Peter Baker has covered five presidents, from Clinton to Biden. Yet while the business model and technology for delivering the work has changed dramatically, the central challenge remains the same: a commitment to fairness in pursuit of the truth.   

As chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, Baker said journalism’s fundamental values should be non-negotiable to outlast the pressures of a never-ending news cycle and the stress tests of changing administrations. He discussed his strategies for maintaining productive relationships with White House officials with Paul Miller fellows. [Transcript | Video]

5 takeaways:

➀ Push sources to speak on the record.

In recent years, officials have become more reticent to speak on the record, often preferring to talk on background with limited attribution. Baker suggests taking five minutes at the end of a background discussion to move at least part of the exchange on the record.  

 “It’s hard,” Baker said. He said the New York Times implemented a policy that prohibits publishing direct quotes provided on background as a guard against political spin or self-promotion without individual accountability. “We will not use anything in quote marks without a name attached, period,” he said.   

Baker referred to a story during the Obama administration in which officials initially declined to provide an on-the-record statement until after the story was published. Baker said he refused the offer of a background statement without attribution and included a “no comment” from the White House, instead. When the story was published, officials called that night willing to go on the record.  

“Because they realized they look terrible without their response in there,” he said. “So, we have more power at times, in that kind of circumstance, than we think we do.”   

Baker said background conversations can often provide sources some level of comfort to ultimately provide information on-the-record, for attribution. 

 “I think we should be pushing back harder,” he said. 

➁ The medium changes, but the values don’t.

During Baker’s 37 years in journalism, the job has evolved. “You are a newspaper reporter, but you are a magazine writer, you are a wire reporter, you are a broadcaster, you are a social media transmitter…You do so many things in the course of a day,” he said. However, just because the business and technology of the journalism industry change, dedication to fairness, open-mindedness and truth should stay the same. “The fundamental values have not changed, should not change just because our times have changed,” he said.  

In recent years, journalistic objectivity has been called into question. But Baker thinks the long-standing tenet has been misunderstood.  

“The old values were never about giving equal weight to unequal arguments,” he said. “Our values have always been about finding the facts and presenting them to readers in a fair and impartial way. But if the facts are demonstrably weighted in one way, then they should come across that way in our stories and our other ways we tell our journalism.”   

➂ Independent does not mean adversary,

even if people in power perpetuate that rhetoric. “I think these last five years have been a real identity crisis in some ways for journalism,” Baker said. “But this is the first time we’ve had the president of our country call us, as a group, enemies of the people and try to cast us as the opposition.” He said journalists should not work as opponents of the government. “We are not opposition, we are independent. And there’s a difference…we’re there to try to find facts and find the truth that our readers and viewers can’t get anywhere else.”  

➃ The line between news and opinions has blurred.

When Baker first began appearing on television, he “would refuse to go on a panel that had a Democrat or a Republican or an opinion columnist” to maintain his independence as a beat reporter. He said he ultimately gave up “because it’s just not the way these television programs work these days,” acknowledging the public may be confused about how individual journalists do their jobs.  

➄ Remind your audience you’re human.

“What I’ve found is that people think the media is this big impersonal monster, as opposed to individual people like us,” Baker said. He said the New York Times has tried to improve its transparency to its audience by starting the Times Insider, which describes the process of creating a story. He said he also tries to respond to critical emails from readers, “even if they’re irredeemably hostile,” to address their concerns. He said usually, people respond amicably. “The more we make them understand that we are individual reporters who are doing our best to try to get the story right, and not some big monolithic institution, don’t judge us by our worst moments, but by our best, then we have a better chance,” he said.