Sunday, April 23, 2006
"Only celebration."
Merriam-Webster's defines "ombudsman:"
Most of Howell's column is devoted to describing the winners ("all veterans of the journalistic trenches") and their work. Yet rather than do that herself, Howell literally serves as a mouthpiece for the Post's management, quoting Executive Editor Len Downie at length.
Howell's last paragraph encapsulates her attitude perfectly:
Of Howell's putative responsibility to speak for the Post's readers, to investigate their complaints, the entire column bears only the slightest hint -- Howell's suggestion in the closing paragraph that she does not care for that work. (Anyone who has read her previous columns does not much need the hint.) For Howell's day of celebration, we get an idealized ombudsman, one who gives you a glance inside the newsroom without telling you anything, and then regurgitates the prepared remarks of the paper's management. An "ombudsman" in the sense of "shill" or "flack."
Main Entry: om·buds·manThe Washington Post uses the term differently. Its "ombudsman" Deborah Howell has been engaged in a long campaign to bring a new, third sense to this term, as seen most recently in her column today celebrating the Post's "winners of the holy grail of American journalism, the Pulitzer Prizes." In a form evocative of the worst of access journalism, Howell breathlessly describes the scene in the 5th-floor newsroom: "The morning had begun with the buzz of Pulitzers in the air . . . . Cheers went up as The Post won a record four Pulitzers . . . . The ceremony was dignified . . . . Speeches and thank-yous lasted an hour and a half. The winners' spouses and children were there . . . . [T]he winners were all shy and a little embarrassed, carrying scraps of paper to remember what they wanted to say."
Pronunciation: 'äm-"budz-m&n, 'om-, -b&dz-, -"man; äm-'budz-, om-
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural om·buds·men/-m&n/
Etymology: Swedish, literally, representative, from Old Norse umbothsmathr, from umboth commission + mathr man
1 : a government official (as in Sweden or New Zealand) appointed to receive and investigate complaints made by individuals against abuses or capricious acts of public officials
2 : one that investigates reported complaints (as from students or consumers), reports findings, and helps to achieve equitable settlements
- om·buds·man·ship
Most of Howell's column is devoted to describing the winners ("all veterans of the journalistic trenches") and their work. Yet rather than do that herself, Howell literally serves as a mouthpiece for the Post's management, quoting Executive Editor Len Downie at length.
Howell's last paragraph encapsulates her attitude perfectly:
Monday ended with a party on the roof of the Hay-Adams Hotel, overlooking the White House and downtown Washington. For a day, there were no falling circulation numbers or angry bloggers or disappointed readers. Only celebration. Then back to work.Here is the idealized world of the Post: Perched atop a traditional icon of Washington privilege, looking across (and down) at the White House, with no readers around. "Only celebration" -- of the Post, of the idealized Washington exemplified by the Hay-Adams, of the White House.
Of Howell's putative responsibility to speak for the Post's readers, to investigate their complaints, the entire column bears only the slightest hint -- Howell's suggestion in the closing paragraph that she does not care for that work. (Anyone who has read her previous columns does not much need the hint.) For Howell's day of celebration, we get an idealized ombudsman, one who gives you a glance inside the newsroom without telling you anything, and then regurgitates the prepared remarks of the paper's management. An "ombudsman" in the sense of "shill" or "flack."
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