Conservative journalism, it would seem, is at a crossroads. Conservatives dominate talk radio and the cable news shoutfests, but pundits from the right still complain that the mainstream media, and investigative journalism in particular, is dominated by liberals.
I won't debate that point here, but it is true that the most important, and certainly best-known investigative scoop of our time involved Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein exposing the Watergate scandal, revelations that brought down the presidency of Republican Richard Nixon.
And while Fox News and right-wing bloggers maintain a steady drumbeat of op-ed opposition to liberalism in general and the Obama administration in particular, opinions, in the end, don't carry the blunt force of facts, no matter how loudly they're shouted.
Conservative columnist Mark Tapscott has written about the dearth of investigative reporting from the right, saying:
"There are no Right blogs primarily devoted to gathering and breaking daily and investigative news in politics, public policy and related venues... If we are to have decisive influence on the public policy agenda, we must wield a significant voice in shaping the daily media narrative about that agenda. That means being able to unearth facts, figures and documents that break or advance important news stories."
And in a column written last June, columnist K. Daniel Glover bemoaned the fact that "liberal writers dream of being the next Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein; conservatives, especially conservative bloggers, want to be William F. Buckley or George Will. Why? Because it's much easier to criticize someone else's slanted investigative work than it is to do your own legwork and report stories from a different perspective."
Unorthodox Reporting Tactics
More recently, videographer James O'Keefe dressed as a pimp to reveal abuses at several offices of the community organizing group ACORN. The expose, much-heralded by conservatives, resulted in Congress stripping ACORN of its funding. The slow response to the story by much of the media was cited by the right as yet another example of liberal bias.
But O'Keefe's tactics, unorthodox at best, crossed a line in January 2010, when he and three other men were arrested for allegedly trying to interfere with the phones in the New Orleans office of Senator Mary Landrieu. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.
O'Keefe posted a note online claiming he had simply been trying to verify whether Landrieu's phone lines had really been jammed or if she was trying to avoid her constituents. He added: "On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building."
I wanted to know why conservatives have fallen short in the area of investigative reporting, so in an e-mail interview I discussed this with Glover. Glover has written for National Journal, Congressional Quarterly and Accuracy In Media. He created AirCongress.com, an aggregator of online video and audio of, by and about Congress, and launched the video-sharing site Eyeblast.tv.
Q: You've said little in the way of conservative investigative journalism exists. Why do conservatives excel at talk radio and opinion shows, but not investigative journalism? What do you think should be done to change this?
A: "Much investigative journalism has at its core a belief that government is the solution to whatever problems the investigations uncover. Conservatives who have seen how government creates more problems than it solves don't have any interest in doing work that will promote more government interference and less freedom. Once conservatives realize they can conduct great investigations that expose the flaws of intrusive government and the special interests that corrupt it, you will see more of them embracing that kind of journalism. Mainstream publications like the Washington Examiner and organizations like the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which helps support and fund budding watchdogs, are showing them the way."
Q: Do you think James O'Keefe's arrest has set back the cause of conservative investigative journalism? What do you think of his tactics?
A: "The best analysis I read after James O'Keefe's arrest and what it means for conservative journalism was, 'One step forward, two steps back.' We'll never know what story he would have told had he not been caught allegedly committing crimes, but his tactics crossed an ethical line and should not be emulated. I also wasn't comfortable with O'Keefe's tactics in the ACORN investigation. Dressing as a pimp is not journalism in my book. But there is no disputing that he and Hannah Giles exposed ACORN as a corrupt organization -- a story that could have, and should have, been pursued by more traditional investigators in the mainstream media long ago. In that sense, they showed conservatives the potential of investigative journalism. They just need to give serious thought to their investigative methods."
