State of Journalism 2006

The Louisville Courier Journal on Monday published a good Q&A interview by columnist Pam Platt with Bill Kovach on the “State of Journalism, 2006.”

Kovach's 43-year journalism career as a reporter and editor began in Tennessee, first at the Johnson City Press-Chronicle and then at the Nashville Tennessean. He next worked at The New York Times, capping his 18 years there as its Washington bureau chief. He left The Times for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; that paper won two Pulitzer Prizes in the two years he was its editor. He also served as curator at Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalists. Among his published works, Kovach is the co-author, with Tom Rosenstiel, of The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect.

Kovach is the chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists (Web site, journalism.org), a consortium of journalism practitioners and academics whose goals include "to clarify and renew journalists' faith in the core principles and function in journalism" and "to create a better understanding of those principles by the public."

Platt e-mailed the questions to Kovach, and he sent back answers.

One of his conclusions I liked was:

“What is right is that the large majority of practitioners still believe their purpose is to provide citizens the timely, independent information they need in order to make informed decisions in the economic and political marketplaces of their lives what's wrong is that MSM is still too often content to maximize profit and not invest in the research and training necessary to develop a new economic base that takes advantage of the opportunities technology has made available."

Kovach also said he likes blogs. Read all of his answers by clicking on the headline.

Pam Platt is public editor of The Courier-Journal. Call her at (502) 582-4600 or e-mail her at pplatt@courier-journal.com.