The Jeremiad Over Journalism

As we saw earlier in this chapter, Robert Donovan from the Los Angeles Times used an
interpretative style of reporting when arguing that it was ―extremely doubtful,‖ that a bombing halt
in North Vietnam would help Humphrey against Nixon. 559 Interpretative reporting is on the rise
until 2000, but then drops significantly. In Berlingske Tidende there is, however, a rise discernable
between 1990 and 2001.
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Interpretative news Berlingske
1971 1981 1990 2001
Table 31 – Percentage of interpretative news coverage in Berlingske Tidende between 1971 and 2001.
In terms of the coverage in the United States, there is an overall rise in interpretative coverage
between 1968 and 2008 for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and USA Today. Yet,
interpretative coverage on the front page declines between 2000 and 2008 for both The New York
Times and Los Angeles Times as seen in Table 28 and 30. 560
559 Donovan, "Break in Viet War Could Be Too Late to Aid Humphrey."
560 The New York Times‘ interpretative coverage hovers between 30 and 43,2% between 1968 and 2008 while Los
Angeles Times has a clear rise of interpretative coverage between 1968 and 2000 but then a sharp decline in 2008 (from
33,3 percent in 1968 up to 66 percent in 2000 and then down to 39,5 percent in 2008). For the USA Today interpretative
reporting rises from 15 percent in 1988 over 22,7 in 2000 to 26,3 in 2008.
196
N (1970) = 27
N (1981) = 32
N (1990) = 42
N (2001) = 29
Berlingske Tidende
Linear tendency
(Berlingske Tidende)