Keep Politico out of the Allbritton Center

, by Ezra Silk, Blargus Co-Editor

I wrote a piece on behalf of the print Argus editorial board about various journalism issues at Wesleyan, including the potential influence of Robert Allbritton ’92 (of Politico fame) on writing curricula in his expensive new center for public life:

“Good news, everyone! Print newspapers are saved! At Wesleyan! For two years!

An anonymous alum has donated $20,000 to maintain the flailing New York Times readership program for another two years. The number of daily copies distributed will be reduced from 700 to 400 and the WSA has asked professors—who receive a hefty discount for their home-delivered subscriptions to the Times—to abstain from taking copies. “Faculty subscription to the Times is almost cheaper than toilet paper,” assured the indefatigable Charles Lemert. “The thing that’s upsetting is that probably even with 400 [copies], there are so many left over at the end of the day.”

Upsetting, eh? According to a WSA poll, the student body—or at least the part of the student body that participates in WSA elections—is actually quite down with the print Times. In a poll that accompanied last week’s elections, 75.4 percent of those surveyed said they read the Times and 49.3 percent claimed that they read it everyday.

This is not exactly surprising. Since many of us are the children of intellegentsia types— including a few Times reporters, no doubt—paying attention to the musings of the chattering class is sort of in our blood. Some of us actually might end up being in the chattering classes some day. Wes alums have certainly gone there before.

But where does our alma mater fall on the matter of journalism’s future? It’s an important question, especially given our brand new (and slightly Usdan-like) Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life. For those who don’t know, Robert Allbritton ’92 is the entrepreneur behind Politico.com, the insurgent beltway gossip newspaper that is pretty much the only news organization in America making money at the moment. Allbritton has made a lot of waves with his print/web business model for journalism, and Wesleyan has been happy to take his money, tossing him a breathless profile in the Wesleyan Connection in return. Presumably, Allbritton will be interested in imbuing his ideals on the Wesleyan student body through his new center for public life. In other words, expect a journalism class or two in the near future.

But what will be taught in these journalism classes? Will the professors be pre-approved by Allbritton himself? Will he have a say in the curriculum?

We hope not. In his lust for advertising dollars and shout-outs on the Drudge Report, Allbritton has squandered a wonderful opportunity in Politico. Now that Allbritton’s paper has taken down the decaying Washington Post with its story on backroom influence peddling at the Post, it has became all too clear: Politico is certainly no replacement. Politico does not investigate Washington. It fans the flames of Beltway insanity, bowing down to the television hacks and cynical “moderate” opinion instead of to the power of actual reporting. It is trivial, gossipy, and petty.

We thank Robert Allbritton for his money. Wesleyan is better off for it. But the buck should stop there. Having the Grey Lady firmly implanted in our hallowed halls sends an important message: Wesleyan is too smart a place to promote the ignorance that is Politico-style journalism.”

http://wesleyanargus.com/2009/09/25/editors-notebook-what-kind-of-journalism-does-wesleyan-deserve/

About Ezra Silk

I have been interested in journalism ever since I was an editor at my high school student newspaper, where I was involved in a freedom of speech controversy that was covered in the local newspaper as well as local television and radio outlets. The ACLU became involved, and the ensuing negotiations lead to a liberalization of my school's freedom of expression policy. I worked as a summer intern at the Hartford Courant after my freshman year at Wesleyan, reporting for the Avon Bureau under Bill Leukhardt and publishing over 30 stories. At the Argus I have been a news reporter, news assistant editor, news editor, features editor, editor-in-chief, executive editor, blogger, and multimedia director. I have overseen the redesign of wesleyanargus.com, founding the Blargus and initiating ArgusVideo at the beginning of my time as editor-in-chief during the spring of my junior year. During my senior year, I have co-edited the Blargus with Gianna Palmer and founded Argus News Radio, a 15-minute weekly show produced by WESU 88.1 on which I conduct a weekly segment interviewing seniors about their thesis topics. I have written over 70 stories at the Argus and continue to do reporting and blogging as much as I can.
  • Estrella ’07

    “Presumably, Allbritton will be interested in imbuing his ideals on the Wesleyan student body through his new center for public life.” What basis are you using to make this claim? Its an ugly accusation to pull out of thin air, as is the implicit accusation that Wesleyan would bow to any such demands were they to be made.

    There are many things that can be said about “Politco-style journalism,” and there is room to debate as to its merits, but for an Argus editor to state so dismissively that “Wesleyan is too smart a place to promote the ignorance that is Politico-style journalism” seems rather presumptive.

    To date the Allbrittons have been extremely generous to Wes and have, as far as I know, not asked for anything in return. Until there is evidence of something like this happening I think it best to keep from making such baseless accusations, especially in a piece that purports to defend journalistic integrity.

  • Conspiracies EVERYWHERE!

    Ezra you sound like a man with a vendetta. What gives?

    The “potential influence of Robert Allbritton ’92 (of Politico fame) on writing curricula in his expensive new center for public life”?

    Potential influence – where do you see it? Agree w/ Estrella – that’s a pretty ugly accusation. AFAIK there are no journalism classes in the worse, nor does Wesleyan have any plans to hire Politico reporters to teach them. Kind of laughable to imagine that actually happening, right?

    Also, HIS expensive center? I’m pretty sure it’s WESLEYAN’s center for public life.

    Get over yourself and your conspiracy theories.

  • Conspiracies EVERYWHERE!

    *in the works, not in the worse.

  • Jared ’09

    I had the privilege of profiling Allbritton for a journalism program in the summer of 2008, and from what I gathered he has no interest in having anything to do with shaping the Wesleyan community or its academic and extracurricular activities. Some quotes, if you will:

    “Allbritton, a trustee and member of the class of 1992, pledged $5 million toward the renovation of Davenport Hall to house Wesleyan’s new Center for the Study of Public Life and to ‘challenge younger alumni classes to contribute to the Wesleyan Fund,’ according to the Wesleyan Connection, a Wesleyan alumni publication. ;Public life is changing, in part because new media have accelerated the exchange of ideas among leaders in government, business, the arts and sciences, and grassroots activism,’ said Allbritton in the May 2007 issue. ‘I am proud to think that The Politico supports and informs this exchange. I believe that the Center for the Study of Public Life at Wesleyan also can help us understand and elevate our evolving public discourse.’ His words anticipate Obama’s commencement address; both reflect the spirit of Wesleyan.

    Allbritton rolls his eyes as I read the words out of my notebook. ‘I am almost 100% sure I didn’t write that,’ he says.”

    also:

    “Allbritton’s Wesleyan experience, he explains casually, has left a “minimal, if any” impact on his professional life. ‘The one thing that strikes me when I return,’ Allbritton smiles, ‘is how infinitely smaller everything is. But that’s about it. I came back for a photo-op and my 15 year reunion. There’s nothing really holding me to that place.’ His time as an undergrad was ‘casual.’ ‘There are two types of people at Wesleyan: those who know everybody and who are always in the limelight, and those who only know their 30 or so close friends. I was one of the latter.'”

    and finally:

    “The Allbritton profiled in the Wesleyan Connection, the Washington Post, and the American Journalism Review is a not the guy plying me with Sam Adam at three in the afternoon. This Allbritton is at his very core a businessman: his eyes light up in discussing the Politico’s business model, but they fall to his Blackberry or to the National Mall spread out before his office windows when I ask his opinions on the press’s role in journalistic ethics or about his time at Wesleyan. ”

    Not trying to burst your bubble, but I’m just saying that this guy is a businessman and he could give less than two shits about an alma mater that he was barely attached to and the state of our student press.

  • Jared ’09

    Also, have you ever actually read Politico? Covering lobbyists and measuring the he-said she-said of the DC political scene doesnt qualify as a “gossip” paper. If you want to compare journalists like Michael Calderone or Josh Kraushaar to Ariana Huffington, so be it.

    If youre going to make a claim such as this, how about a couple examples rather than a proud pronunciation from the Argus’ journalists-on-high? Hmmm….statement not backed by facts: somehow that sounds just like “the television hacks and cynical “moderate” opinion” you are attacking.

    Show us “the power of actual reporting”!

  • Keith Gordon

    Ezra Silk…. Completely uninformed and completely biased. FOX News is definitely on your career path.

  • Bradley Spahn ’11

    I must say I agree with much that has been said here in the comments. Aside from the merits of the Politico, on which you and I differ, the accusation that Robert Allbritton would try to exert a nefarious influence over the curriculum is both unfounded and implausible.

    While my interactions with Robert haven’t focused on his views on Wesleyan as Jared ‘s’09 have, his commitment to Wesleyan should be lauded regardless. Aside from his extraordinary generosity, he is leading the Board of Trustee’s efforts on fundraising and university communications, an unenviable position in this difficult fundraising environment.

    Had this editorial included reporting suggesting that Allbritton had tried to do any of the things you had hypothesized then perhaps this polemic would have been justified. But as it is, and given that no such reporting was included, this editorial represents a troubling turn for the Argus’ editorial board.

    Indeed, it seems as if the editorial was a vehicle to attack the Politico and its challenge to traditional print journalism wrapped in Wesleyan commentary. Such objections about the Politico are legitimate, but need not invoke ad hominem attacks on Allbritton or fear-mongering about any(as yet unseen) influence he might exert on the curriculum.

    I would hope that the editorial board retract this piece and apologize to Allbritton. Wesleyan Alumni that demonstrate his kind of commitment to Alma Mater should be lauded, not subject to the venomous insinuations contained herein.

  • Anonymous

    “I would hope that the editorial board retract this piece and apologize to Allbritton.”

    Seconded. Well said, Mr. Spahn.

  • Anonymous

    One thing everyone who has commented on this piece seem to be forgetting is that this piece was an editorial. Perhaps we’ve forgotten what that word means. If so, I’ll save you all the trouble of looking it up:

    ed⋅i⋅to⋅ri⋅al
    noun
    1. an article in a newspaper or other periodical presenting the opinion of the publisher, editor, or editors.

    This piece represents the opinion of the majority of Argus editors. All too often, I think, people who criticize the press forget that the opinion section and the news section are wholly separate.

    So what if Robert Albritton is a great guy? So what if he has been very generous? To me, those facts alone hardly necessitate a retraction. Again, this piece only represents the opinion of the Argus editors, not the school itself.

    Think for a second about what it would be like to live somewhere that didn’t allow criticism of those in power or speculation on their intentions. Is that really a precedent you all wish to establish?

  • Anonymous

    @Anonymous (7:26 AM)

    You are absolutely right! Speculation and criticism are all things that are important in journalism (editorial and otherwise), and values that we hold dear at Wes…

    …but ONLY when connected with some sort of rational and critical argument, which Mr. Silk has failed to lay out (other than the well-worn “power of the purse” thesis).

    Some things I’d like to know:

    1) Why Politico is a bad news source
    2) Why we should be wary of “Politico-style” journalism being taught at Wes
    3) From what, if anything, does this opinion spring from?

    These things would be nice. However, they do not exist in the above editorial. I know my criticism is not of this as an example of “actual reporting,” but rather of this article as a poorly written editorial.

  • Anon

    It strikes me as odd that someone who would describe their Wesleyan experience as having “’minimal, if any’ impact on his professional life” would want to take on the position of Chair of the University Relations Committee on the Board of Trustees. It seems akin to having George Bush be the spokesperson for the Geneva Convention.

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