(9 of 10)
Although the Journal is written essentially for the business community, and is often shrill in its editorial page conservatism, the news columns are eminently fair. Indeed, the paper is sometimes at odds with itself: the editorial page has asserted repeatedly that the Soviet Union is engaging in chemical warfare in Asia in the form of "yellow rain," while Journal news reporting has offered other explanations for the phenomenon. The news staff takes pride in giving thorough coverage to the problems of labor and the unemployed, and in challenging the questionable practices of corporations. After Mobil Corp. President William Tavoulareas sued the Washington Post for alleged libel for saying that he "set up" his son Peter in a shipping company, the Journal reviewed the circumstances in a story that was far more careful than the Post's but equally tough on Tavoulareas.
The Washington Post
In the wake of the Post's courageous and successful exposure of the sins of the Nixon Administration, young reporters throughout the U.S. became so infatuated with aggressive investigation, so sure that a scandal lurked behind every closed door, that eventually a disdainful public began to comment on the "post-Watergate syndrome." Nowhere did the syndrome take hold more than at the Post itself, and nowhere does it hold more sway. A tone of suspicion, often anger, pervades many news stories. Some political pieces sound more like editorials: a reporter's interpretive rebuttal often appears higher in the story than the official statement he or she is rebutting, especially in stories about the Reagan Administration's policy in Central America. The Post is often arrogant, and is so inclined to mistrust anyone who challenges a reporter's accuracy that for months its editors ignored widespread doubts about the authenticity of Feature Writer Janet Cooke's profile of "Jimmy," a purported eight-year-old heroin addict; two days after the article was awarded a 1981 Pulitzer Prize, the Post belatedly announced that it was a fake.
Troublesome as such episodes have been, and wearying as its often sloppy, overwritten coverage can be, the Post remains the nation's second most influential paper. It reaches beyond White House handouts and glamorous legislative debates to probe scandals, follies and policy debates in obscure federal agencies. In this capacity it serves as an invaluable watchdog. Columnists Mary McGrory, Richard Cohen and George Will have mastered the art of arousing emotion without overlooking ideas. The paper's metropolitan staff brings much the same assiduity to the diverse politics of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. The Post also has a sincere commitment to helping the poor. Two reporters spent a year checking on the operators of a low-cost housing venture in Washington, and their findings will be weighed by a grand jury.