The media's watchdog culture often puts reporters at odds with government officials. James Kitfield's insightful exploration this month of the growing cultural chasm between the media and the military offers a case in point. The question occurred to me last month as I sat through two separate meetings concerning awards programs to honor achievement in government. It's certainly true that our magazine looks for what's working well in government. I don't think that's much different from what our counterparts in the private-sector business press do in publications like Business Week and Fortune .
Readers are interested in knowing what's succeeding as well as what's broken in their lines of work.
So there's little harm and some good that can come of such programs as the award for leadership that we have co-sponsored for years with the National Capital Area Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration. Winners will be announced in August. Late this year, awardees will be identified in the two other programs we sponsor, in the fields of technology leadership and travel management reform. More in watchdog style, we recognize that mistakes or failures can offer lessons as well. Our report last month on the results of the second annual Government Performance Project certainly highlighted management problems in the agencies it covered.