Making the case for the editorial voice. (President's Letter).

Imagine that your editorial office is under attack. The barbarians are at the gates, slinging arrows labeled "superfluous," "irrelevant," "boring" The once-venerated "firewall" between news and commentary is breached.

Can you still muster a rousing defense of a discrete section of your paper or program format for responsible opinion and commentary in this age of newswriting with "edge" and "attitude," proliferating pundits and talk shows, the insatiable maw of cable TV commentary, and the anarchic advocacy of the Internet?

This may be the stuff of dreams, or perhaps nightmares. But I've been fretting about our reason for being. Most of our employers favor a generally "independent' "centrist," "conservative," or "progressive" editorial stance.

We take direction when offered, but otherwise hew to well-understood principles, standards, and precedents that place us firmly in the conventional mainstream. Hardly a rationale for guaranteed survival of our journalistic genre.

Before I became an editorial writer, I was a true believer in the firewall -- from the other side. I kept my distance from the editorial offices to preserve my quest for pure objectivity from exposure to the contagion of opinion. But today, the assault on this invisible barrier between news and commentary from all directions continually threatens to reduce it to invisible rubble. Consider:

* Once upon a time, reporters and press secretaries, columnists and editorial writers all understood their roles. Today the door revolves between politicians' press offices and the studios of "Crossfire," "Hardball," and "Imus in the Morning."

In 1980, syndicated columnist and talk show regular George Will raised a ruckus when he revealed he had coached candidate Ronald Reagan one day and praised his debate performance the next. Last year, the revelation that "Crossfire" host Mary Matalin had been advising the Bush campaign hardly ruffled a feather, certainly not with her employers at CNN. Former Clinton aides George Stephanopoulos, Paul Begala, and Sidney Blumenthal were welcomed into the precincts of punditry as soon as they exited the Oval Office.

* The explosion of media outlets has helped blur the distinction between news and commentary as the market for chatter has expanded,"[T]he classic function of journalism to sort out a true and reliable account of the day's events is being undermined' Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel write in Warp Speed. "It is being replaced by the continuous news cycle, the growing power of sources over reporters, varying standards of journalism, and a fascination with inexpensive, polarizing argument"

* This "argument culture" has created a new kind of "editorializing" that can be as hollow as it is shallow. Kovach and Rosenstiel describe a "new class of activist pundits: loosely credentialed personalities who often thrive on being provocateurs" These are not commentators who rise through the ranks, but rather celebrities who trade on face and/or name recognition to further their own agendas or simply enhance their notoriety

In a recent issue of Vanity Fair (natch), author James Wolcott offers an appropriately flip guide for would-be pundits: "Abandon Your Ideals -- Dress the Part -- Master the Snappy Patter -- Pick a Side, then Stick with It -- Once You Stake out a Position, Feel Free to Abandon It -- Don't Merely Give Advice -- Help Gum Up the Works! -- Always End with a Hearty Chuckle."

* Newspapers themselves are not immune to breaching the firewall. In the name of "brighter writing," bias and opinion are infiltrating news columns. "I'm seeing a lot of stories that are billed as news stories [that go] into expressing opinion' David Kushma, editorial page editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, told AIR a couple of years ago. The trend has not abated since then. Penn State communications professor Russell Frank noted how it's getting harder to "distinguish commentary from news stories."

Opinionated newswriting may be most prevalent in the feature and sports sections. Yet, Frank also sees newspapers increasingly adopting the model of Time and Newsweek -- "the tone that is traditionally at home in opinion columns in what purports to be more or less straight news coverage."

The problem with opinion flirting with news is that the relationship can never blossom into true advocacy. Max Frankel, who wrote both news and editorials for The New York Times, explained that reporting, even when dressed up as feature or analysis, differs from editorials in that it doesn't issue a "verdict." 'When reporters inject themselves even part way into their stories, they distract the reader from the substance of their reporting, or worse, substitute attitude for substance itself.

As for the cacaphony of talk shows and the maelstrom of the Internet, I say: caveat emptor. Polls keep suggesting much of the public sees the media as cynical, callous, amoral if not immoral. Forget the corrosive political climate of the 1990s -- from the time-filling, self-serving, and self-perpetuating ways of the proliferating pundits to the anonymous gibberish and snarling venom of Internet chatrooms, it's harder than ever to keep your balance out there in the new millennium.

Which brings me back (just in time!) to the editorial page -- that oasis of sanity and civility where respectful, facilitated debate takes place around deeply held beliefs. In the past decade, the discovery of "civic journalism" reminded us that the editorial function has long focused on civic responsibility, inclusiveness, and the public interest.

More recently, the survival mantra of "local news' which is bringing newspapers and broadcasters new relevance and an ever-more-secure niche on their home turf, allows editorial editors to make the point that the opinion function embodies a strong and authentic link between news organizations and the communities they serve. San Antonio's Lynnell Burkett, author of the fine prolegomenon for the editorial page, Future Voice, said it well in an article for The American Editor: "[T]he newspaper, and particularly the editorial page, provides a common ground for the community to determine its values and work out its problems."

Let me just add how much of that work -- through editorials, columns, letters, forums and other creative means -- takes place on our side of the firewall. It's a daunting task, and tough to do well. But therein, I believe, lies the case for our survival.

NCEW president Fred Fiske is senior editorial writer with The Syracuse Newspapers. His e-mail address is [e-mail]