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Can "The Wire" teach good journalism?

By Mark Obbie

Watching my favorite show, HBO's "The Wire," has become far more than a one-hour weekly commitment, what with a non-stop yakfest among journalists over creator David Simon's depiction of his former newspaper home at the Baltimore Sun. It's a great sport -- neatly summarized today in the Washington Post by David Montgomery -- and helped in no small measure by journalists' endless fascination with themselves, and with Simon's pugilistic responses to perceived critical and personal slights. Even before this year's news theme, I've found a fix for my addiction to crime stories. The courts reporter in me hasn't been fed all that well. Lawyers and judges have played bit parts in the series (and yes, I've seen every episode, in real time, of all five seasons). But a crime reporter can feast on Simon's bleak but epic tales of social disorder, revolving around our failed war on drugs. While some of my fellow journalists bemoan a supposed caricature of newsroom types in the latest episodes, I see useful lessons for the public in what Montgomery describes as "accusations and insinuations of grubbing for prizes, gutting coverage and favoring the sweet tale over the complex truth." What kinds of lessons? The same kinds "The Wire" has taught about citizenship: by showing deeply complex people -- corner boys, cops, drug kingpins, dock workers, teachers, and politicians alike -- wrestle with good and evil. They rarely win outright. They often fail miserably. But a discerning viewer is forced to think about ethical behavior, which sometimes is left only to the imagination -- what might have been, but wasn't. When we see reporters, editors, and news executives take the wrong path, the story illuminates what is the right path. Why do we need in-depth, honest reporting about crime and poverty? We're being reminded every Sunday night.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on January 16, 2008 (boomark / email).