Why I believe in journalism*: Penenberg edition

*Thoughts from the people who make it.

Oftentimes, it feels like mistrust in media is the default. Which, actually, can be valuable. (Getty Images)

A note from your Chills editor: As I navigate my way through my third decade in journalism, I — like all journalists — am faced with a lack of trust in general of the media. Oftentimes, it feels like mistrust is the default. Which, actually, can be valuable. Journalism relies on readers, listeners and viewers to choose what they consume, who they see as giving accurate and fair information. These choices can tell us what we’re doing well, or not.

From within the industry, we can often miss signs that we are failing the public. But that kind of failure is equally — and hopefully even more so — balanced out by the amount of good the press does in the world. That’s really the point: media is meant to hold power to account.

I’ve asked a bunch of journalists I admire to share why they believe in journalism, even with all its 21st-century pitfalls and complications. I hope their words will be of use to you.

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There is no free speech ‘but’

By Adam L. Penenberg

Adam L. Penenberg is a journalism professor at New York University and the founding director of NYU’s American Journalism Online Master’s program.

(Courtesy of Adam L. Penenberg)

What does journalism mean to me?

Salman Rushdie’s NYU office is three doors down the hall from mine. He is a wonderful colleague. He’s charming, and a fantastic conversationalist who speaks in whole paragraphs. He has always been happy to visit classes and run special writing workshops with our students. He's an absolutely incredible teacher. We love having him in the journalism department at NYU.

He could have gone anywhere, of course. Lots of colleges and universities wanted him. But he wanted to come to NYU.

At first, that might seem strange. He’s one of the great novelists of our time. But he came to NYU to teach non-fiction essay writing, a form he has long used as a courageous defender of freedom of expression. As he has said on numerous occasions, “You can’t be for free speech and say, ‘I believe in free speech, but.’ There is no ‘but.’” You can’t be both drunk and sober. It’s either or.