A New Focus on Poverty Raises a Question About Times Coverage

Poverty was in the news last week, with the coverage of Pope Francis’ attention to poor people worldwide, particularly those in his home country of Argentina.

It raises a question: Given the extreme poverty in the world and in the United States, how much media attention does the subject get in a week when there is no new pope

An analysis in Nieman Reports’ most recent issue suggests the answer is something like this: “not much” and “less than it used to.”

Dan Froomkin, the article’s author, told me in a phone interview that “it’s nowhere near the radar screen” for most journalistic organizations.

His article notes: “Nearly 50 million people - about one in six Americans - live in poverty, defined as income belo $23,021 a year for a family of four. And yet most news organizations largely ignore the issue.”

The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism found that in 52 major mainstream news outlets, coverage amounted to far less than 1 percent of available news space, or “news hole.” It was, Mr. Froomkin writes, in a word, “negligible.”

Mr. Froomkin quotes Philip Bennett, managing editor of PBS’s “Frontline” public affairs series, who says that the topic of inequality and poverty is “part of our national divide in a really important way,” but is “not receiving the kind of sustained, imaginative, aggressive coverage that it deserves.”

How does The Times fit into this picture How robust is its coverage of poverty I’m not sure, but because the subject is so important, I hope to examine it in the weeks ahead.

Here are a few initial observations, based on a few early interviews:

1.! Some advocates for the poor find Times coverage inadequate. Though they praise The Times for doing top-quality enterprise stories and projects on occasion, they feel it’s nowhere near enough.

Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, criticized The Times in a letter to me for “systematically underreporting what is one of the most significant stories of our age: the soaring hunger, poverty and homelessness in America, and especially in New York.”

He is particularly frustrated by The Times’s decisions not to cover “spot news” - like the annual release of a federal report on hunger in America. He also bemoans its lack of interest in city government meetings and related decisions that affect New York City’s 1.5 million people who don’t regularly have enough to eat - including half a million children.

“Poverty is at its highest level in decades and severe poverty is at the highest level since the federl government started counting it in 1960,” Mr. Berg said. But media coverage, he thinks, has actually declined.

2. The reporter who has covered poverty policy for The Times for decades, Jason DeParle, said he believes The Times devotes an admirable amount of space and resources to the topic.

Mr. DeParle, a Washington bureau reporter who recently began a yearlong book leave, told me in a phone conversation that “The Times has made an extraordinary commitment” to the subject. One part of that is his coverage of poverty policy, and he has also written about race, class and inequality for the past 23 years at the paper. But it’s not just his work that shows the commitment, he said.

“Poverty suffuses the pages of The New York Times in one form or a! nother - ! health, immigration, housing - every day,” he said. He added that top editors at The Times have made their interest in poverty and inequality clear to him repeatedly and in no uncertain terms.

3. Observers like Mr. Froomkin praise the quality of The Times’s journalism on poverty and inequality issues but cite the need for more resources and greater emphasis.

“The work is great but it’s in the category of ‘extra special’ coverage,” he said, meaning that poverty coverage is not a regular and integrated part of the paper.

This blog post serves only to raise the issue, not to draw conclusions. I will be reporting on it further in the weeks ahead and hope to share my findings in a Sunday column. I would be happy to hear from Times readers, including those with a particular interest in this important subject.