Adversarial journalism, or gotcha journalism, is a form of journalism that seeks to uncover wrongdoings of public officials.
Gotcha journalism can include various methods such as, moving away from the agreed upon interview topic, or switching to an embarrassing subject that was agreed to be out-of-bounds. Interviewers might also confront interviewees with prepared material designed to contradict or discredit their positions. Gotcha journalism is often designed to keep the interviewee on the defensive by forcing them to explain some of their own statements taken out of context, thus effectively preventing the interviewee from clearly presenting their position.
This type of journalism is always premeditated and used to defame or discredit interviewees by portraying them as self-contradictory, malevolent, unqualified, or immoral. This effect is also achieved by replaying selected quotes from public speeches, followed by hand-picked footage or images that appear to reinforce negative images of the interviewee.
For example, a city's mayor might give a speech in which he claims that during his tenure, employment was at a record high in his city. A news outlet may choose to replay that speech and follow it up with footage of desperate men and women at the unemployment office, and perhaps even an interview in which one of these people is asked to comment on the mayor's speech. The interviewee, in this case, may be baited with questions that have obvious answers such as, "The mayor says unemployment is a record low; how do you respond to that? "
Other examples of gotcha journalism include misleading an interviewee about which portions of his or her statements will be aired, or misleading an audience about how an expert opinion is acquired. Take, for instance, a special feature on drug use in schools. To add sensationalism, an "expert" may be given manufactured statistics that imply that a three-fold increase in drug use is occurring in suburban schools, and asked to comment on what it might mean, if this statistic was real. The "expert" may issue a statement such as, "If this were actually happening, this trend would be alarming – thank goodness it's not! " To discredit this expert, upon airing, the narrator might say, "We asked Dr. John Q. Smith to comment on drug use in schools. " Following this, would be the clip in which it appears that Dr. Smith is in denial over drugs in school. Alternatively, if Dr. Smith's quote sides with the reporter's case, the narrator might state, "We asked Dr. John Q. Smith what he thinks of the increase in drug use and he said, 'this trend would be alarming. '"
Manipulation of quotes, images, and archival footage is typical in the editing process, especially for news magazines, and does not cross over into "gotcha" journalism until there is a deliberate attempt to mislead an interviewee, expert, or the audience. Most commonly, this manifests by finding footage of exceptions to a generalization given by a speaker or interviewee. For example, in the weeks following Hurricane Katrina public officials stated that progress was being made. A number of news outlets transmitted these statements, followed by footage of flooded homes, abandoned neighborhoods, and interviews with many people still affected by the disaster. The officials may or may not have been lying, but showing some continuing problems does not prove lack of progress in general.
In 1964, the pivotal US Supreme Court case (New York Times co. vs. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254) ended most libel protection recourse for public figures in the United States effectively clearing the way for intrusive or adversarial reportage into the public or private affairs of public figures by news media outlets whether newspapers, TV or radio. Public figures could no longer sue for libel, regardless of the bias of news media, without proof that the media had acted maliciously. An early citation indicated that "gotcha journalism" was used by Stuart K. Spencer in the Los Angeles Times in 1987. The full story is given in the book Stick It Up Your Punter by Chris Horrie. The headline was also used in a 1994 movie about the newspaper business,The Paper, which was based in part on Horrie's book.
During the 2004 United State's presidential election, Wall Street Journal columnist Gordon Crovitz suggested that the term "gotcha journalism" was used heavily by Republican campaign managers to diminish the credibility of journalists interviewing about the Iraq war.
Former Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, has been especially critical of "gotcha journalism" . Her 2008 bid for Vice President was marred by numerous misstatements which she blamed on gotcha questions.
Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin was very critical of adversarial journalism during her campaign bid in 2008.