It’s the GOP, not The Gazette, that’s gone off the rails

Lots of Republican readers say The Gazette has lurched to the political left the last few years — in editorial comment and reporting.

The Gazette has stayed the same. It’s the Republican Party that’s done the lurching — into the Trump Zone on the right.

My credentials for saying that: eight years as a Gazette reporter, 15 years as editorial writer, 15 years as opinion page editor and editorial board chairman. I retired in December 2002.

First today, I’ll take on the alleged Insight (editorial page) slippage, then the “biased reporting” angle.

Until 2016, The Gazette leaned to the political right while valuing the social safety net. It had endorsed the GOP presidential candidate in every election since 1964, except for a nod to Independent Ross Perot in 1992. As a centrist answering to a Republican boss, I was content with that.

In 2016, The Gazette endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. So did every candidate-backing newspaper in the country except the Las Vegas-Review Journal and the Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville).

The consensus: Trump, reality TV host and supposedly successful businessman, signaled trouble ahead. Boy! Were they right!

When Iowa’s GOP dominators — governor, congressional delegation and state legislators — fell under Trump’s spell, The Gazette’s editorial board recoiled.

The Gazette would have done the same in earlier decades had Iowa’s political leaders allowed Big Ag to use Iowa’s rivers as toilet conduits to the Mississippi River, put abortion virtually beyond desperate women’s reach, removed a mini-minority (trans Iowans) from protection under the state Civil Rights Act, minimized LGBTQ+, devalued vaccination, subsidized private schools at underfunded public education’s expense, banned books, threatened teachers and librarians, and outlawed mention of diversity, equity (a fair shot for everyone) and inclusion.

That list doesn’t cover all of Iowa GOP leaders’ obeisance to authoritarian Trump and adherence to the outside-the-state playbook, but you get the picture. I and my fellow Gazette editorial writers could not have imagined how “Iowa nice” would tolerate — even embrace — a doctrine of xenophobia and cruelty.

The Gazette’s editorials and numerous guest columnists lament the repulsive change. “More balance!” shout conservatives in return. Balance is a frequently overrated commodity. Preoccupation with balance can foster a belief that each argument in a dispute deserves equal time. That, in turn, leads to a mindset of “30 minutes Hitler, 30 minutes Jews.”

The Gazette does publish conservative commentary, including (locally) from Sunday’s Althea Cole, often from syndicated Cal Thomas, Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation and the aforementioned Las Vegas Review Journal. Plus community letters, some of which inspire my comments today.

Now for the reporting end of GOP readers’ concern with bias. Though they work for private companies, newspaper reporters are quasi-public servants. Their mission: gather facts, analyze those facts, then report them in simple, straightforward fashion.

When coverage requires background information, the reporter accommodates. That requires skill. Bungling occurs. For example, on my first day on the Cedar Rapids city hall beat in 1967, I reported on a pending city-county agreement for sharing storage space on May’s Island. I wrote, “This might raise a question” of why it wasn’t arranged earlier.

At the next day’s council meeting, City Attorney David McGuire roasted me but good. He felt that passage implied he wasn’t doing his job.

It turned out I wasn’t doing mine, which was not guess, but rather, ask him why the delay.

Sorry, Dave.

I’ve been impressed, back then and today, how skillfully Gazette reporters insert needed information into their stories. Sometimes it’s to contradict misinformation or a lie. In the Trump years, the need increases apace.

As for the complaint that most reporters are Democrats, that generally is true. Surveys over the years have shown news reporters tend to be Democrats while owners of newspapers and TV and radio stations are usually Republicans. Thinking reporters call the shots is the same as believing grunts order the generals.

Republicans’ dismay over Gazette editorializing and reporting started popping up 10 years ago. No wonder. It was then that Donald Trump took the party off the rails.

The Gazette has remained steady at the wheel. I imagine its mission statement today is two words, “Be fair,” same as over the decades. That makes me proud to be a former employee.

Writer/editor Jerry Elsea is retired following 40 years with The Gazette, the last 15 as opinion page editor.