Reuters Editor in Chief On How to “Cover Trump The Reuters Way”
Reuters EIC Steve Adler told the organization’s journalists to remain impartial, resist intimidation, and care less about official sources
It has been not even two weeks since the beginning of the Trump administration. Feels strange, right? We’ve already dealt with some ground-shaking executive orders, along with the muzzling of government employees and the wild ride of confirmation hearings. Many groups both within and outside of the United States are now unsure of their fate. Two weeks have been enough to throw everyone into upheaval, so it’s difficult to predict what will happen in the next four years.
Journalists have been especially concerned, given Trump’s decidedly unfriendly attitude towards the press. From gag orders to simply refusing to acknowledge certain news agencies during press conferences, Trump has proven himself to be one the least transparent politicians in an already murky field. Furthermore, public trust in the press has been shaken, thanks to the plagues of fake news and partisan divides.
Even long-held bastions of journalism are reevaluating their roles in modern reporting. Take Reuters, for instance. The international news agency, headquartered in London, has been in existence since 1851. It is often one of the first news agencies to report on developing stories. In fact, it was the first to cover Abraham Lincoln’s 1865 assassination.
Reuters has a strong stated commitment to “value-neutral” reporting, to the point that it initially refused to use the word “terrorist” in the wake of the September 11th attacks on the United States. Though this decision has engendered controversy, Reuters is largely acknowledged as one of the most objective and comprehensive news sources worldwide.
The Effect
However, this does not mean that the agency is immune to the effects of a new and often capricious government. With the unsettling precedent set by the Trump administration, Reuters Editor in Chief Steve Adler released a memo to the agency’s reporters on Tuesday.
In it, Adler said that “It’s 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’”. What, then, should an agency devoted to objective reporting do?
“[Reuters journalists] sometimes encounter some combination of censorship, legal prosecution, visa denials, and even physical threats to our journalists,” wrote Adler. “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”.
Adler then followed this statement with a list of “dos” and “don’ts” for the agency’s reporters. Among the recommendations are cautions to remain as impartial as possible, and to avoid inserting frustration or despair into their reports.
He also encouraged reporters to “become more resourceful” and to decrease their reliance on official sources and permissions. “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”.
This is in line with many predictions about the nature of reporting in the coming years. With official government sources becoming ever more opaque, journalists will have to be more canny than ever before. They will likely rely more frequently on anonymous sources and even more intensive research.
Journalism and Authoritarian Regimes
Frankly, this is not unlike journalism undertaken during other authoritarian regimes. Though Reuters itself would decline to make such a comparison, the parallels are stark and chilling. Recent regimes in Egypt and Turkey have made suppression of the press one of their top priorities.
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Cutting the link between citizens and comprehensive reporting is often a powerful part of the authoritarian toolkit. This isn’t to say that we’re suddenly in the same situation as other countries, but you should take pause. It is heartening, if not exactly reassuring, to see Reuters and other news agencies preparing for the same thing.