Baron’s Selection Highlights the Necessity — and the Challenges — of Good Journalism

Last week, Harvard announced that Martin “Marty” Baron, current executive editor of the Washington Post and the former executive editor of the Boston Globe, will be the Class of 2020’s commencement speaker. Over his more than 40-year career, teams of reporters under Baron’s leadership have been awarded 16 Pulitzer Prizes and broken stories that shook up not just Boston and the United States, but the world at large.

Baron ran the Globe when the paper’s “Spotlight” team unearthed a widespread practice of sexual abuse by priests across Roman Catholic communities in the Boston area. Also under Baron’s guidance, the Post uncovered and published the Afghanistan papers, exposing malpractice by U.S government officials as they conducted military operations in the Middle East. These journalistic feats speak to the impact of the free press, and to the power that in-depth investigative journalism can have on our lives. Further, they speak to Baron’s own unwavering commitment to speaking truth to power and doing so with care and respect. There is a strong case to be made for Baron’s work representing the best of what journalism ought to look like.

At the same time, Baron’s journalism career, while overwhelmingly bright, has not been spotless. Just this January, Baron was at the center of a controversy over the Post’s decision to suspend a reporter who used her personal Twitter account to retweet an article about the late Kobe Bryant’s 2003 sexual assault case on the day of the famed athlete’s passing. The decision, which was later reversed, has been criticized in the Post itself.

This incident should serve to remind us all that, while the functions of a free press are indispensable, trying to embody journalistic excellence is a never-ending task, and that even the greats are continually tested (and occasionally fail) at this task. The production of good journalism requires constant humility, scrutiny, and ethical vigilance. Continuous striving for a more equitable, representative culture in journalism is a critical part of that task. Baron’s storied career serves to capture the struggles, triumphs, and ultimately the necessity of an industry currently under attack.

Harvard’s selection of Baron as this year’s commencement speaker is an encouraging acknowledgment of the crucial role that journalism plays in any free society. The Globe’s investigation into the Catholic Church and release of the Afghanistan papers are just a few of many instances where Baron, his newspapers, and the press have been able to check institutions of power and hold authorities accountable for their actions. Such work shifts our perceptions of the truth and enhances the richness with which we understand reality. We would be remiss not to praise it.

We also appreciate the way in which Harvard’s choice of Baron pushes against our general idea of what an ideal commencement speaker is. Investigative journalism isn’t the ritziest business. While most Harvard students expect and might covet the selection of someone whose name is universally known, Harvard’s choice of Baron — a name arguably less recognizable than last year’s commencement speaker, Angela Merkel — elevates journalists and their work to an important level parallel to the star-studded list of past commencement speakers such as Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey.

We are excited to hear the perspective that Baron has to share with Harvard’s graduating class.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.