Interpretive Journalism

* Thank you for “Reporters Putting Their Own Spin on News Events” (news analysis, by Thomas B. Rosenstiel, Nov. 25). “New subjectivity,” I believe, is just reporters being more honest. News events have always been interpreted with subjectivity. There is no way a reporter can list everything said or done, due to space, especially in print.

Yes, these interpretive and “entertaining” articles should be labeled or conglomerated in an “opinion” section, like your own. But if the public believes in objective reporting, the public will definitely be disappointed. The public--whoever that refers to in your article--should be skeptical. People should pick up at least two papers instead of one and see the differences of article placement and style. Jay Rosen, a communications professor at New York University, was quoted as saying, “Journalists are losing their authority with the public because they are not talking about the news in a way that is useful to readers.” If the readers can determine “a useful way,” it is their responsibility to report back to the reporters. I believe many readers do this. And I hope the reporters listen. Subjectivity is not new, just more blatant.

ANDREA FIGLER

Los Angeles

* I find it ironic that Rosenstiel quotes as an authority none other than Bob Woodward. It was Woodward and his partner, Carl Bernstein, and their Watergate reportage that, in the opinion of many journalistic observers, infected a whole new generation of aspiring reporters with the “investigative reporting” virus. It is this same virus that dominates Rosenstiel’s article, and yet he failed to mention the significant role Woodward played in this step toward deteriorating, more subjective “news” reporting.

Otherwise, it was a welcome and refreshing analysis of a major ill of today’s media that has caused such growing public dissatisfaction. I just hope a lot of those reporters--and their editors--who took Woodward and Bernstein as their role models read this piece. Who knows, maybe it just might change their subjective ways.

BOB WOLCOTT

Glendale

* Congratulations. At last a senior journalist has recognized that reporters generally do not report news objectively, but invariably inject their own opinion in the copy. This is a subject that I have written to newspapers about on numerous occasions, but have failed to have my letters published on, and as a result I have felt that editors have wanted to suppress what has been obvious to the intelligent reading public for a long time.

Perhaps this practice by journalists stems from the time when bylines began appearing at the top of news stories.

In this country the practice of newspapers and magazines giving recognition to journalists contributing to a story has reached ridiculous lengths. Not only does the name of the principal reporter appear at the top along with headline, but many news reports end with an addendum listing further contributors to the piece, all of which surely has virtually no interest whatsoever to the reader. It is purely journalistic aggrandizement!

As Sgt. Joe Friday used to say, “Just give me the facts, Ma’am, just the facts.”

PAUL S. McCAIG

Dana Point