As journalists, it’s our job to report on the news, obviously. We tell other people’s stories, with the point being that reporters are supposed to tell an unbiased account, as the story isn’t about us.
It becomes a problem when the reporter becomes the story. Recently Megyn Kelly’s remarks about actress Jane Fonda have drawn criticism, with former “Today” show anchor Ann Curry commenting that the remarks are not journalism.
Curry’s comments go back to that theme — Kelly became the story with how she responded to Fonda.
“Journalists are not supposed to be the story,” Curry said. “We’re supposed to be humble. We’re supposed to use whatever time we’re given to shine a light on other stories.”
Here’s the scenario: Fonda, 80, appeared on Kelly’s NBC talk show in September and was asked by Kelly about her plastic surgery. The actress, who was promoting a movie on Kelly’s show when she was instead asked unrelated questions about whether she had any work done, later said in an interview that she was uncomfortable with the question.
Kelly later responded to Fonda on her show, saying, “I have no regrets about that question, nor am I in the market for a lesson from Jane Fonda on what is and is not appropriate.”
Kelly went on to bring up Fonda’s infamous trip to North Vietnam in 1972, which became a scandal when some branded her a traitor for being photographed with North Vietnamese troops on an anti-aircraft gun — Kelly used time on her show to add that Fonda said she is still not proud of America, and that Fonda has no business lecturing anyone on what qualifies as offensive.
It’s strange to me that Kelly would feel the need to respond — the context also is that Fonda said in the recent interview that she would appear on Kelly’s show again, but added that the plastic surgery line of questioning showed that the former Fox News anchor was not a good interviewer — but that she would devote time on her show to pick apart a former guest is astonishing.
It wouldn’t be surprising if Kelly’s lengthy on-air criticism of Fonda discourages others from wanting to appear on her show. Kelly became a well-known journalist after her pointed and heavily reported aggressive questions to then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, so she should be used to criticism.
From an outside perspective, it would seem that Kelly doesn’t mind being a part of the story and receiving media attention of her own, but as Curry indicated, that’s just not good journalism. Reporters, even on a local scale, receive criticism for stories they write, but typically the best strategy is to not respond at all.
It reminds me of a scenario that I was a part of several years ago, where I, as a reporter, inadvertently became the subject of a news article for my reporting. I was trying to break into journalism at the time and was freelancing for a daily newspaper in Connecticut. As part of my reporting, I went with another reporter to request documents from Bethlehem Town Hall.
The story was about a Town Hall (Department of Public Works) employee who had allegedly taken town materials for personal purposes, and the documents pertaining to the story were not immediately made available by the First Selectman, who operates sort of like a town administrator in small Connecticut towns.
The First Selectman was not in the office and town hall employees, including another selectman who was operating as interim Department of Public Works director, informed us that they were too busy to respond to our public records request immediately and asked us to leave. We refused to leave and had State Police called on us for causing a disturbance.
Then, as you can imagine, my story about the people involved in the situation at Town Hall became overshadowed when there was a story written about my coworker and I having our public records request denied and then having police called on us. The story was picked up by the national Associated Press wire and mentioned that State Police were called to escort us out of town hall, but that we were not arrested.
I admit, it was flattering to receive so much attention and have an article written about me and my reporting. But, ultimately, the intention of the story was to shine a light on alleged unethical behavior by a public employee, rather than my process of reporting the story. So, things got a little off track.
Reporters are tasked with writing stories about other people. We shouldn’t expect glory for the stories that we tell or to become more well-known than the subjects. We shouldn’t really get involved — ultimately, our job is to be informants, and as in Kelly’s case, it stops becoming journalism when the news is the journalists themselves.