David Smith, the executive chairman of the right-leaning television-station group Sinclair, recently purchased the Baltimore Sun. Already, he is crossways with the newsroom after a disastrous three-hour meeting with skeptical journalists
That’s not shocking. Although Sinclair has tilted rightward in recent years, playing footsy with fact-challenged Trumpism, mainstream newsrooms like the Sun’s have tilted heavily leftward amid the woke revolution following the murder of George Floyd. The two cultures have never been farther apart.
However, there is a way to forge a productive relationship between a conservative owner and a left-leaning newsroom without a blizzard of pink slips and a long-diminished product. Smith would be wise to take a more patient approach that respects long-held, traditional journalistic values while creating a culture and incentives that will turn the ship back toward the neutral center.
In my 25 years with newspapers, I have been deputy editorial page editor of the Trumpy Washington Times, editorial page editor of the right-leaning but Trump-skeptical Washington Examiner, and deputy editorial page editor of the Trump-hating USA Today.
Over that period, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how a conservative who loves local news and wants to make the communities he covers better places can work with newspaper culture to transform a newsroom into something to be proud of, while reviving its business side and providing a model for rescuing the industry.
The first step to reassure the newsroom that new ownership and journalists can work together is to make clear that the Trump fantasy of “stolen” elections, Jan. 6 “hostages” and epithets such as “lunatic” hurled toward the investigating independent counsel have no place in the Sun’s news or opinion pages. Facts matter. Without this understanding, Smith might as well fire the whole newsroom, because there will be no cooperation.
The second step is to embrace the need for a diverse newsroom that covers the full spectrum of Maryland news, with a simultaneous focus on intellectual diversity. An effort to cover Maryland or national news without any Republicans or conservatives on is as doomed as an attempt to cover Baltimore without the insight and connections of Black editors and reporters. Successful hiring for intellectual diversity must become a priority every bit as important to top editors’ compensation as racial and sexual diversity.
Smith must commit to rewarding journalists who grasp this ethos — who show in their work that they want both sides of the political debate to be heard making their best arguments, not caricatured through such unfortunate journalistic techniques as “nut-picking” and truncated quotations. Instead of incentivizing journalists to target ideological enemies, he should help advance the careers of those with a record of firing in all directions and fairly representing all sides.
He can begin the paper’s transformation with the opinion section. This is where ownership traditionally has its biggest voice. Look to hire from the right-leaning reporters and editors out there who have the solid newspaper cred that colleagues in the newsroom will respect. Look to places like the Detroit News and recently retired opinion editors of the Arizona Republic among others. Consider the possibility that a resolutely centrist editorial page with a mix of voices could be as transformational in Maryland as one that more fully embraces your politics.
In doing this, Smith ought to look to the history of the Baltimore Sun and its editors for guideposts on where the Sun should stand. A new owner who has paid nine figures should respect what he bought.
He must also address the “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” culture that has taken root at corporate-owned newspapers in recent years. He can establish a new benchmark for coverage around questions of identity that they will be covered from the center, not with the euphemisms and artful evasions of the activist class. To cite one key local issue, those most threatened by crime in Maryland are of the same race as the majority of perpetrators. Journalists do no favors for the downtrodden by tiptoeing around this reality.
Smith’s goal ought to be to establish a First Amendment culture wherein independent, straight-forward reporting is embraced and efforts to stifle dissenting views are an affront to the newsroom and its ethos. He should end company participation in HR-backed segregated racial and sexual affinity groups that balkanize the newsroom and normalize divisions along color and gender lines. The Sun cannot be a force for a better, more inclusive, Baltimore while it runs its operations influenced by internal racialist activists.
None of this will happen without a fight. The openly liberal Baltimore Banner will fan the flames of any disagreement, the union will resist all change and most or all young staffers will continue to believe that political activism is at the core of journalism.
But the cause of independent journalism is noble and above politics. Returning newsrooms to the intellectual diversity they once had, and rebuilding the respect for an unbiased approach, will bring in the largest number of readers. This is at the core of saving newspapers from their long-term demise.
Too many people blame the internet for the decrepitude of once-great institutions like the Baltimore Sun. That too easily dismisses a trend that has been with us far longer: stifling corporate ownership that homogenizes the diversity of voices, views and leadership. Eliminate that, and America’s local newspapers can go back to being the vibrant and trusted bulwark of American democracy they once were.
David Mastio, a former opinion editor for USA TODAY, is an editor at The Center Square and a contributing columnist with The Kansas City Star.