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July 19, 2009, 11:57 AM ET
Investigative Reporting on Demand
Thomas Jefferson hated journalists. So did George Washington. Abraham Lincoln gave his opinion once in a Cabinet meeting. As his secretaries debated a policy, someone said, “We have to consider the press, they’re so unreliable.”
Lincoln: “No, the papers are reliable. They lie, and they re-lie, and they re-lie. They’re altogether re-lie-able.”
And yet, they put an independent press at the center of freedom. They knew that the halls of power are dark and restricted, and without vigilant journalists in action, the people who occupy them will slide into corruption.
But investigation takes time and money. With newspapers closing (one company that runs three small New England papers just shut down), circulation declining, and info-tainment, punditry, and bloviation displacing serious reporting, investigative journalism falls down the priority ladder.
Private citizens can help.
The Public Editor at the New York Times today has a suggestion. He directs people to a Web site entitled Spot.us, an organization that allows investigative journalists to pitch their project and ask for contributions to fund it. People can contribute as little as $20 to different stories, and when the reporter reaches the goal, he or she can proceed. If the project finsihes and a news outlet purchases the story, the contributors get reimbursed. (I just sent in a payment.)
The initiative amounts to community-commissioned stories. If people want to see more and deeper coverage of important events and actions, if they regret the decline of public interest coverage in the new 24/7 cycle, this looks like a workable model. But it can’t happen unless enough people join in.
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