Journalistic independence was more than a lofty ideal in 1908 when Randolph Radebaugh launched what was to become The News Tribune. It was also good business sense.
The Tacoma Daily News Tribune, as the city’s fourth daily newspaper, had to distinguish itself. So in an editorial announcing the Tribune’s policies, editors declared it “the people’s paper” and pledged that it would be nonpartisan.
The signifiicance of that statement might be lost on many of today’s newspaper readers accustomed to a different brand of journalism. They have come to expect – even demand – a press that reports the news without fear or favor.
But the notion that newspapers should remain impartial is relatively recent in origin, largely the product of market forces and the emergence of wire services and one-newspaper cities.
Early American newspapers, by contrast, were essentially political party organs. The press of the founders’ era was a ready and willing participant in the rough and tumble of political warfare; in fact, many papers owed their very existence to just such a role.
The model of a partisan press persisted in many communities, Tacoma included, into the 20th century. The News Tribune can trace its roots to two newspapers that were unmistakably political, The Ledger and The News. One, The Ledger, was staunchly Republican, and the other ardently Democratic.
For Radebaugh, remaining above the political fray gave the new paper an advantage – it could report all sides of a story and appeal to all readers. It also formed the basis for an enduring value that continues to guide The News Tribune.
That independence takes many forms. It’s embodied in candidate endorsements that split party tickets, in corporate autonomy that ensures that decisions about how to cover this community are made in this community, and in news reporting that does not take orders from the paper’s business interests.
It is also, like all human endeavors, a work in progress. The News Tribune has come a long way from the days in the late 1960s when its City Hall reporter threatened to quit rather than insert “socialist” into a description of a plan for the City of Tacoma to start a public TV station. (The paper’s owners had their own station at the time. The reporter, Rod Cardwell, resisted and prevailed; he went on to become the paper’s managing editor).
Today, it’s not unusual to find news reports and editorial board opinions at odds with the interests of the paper’s advertisers. We run the risk that businesses will take their ads – and their dollars – elsewhere. Through the years, some have.
But allowing financial concerns to color news coverage is an even bigger risk. Such influence would destroy the paper’s biggest asset: the rapport it establishes with readers based on credibility.
For the same reason, The News Tribune takes pains to avoid conflicts of interest. Our restaurant critic dines on the company’s dime, and our sports department pays its own way to away games. Newspaper executives support community efforts with their time, company money and advertising space, but those connections don’t buy entry or influence on the news pages.
The only allegiances a truly independent newspaper should have are to the truth and to the community it serves. The News Tribune’s 125-year history is a story of a newspaper striving to perfect those loyalties. COMING AUG. 3: Building business.
