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The Daily Signal
Reforming Journalism Requires ‘Street Reporting,’ Not ‘Suite Reporting,’ World Editor Olasky Says
Rachel del Guidice
January 22, 2020
Reforming journalism is about making good journalism that is factual and original, a renowned magazine editor and author says.
“We like being flies on the wall, watching and listening,” Marvin
Olasky, editor-in-chief of World magazine, said Wednesday at an event
at The Heritage Foundation, adding:
We don’t want to make ourselves the center of attention and action. We
especially don’t want to make ourselves the apparent font of wisdom. …
There’s so much opinion journalism. There’s very little reporting of
people actually listening, paying attention, watching, describing.
Olasky, a former atheist and Marxist who converted to Christianity, has
written more than 20 books, including “The Tragedy of American
Compassion” and his latest book, “Reforming Journalism,” which asks the
question of whether “powerful, biblically principled journalism” is “a
lost art.”
He identified several practices for producing the best journalism,
including on-the-ground reporting, or “street reporting,” rather than
“suite reporting,” and sprinkling salt, not sugar, by exposing the
truth and not trying to cover it up.
“Sometimes, people are forgetting the divide between good journalism,
of actually going out and really trying to honestly report what’s going
wrong, what’s going on, without doing it in a way that’s designed to
popularize, publicize a particular group or organization or
individual,” Olasky said. “And sugar isn’t very helpful, either. [That]
just gives us sugar fixes, and you switch statements off, and cover up
the truth. [That’s] not good journalism. That world, we try to be salt.
Salt has taste.”
He also urged avoiding entangling alliances, as well as creating
quality content rather than clickbait, remembering the mission, and
being faithful to that mission.
“We do try to take strong stands when the Bible is clear,” Olasky said.
“We avoid doing so when the Bible isn’t, and we have the opportunity to
get things right by trying to practice biblical objectivity. But now
Christians are not immune to the temptations and pressures that affect
other journalists.”
He also discussed what biblical journalism means in his perspective, and how he pursues ethics in that field.
“Really, all [worthwhile] reporting and writing is based on the
understanding that God is holy, we are sinners, Christ’s sacrifice
bridges the gap,” Olasky said, adding:
The heavens declare the glory of God, but the streets proclaim the
sinfulness of man. So biblical journalism emphasizes God’s holiness and
man’s sinfulness. And we try to do this, again, being very careful not
to mischaracterize, abuse, or think of our opponents as forever enemies.
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