( DNC ) emails that resulted in thousands of Hillary Clinton ’ s own emails coming out , as well as emails of senior officials in the DNC . The Washington Post focused on the content of those emails because they strongly suggested that the DNC was favoring Clinton over Bernie Sanders . “ While we did note that the hack most likely was executed by Russia , we didn ' t spend a lot of time really looking at that and why Russia would want to do that . Which ultimately the intelligence community concluded was to help Donald Trump in his election campaign . We focused on the content of those emails because there was actual news in those emails , but we should have been better balanced with a lot more attention to why Russia was doing this hacking in the first place . We were in a highly politicized environment at that moment . The intelligence community said that it wasn ' t even ready to point the finger at Russia for having executed that hack . People thought at the time the likelihood was the hack was just designed to obtain more information about the candidates , not to favor one candidate
over the other .”
Baron faced his fair share of challenges at the end of his tenure at The Washington Post . He disagreed with some staff on their use of social media and was determined to enforce the paper ’ s standards . “ In many professions , we ask people not to express their point of view because it ' s not appropriate . When reporters and editors are working together on stories , collectively they ' re deciding how we cover those stories so that they conform to those wellestablished standards of the institution . What happens to those standards when people on staff can do whatever they want , whenever they want , however they want ? Then all that care that you took with those stories , all those standards that you tried to implement with those stories , they ' re rendered meaningless . In many instances , those tweets , in , for example , the Middle East , can put their own colleagues ’ lives at risk . Because people say , ‘ Oh , well , that ' s The Washington Post ,’ and The Washington Post correspondent somewhere in the Middle East would be associated with that comment . That is a risk to people in the field . It is also a risk to the overall reputation of the institution . And now it ' s just a free-for-all . Are we just a random collection of individuals working in a building that happens to be named The Washington Post ? Or does working in that building mean that the work you do is going to conform to the standards of that institution ? If people are unwilling to abide by standards that have been articulated to them when they first got hired , then perhaps they shouldn ' t work there .”
People are skeptical of the press for a combination of reasons , says Baron . They ' d like to have their preexisting views reinforced . Particularly now in the internet era , people can pretty much find some so-called source of information that reinforces their preexisting worldview . “ If somebody believes in some bizarre conspiracy theory , it ' s pretty certain that you can find some place on the internet that will tell you , in fact , that ' s what happened . If you ' re a mainstream news organization and you tell people that ' s not true , well , people are going to accept that . Also , I don ' t think we ' ve done a very good
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36 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE Holiday Spring 2024 2023