NPR's New CEO Thinks Reverence for the Truth is a 'Distraction from Getting Things Done'

When I came across a clip from a 2021 TED talk by Katherine Maher, the then CEO of Wikimedia Foundation (the organisation that hosts Wikipedia), discussing the notion of “reverence for truth,” I realised that this was a moment worth revisiting. This was a lady destined not only to lead Wikipedia, but also to become the new CEO of National Public Radio. So a talk in which a leading light of our information system actually addressed the value of truth head-on was something that caught my attention. What does a rising stars of our information and news systems thinks about the pursuit of truth?

Well, the result was a little underwhelming, to put it mildly. When a former head of Wikipedia Foundation is caught on tape pooh-poohing “reverence for the truth” (here is the original TED talk, from August 2021) as “a distraction” from “getting things done,” you know that journalism is in trouble.