By Donald Gilpin
The times have changed. The internet has usurped the dominance of traditional “legacy” media. The public’s trust in media has declined. The current administration has been attacking the press, targeting reporters, co-opting and suing major news organizations, distorting daily press briefings, threatening PBS and NPR.
But “our mission hasn’t changed,” said John Mooney, founding editor of NJ Spotlight News, who was one of three veteran journalists leading a May 19 forum on the erosion of traditional media, hosted by the Princeton Community Democratic Organization (PCDO).
“The way we do our jobs, the way we get information, report on a story, write the story including both sides of the story — all of those basic tools — haven’t changed at all,” said Nancy Solomon, senior reporter for WNYC and founding managing editor of New Jersey Public Radio.
The third panelist, award-winning New Jersey political columnist Charlie Stile, agreed. “The fundamental issue is still there, explaining to people what they can’t see for themselves, sometimes exposing, when you can, the malfeasance and corruption that undermines the political process, the democratic process, and the faith people have in government,” he said.
The Monday evening forum, held at the Center for Modern Aging Princeton on Poor Farm Road, drew more than 50 people, many with questions and comments to contribute to the 80-minute discussion.
In his introductory remarks, PCDO President Jeff Oakman warned about “the dangers to the free press and free expression in this country,” emphasizing, “particularly in an election year, it couldn’t be more important to have accurate, objective information that people can use to understand what’s happening in the state and in the country.”
In welcoming the three speakers PCDO Programming Chair Jean Durbin noted, “We read your words. We listen to your words. You help us think and explain the events happening in our lives.”
The three journalists talked about their early days in the field and what it was that inspired them to devote their lives to this challenging career.
Stile recalled growing up by the Jersey Shore “in a home that was consumed by news,” where his father would make him run downtown in Cape May to get The New York Times. “I’d bring it back and we’d read it religiously, and argue over it religiously. The news was always in the atmosphere as part of our lives, part of our discussion.”
He went to The College of New Jersey, planning to become a teacher, but visited the college newspaper one day and his future career was determined. “At least in my household, the news was all-consuming,” he said. “It was guidance. It was power. Once I dropped in on the newspaper, I didn’t want to do anything else. That’s how I got started.”
Stile started his professional career as a cub reporter covering the municipal government in Ocean City. “The Zoning Board, I didn’t even know what zoning was,” he said.
Stile, who now writes two widely read columns per week on a variety of state political issues, has written for The Princeton Packet, The Times of Trenton, and The Record over the past 40 years.
Solomon grew up reading newspapers and watching TV news every day. After high school she went to Portland, Ore., and went to work as the first woman on the local road crew. When she got promoted to the municipal sewage department she was required to come in to work a half hour early, and she would sit with her colleagues and read the paper each morning.
She often got into arguments with the men she was working with over what they were reading in the paper. “I could see the influence the newspaper had over what they thought about, and I became more and more interested in becoming the person who was writing those articles,” she said. “Eventually I decided to give it a try, so I went to college, and I wasn’t sure I could write, but I could, and that was the beginning of becoming a journalist.” Her first professional news job was working for a small northern California paper, where she wrote three or four stories every day, took photographs which she developed and printed, then laid out the women’s page.
Solomon has produced more than 100 stories for NPR. She also hosts “Ask Governor Murphy,” a monthly call-in show, where she recaps her conversations with the New Jersey governor on a variety of timely topics.
Mooney, whose father was a New York Times reporter and editor, was not interested in journalism until he went to college, and heard that the college newspaper was looking for writers, and decided he should start building his resume in hopes of getting a job after graduation. His first story assignment was about four plants that had been stolen from the science laboratory.
“That was my first crime story,” he said, “So I wrote the story, and two of the four plants were returned. Talk about influence. I can change the world, one plant at a time. That spurred my interest.”
Around the same time, the Watergate scandal was happening. “Watching this go on and seeing the role of the Washington Post, and watching the movie with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford — I wanted to be one of them. I saw the noble cause of journalism, and it dawned on me: that’s what my father has been doing for the past 20 years.”
Mooney described starting at a small weekly paper, then moving up the ladder to the Bergen Record, then the Newark Star Ledger before starting Spotlight in 2010.
All three journalists agreed that though many of the fundamentals of their work have endured, many aspects have changed.
“The nationalization of politics has changed things and is affecting the way we cover the governor’s race,” said Stile. “This isn’t going to be about New Jersey Transit. It’s not going to be about the school funding formula. The main issue is: Are you for or against Trump? Are you a Trump partisan or are you going to fight Trump? The New Jersey governor is the most powerful chief executive governor in the country, and that is how that person is going to be selected. It’s a shame. There are so many important issues that need to be addressed.”
Solomon described a new political environment of “tribalism,” with the three New Jersey Republican congressmen — Jeff Van Drew, Chris Smith, and Thomas Kean Jr. — refusing to speak with her. “I can’t get their attention. They will not respond to what they see as liberal media. How am I going to cover you and be fair to you if I can’t come to your events, and I can’t cover your campaign speeches?” she asked.
Stile described ”a brand new dimension” of hostile partisanship in a recent confrontation with Jack Ciattarelli, current Republican frontrunner in the upcoming gubernatorial primary. “Even Chris Christie would answer the questions. If he was pissed off, he’d let you know, but he answered the question. This is different.”
Along with the somewhat gloomy commentary on a decline in the traditional press and resulting negative effects on democracy, there were many bright spots during the course of the evening’s discussion — “a bit of hope tonight about what we see happening,” as Durbin requested in her introductory remarks.
Solomon noted a “dedicated listenership that supports what we’re doing” and a doubling of contributions to NPR in a recent fundraising campaign. All three panelists expressed admiration for the rising generation of young journalists, and they noted the abundance of new tools and information sources that journalists today have access to.
“You want to be part of making your town and the world a better place,” said Solomon in reflecting on her career. “You see things that are wrong that you want to change. Journalism is a great way to engage with those ideas and do that work, and hopefully you can have some influence.”