Seares: When journalists fail to ask the tough questions

HELEN Thomas, once the grand dame of the White House press corps who covered nine American presidents as correspondent of United Press/United Press International for 57 years, finally retired in 2010. Not for her age and not because she asked tough questions.

It was her offensive opinion, not a hostile question, which set off “a torrent of criticism,” forcing her to quit. She told a rabbi that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home” to Poland and Germany. She was 89, which only partly explained her “being cranky, stubborn and opinionated.” (She died in 2013 at 93.)

When Jejomar Binay, vice president and presidential candidate, made a blistering criticism of President Aquino last June 24, a day after he resigned from the Cabinet, calling his leadership “insensitive, crooked and failed,” he refused to clarify some points in his speech and left his spokespersons to do the job. One account said he fled to avoid the tough questions.

Reluctant

An editor once said there are two kinds of reporters: those who have a compulsion to ask a tough question and those who’re obsessed about avoiding it. There’s a third, I think: those who leave the questioning to other reporters and just record the answers, reporters who feel safer if they gather the news with the rest of the pack.

Some journalists exult over having asked such tough ones as “Did you steal, sir?” or “Did you overprice the land, ma’m?” They get a kick out of sounding mean, the same feeling of a school or internet bully pouncing on a scared prey.

Most reporters, though, are reluctant to shoot embarrassing questions to news sources: say, a city councilor, about missing steel bars and expensive beds; or a mayor, about cars donated to the city but had been used as his own; or the BAC chief, about a bidding rigged for a favored contractor.

There are questions though that they love to ask even when they shouldn’t. Nobody should ask a severely injured ship-sinking victim how he felt: an audit on personal feelings that many, including CNN reporters, can’t resist.

Is it crucial?

Which raises the matter of distinguishing what’s crucial to the story from what’s merely interesting or insignificant. The first must be asked even if it’s tough. The second may be dropped or one risks sounding stupidly insensitive.

Before asking the tough question, the prudent journalist must assess its necessity. The news source might clam up or shut down the interview and nurse a grudge against the reporter.

That’s true for beat journalists and for news anchors and public-affairs hosts as well. The tough questioner is shunned, with the would-be guest using all sorts of excuses to skip the program. One time, in a local talk show, a public official, unable to cope with the barrage of questions, simply slammed the phone.

Right to refuse

A squelch on tough questioning is the right of the news source not to be interviewed. Despite routine homage to the government’s avowed policy of transparency, a public official can refuse media access. He may be candid about the rejection or he can make up excuses but, yes, he can restrict flow of information. Which can be disastrous, especially if the beat is major and reporters are given a daily quota on stories.

Of course, it would cost the public official: less publicity and “unfavorable treatment” in focus or substance of stories about his office. Still, the official controlling a news-rich beat also knows that news outlets serious about their work won’t hit back. At least, they can’t ignore him.

Media consumers who don’t get the full story of an important event or issue may not know the real cause: tough questions were not asked or they were but the public official succeeded in dodging them (see box).

Hole in the story

The tough question may be foiled when the public official flees, as Binay did. But what if there are spokespersons who answered it in his stead?

Not the same thing. Read the story of June 25, the day after he made the “scathing” attack (must attacks always be “scathing”?). Binay’s delayed criticisms about the administration he had worked with for so long were superficially explained. Charges of corruption and unexplained wealth remained unanswered. Besides, the effect of a spokesman talking is not the same as Binay himself speaking, markedly so when no direct quotes are supplied by the surrogate.

But whatever the source, horse’s mouth or mouthpiece, the tough question must be asked. Otherwise a big hole in the story gapes at the reader or listener, who, perceptive or not, isn’t given the complete story.

Disrespect?

As Helen Thomas said, a tough question is not disrespectful. But it can be.

The discourtesy comes when the question is blunt and sudden, phrased in crude and offensive language, with menacing tone, or paced like police interrogation. You don’t ask Binay after his speech, “Mr. Vice President, are you corrupt? Did you overprice those buildings by millions of pesos?”

What journ teachers advise about cushioning the tough question can be improved in the field, adjusting method to the kind of news source the reporter covers. The art of questioning is a neglected tool that needs regular sharpening.

But the tough questions must be raised.

[publicandstandards@sunstar.com.ph or paseares@gmail.com]

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