What is the role of an arts journalist? I’ve thought about writing a post on the subject since last spring, when I had something of a disagreement about it with another journalist who also writes about culture and who also, like me, straddles the line between reporter and critic.
Now Norman Lebrecht’s piece on arts criticism has reminded me of this. Used to be, he pointed out, criticism “was not so much consumer guidance — which show to catch, which to miss — as an assessment of the state of the art and a rage at those who imperilled it.”
Now, with print publications under threat, and with a demand for instant criticism — via Twitter, etc. — “reasoned criticism is under threat and undervalued…editors demand a degree of cheeriness from their critics….Reviewers are under orders to be more upbeat…”
Some, I would add, haven’t needed editors to suggest that — to wit, my colleague. He was particularly critical of news coverage that examined the health, or not, of arts institutions. As he described how he feels in an email, he said he labored under:
…something you might call a protective instinct. I like culture, I like a lot of the institutions, and I tend — no doubt naively — to think that they are in general working with good will and to the best of their ability. Reporters investigating the business side tend to want to unmask poor practices and inefficiencies… which I think makes the cultural leaders’ hard jobs even harder.
Needless to say, I disagree. Whether honest, tough reportage makes the job of an institution’s leader harder is not my concern. The state — and ultimate health — of the institution is.
A couple of examples: Would, say, the New York City Opera have been better off if no one had pointed out that the budget it had promised Gerard Mortier was too much of a stretch? Had Mortier come to New York, as planned, and proceeded to spend that money, the NYCO would now be bankrupt. Or, would the Metropolitan Opera be better off if the public did not understand how much money it must raise every year just to break even?
The contract a journalist — of any stripe — has is with the reader/viewer and it’s to provide an honest account, not one that pulls its punches to be protective.
As Lebrecht wrote about criticism, “The arts flourish only when there are arbiters at work and civilisation dies when their voice is stilled.”
I agree, and add that arts institutions flourish when they function under the watchful eye of the press, too. Liking them — or loving culture — doesn’t mean praising them — or it — all the time. It doesn’t mean protecting them from honest scrutiny.