2. “Watchdog journalism is to keep on turning over rocks. Journalism
that gives power to the people.”
-Council of newspaper publishers and editors, Poynter.
• Watchdog journalism is the journalism that keeps people
and organizations with power accountable for their actions.
• It involves criticism of public officials and institutions,
checking their practices for legitimacy, and skeptically
analyzing their actions.
• It is at the heart of a newspaper’s commitment to public
service, seeking to empower citizens.
• In a 2009 Poynter research poll, 62% of Americans believe
that the press’s criticism of political leaders keeps them
from doing things they shouldn’t do.
What is it?
3. • One famous example of watchdog journalism is the
Washington Post’s coverage of the Watergate scandal, an
event in the early 1970 presidential election that
ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard
Nixon.
• Read through some of the coverage and find out how the
Washington Post helped uncover the truth behind a break
in at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C.
• This coverage by Bob Woodward and
Robert Bernstein is seen as a title example
of watchdog journalism. The coverage given
to the break in by the media helped lead to
the discovery of the president’s
involvement.
4. • The idea of a free press that is able to hold government accountable
is based in the first amendment to the constitution:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of
grievances.”
• The press works independent of the state, and its freedoms are
guaranteed by the government.
• The press is often called the fourth estate, an institution that exists
outside primary government influence and exists as a check on those
in public office, based on the premise that powerful states have to be
prevented from overstepping their bounds.
A Free Press
5. • Watchdog journalism cannot easily take place in countries
with more repressive governments. The nature of
watchdog journalism requires that the press be protected
if they publish content that can harm the reputation of
someone or be critical of the government.
• The Watergate scandal, if published in a country like
North Korea or China, would have probably resulted in
the expulsion or death of the writers and the censorship of
the story entirely.
• It is because of the first amendment that the media in
America can freely print criticisms of public officials,
institutions, or the government. Upon this basis does the
media seek to be a watchdog for the people.
6. • Fact checking is the testing the truth of claims made for a
publication. For the media, it is checking the truth behind
the statements politicians make, such as statistics and
other facts.
• Because the media seeks to publish the truth, it must fact
check its stories to verify they are correct.
• While most media organizations have their own fact
checkers, many independent websites have also taken to
fact checking not only the government, but the media
itself.
Fact Checking
7. • A few tips from Media Helping
Media about the importance of fact
checking:
• A journalist must never get into the
position where they accept what
they are told without scrutinizing
the information.
• Journalists should take a skeptical
view of every piece of information
shared with them.
• They should not blindly trust
contacts – even if those contacts
have proved reliable in the past.
• The Washington Post Fact Checker is a blog that writes about
politician’s statements and the truth behind them.
8. The Truth-O-Meter, used by Politifact to
represent the truth of an issue.
• Politifact.com and factcheck.org are two examples of
sites that are devoted to fact checking politicians. They
check politicians speeches, plans, quoted data, and
campaign ads and report on what they find.
• Accuracy in Media (AIM) and Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting (FAIR) are two examples of sites dedicated to
checking the media and reporting on false facts or biased
writing.
9. • Fact checking is a critical part of
journalism. AIM and FAIR report on
the bias they see in the media. At the
same time, readers of these sites
must decide if they are themselves
reporting with a bias. Many sites can
have an agenda or bias of their own.
• The media is faced with many facts and so-called facts. Fact
checking allows them to sort out the two. It also underlines the
mission of journalism to empower the citizenry with
knowledge, just as watchdog journalism does.
• Fact checking sites, as well as watchdog groups like FAIR and
AIM, allow readers perspective into how the media tries to
keep the government accountable. By using a multitude of
these resources, a reader can make more sense of how the
media seeks to uncover what is hidden in politics.
