a military family influenced my point of view.
I don’t take “Liberal” as an offense any more than I would someone saying they think I’m “Conservative” in my personal life. I find that I’m labeled at all disturbing because of how apolitical I am. It makes me wonder what other assumptions people make about me based on information they don’t really have.
But I understand now from what you’ve written why you might believe most people in the media would lean in that direction. You may be right. But actually being in the business, I’ve found much more diversity in point of view than you might imagine. People in newsrooms butt heads all the time. People yell. Stuff gets thrown. People don’t fall into lockstep with any one point of view and I’m even uncomfortable being lumped in with other tech or feature reporters in general. I think I have a very different point of view than others in my business and I think that’s a good thing.
As to why I was at Netroots instead of Defending The American Dream is because that’s where I was assigned to report on that particular day, not because it was the place I wanted to hang out — I was asked to cover bloggers and technology at the conference, not any kind of political news. In fact, my biggest scoop of the one day I was there was getting Obama Girl really mad at me for asking her dumb questions.
In fact, given the choice, I’d have rather been reporting from a GameStop or an AMD lab. You might find it hard to believe, but I really, really don’t enjoy writing anything that has the slightest thing to do with politics. I don’t know if that makes me “Liberal” or “Conservative” or “None of the Above,” and I really don’t care one way or the other. I think it’s way too easy to dump people into one label or the other instead of really getting to know what they’re about on a personal level.
To me, it’s just lazy blogging.
Omar — I appreciate you coming in here and expressing yourself and taking me to task on my opinion. I’m always willing to concede when, as Dennis Miller says, “of course, I could be wrong.”
In your case, it seems that I was. My sincere apologies for mischaracterizing you and your views.
Also, I wasn’t directly referring to your coverage of Netroots Nation. I don’t recall anything that indicates that you were there in anything other than a professional capacity.
I did read several other local Austin media personalities’ Tweets and Facebook postings of how much fun they were having boozing it up at and participating in Netroots Nation…
Very cool of you to say, Robbie. Thanks. You know from our conversations in the past that I have great respect for what you do, so let’s leave it on that note.
Boozing it up with bloggers does sound fun, though, no matter what the event — I must have missed that.
You cannot claim this website as journalism.