Where Have All the Washington Watchdogs Gone?

by Katie Burns-Yocum

Many of the “Washington watchdogs” – journalists who cover the White House, Congress and federal agencies -- have left the kennel because of budget cuts and the changing focus of the media , panelists at American University said Tuesday night.

On Feb. 17, AU’s School of Communications and WAMU 88.5 FM teamed up to co-produce American Forum “Washington Watchdogs: An Endangered Species?”

The forum, which works to uncover under-reported, over-looked issues involving the media, features panelists from across the journalism spectrum, but all agreed that the job of journalists covering Washington politics is “holding the feet [of politicians] to the fire.”

The Forum, which was covered by live bloggers and students tweeting, or updating their Twitters, was also broadcast on WAMU 88.5 FM as well as live on CSPAN.

Since 1985, the number of regional newspapers with bureaus in Washington, D.C., has declined by fifty percent according to moderator Wendell Cochran, an SOC professor.

Suzanne Struglinski, senior editor of Provider magazine and former Washington, D.C., correspondent for the Deseret News, said, “There is a lack of background without Washington bureaus.”

“There is no replacement for eyewitness journalism,” said Melinda Wittstock, founder and CEO of Capitol News Connection, an independent news service. “It’s about being in the room. You miss something when you do not have someone on the ground. You can’t understand the context.”

Mark Whitaker, Washington bureau chief and senior vice president for NBC News, said that news outlets without Washington bureaus have readers who will have trouble “understanding the implications as to what events in Washington mean to them.”

Many correspondents sent to Washington by small regional papers have had their “bureaus closed out from under them,” according to Tyler Marshall, journalist and writer who recently completed a study for the Project for Excellence in Journalism called, “The New Washington Press Corps.”

Marshall cited three trends in his study. He said the first is that the staff levels at mainstream media outlets are declining sharply. The second is that the Washington Press Corps is changing form to niche media and the third is the increase in foreign press in Washington.

He said there are more than 1,400 members of the Foreign Press Center. The FPC helps foreign media cover the U.S. and promotes “the depth, accuracy, and balance of foreign reporting from the U.S., by providing direct access to authoritative American information sources,” according to their website, http://www.fpc.state.gov/ .

People are focusing more on specific issues and beginning to form what is called niche media. According to one student, the problem arises when there in an imbalance because niche media tends to be biased.

The reason for the loss of many Washington bureaus boils down to a “line on an accounting page,” according to Struglinski, who is one of the correspondents whose bureau was closed.

Panelists also discussed the decline in readership of newspapers. Many newspapers are losing readership to online papers which have become increasingly popular.

Whitaker said the rise of the internet has led newspapers to give their content away free online. He blames the availability of free content for “the deterioration of the business model” that traditionally charged for content and advertising.

Facebook, a popular social networking site, has over two million members, yet no one will pay to use it. This is similar to the problems face by the online branches of newspapers. “Someone still has to pay for it,” said Wittstock.

Blogs also contribute to the decline in the number of watchdogs in Washington, the panelists said. “Blogs are not going anywhere,” said Struglinski. “Papers need to figure out how to use it.”

Papers are working to adapt to the changing lifestyles of their audiences. “We are an increasingly video-driven culture,” according to Whitaker. “Video gets good print to a larger audience.”

“People are always going to need the news,” Hilary Leister, a print journalism major at AU, said in response to the panelists’ comments. “They will probably just get it from different places.”

“Journalism and viewers deserve more than a podcast,” Struglinski said of trend of newspapers going predominantly online. Whitaker said his main worry is about the decrease in the number of traditional, experienced reporters as the mainstream media comes under increasing financial pressures.

The panelists also gave the students in the audience some advice to help them be better prepared journalists. Struglinski said students need to “have strong interview skills and basic reporting skills.” Whitaker said that students should develop their multimedia skills, but not to let their writing skills suffer.

“Journalists have to be able to write, edit, blog and tweet,” said Whitaker, referring to the microblogging site, Twitter. “We all need to embrace new forms of media without sacrificing time to gather information.