The Value of Being Right

There is one trait Jeff Bezos looks for most in promoting to leadership at Amazon. Can you guess it?

That’s right. It’s being right.

“I don’t care how smart they are,” Bezos told CNBC contributor Suzie Welch. “I want to see a track record of hard decisions that ended up being right.”

″‘It’s always better in business to be right than smart,’” Bezos continued. “Smart people can be wrong a lot.”

Too often in today's media landscape I see what is interesting, provocative, or sophisticated provide cover for positions that completely miss this mark. Sure, at the end of the day we are in the business of selling advertising or subscriptions, but isn’t there supposed to be more to journalism?

My favorite sports broadcaster Colin Cowherd likes to say he is in the “truth-telling business.” That means his stories, jokes provocations and opinions are undergirded by an accurate view of the sports landscape.

So, to summarize, the opposite of a complete and total hack. These days the Washington Post likes to tout its new mantra “democracy dies in darkness.” This implies that the Post’s journalism is a shining light breathing life into our society. When done right it provides a reality check to the general public.

Take for example California’s housing crisis. In January the Los Angeles Time’s reminded its readers that it took three years of blown deadlines, before the state opened its first homeless housing project using the $1.2 billion in bond funding approved by voters in Proposition HHH. And this month the New York Times pointed out the state needs to produce 3.5 million homes, “more than triple the current pace – to even dent its affordability problems.”

Reality check. There is no shot, by any available evidence, barring a recession, that California’s housing crisis will subside within the next decade.

That’s journalism done right. To let our readers know the realities of the issues, so that if they wish, they may push our leaders to be more like Bezos, more like Amazon, more right than wrong.