The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway has suggested five ways media can regain the public’s trust, but the key problem at The New York Times and similar newsrooms can only be solved by one of the suggestions in her final point: “Hire reporters and columnists who don’t seethe with hatred for people who just elected the next president… Have an interior watchdog who makes sure that the workplace isn’t hostile to people who don’t share the bosses’ views on abortion, religious liberty, Republicans, economic policy, immigration, and national security.”
To this I add: Hire some editors who can spot that hostility, and the sorts of blind spots in the examples listed above. Bloomberg’s Megan McArdle has made the case for why altering hiring policies would benefit both the liberal-dominated establishment media and conservative media.
The core argument, however, is fairly simple. The problem with The New York Times (and others) is groupthink. The way to disrupt groupthink is to bring in enough people who think differently. That is not just a conservative opinion, either. As Aaron Sorkin once wrote: “If you’re dumb, surround yourself with smart people. If you’re smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you.”
If the NYT fails to do this, its post-election resolution to improve its coverage of America outside Manhattan will fare about as well as the average New Year’s resolution to go on a diet. People almost never loses weight permanently by going on a diet; rather, people must change their diet as part of changing their lifestyle.
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