NYT public editor Byron Calame looks back at a January 2004 decision at the paper to create a beat to cover the conservative movement in the United States.

Here's some excerpts from his March 12 column:

The original mandate for the beat was to examine conservative forces in religion, politics, law, business and the media. The goals of the beat, Mr. Keller said last week, continue to be identifying "the thinkers and the grass roots they organize" and exploring "how the conservative movement works to be heard in Washington." He reiterated his strong desire for three-dimensional coverage of the conservative movement. Basically, he said, "we wanted to understand them."

The decision not to create a liberal beat, it seems to me, reflected the reality that The Times's coverage of liberals had no gaps similar to those in its reporting on the conservative movement.

The new beat and the prominent display that Mr. Keller and his editors have given significant articles it produces have spawned a greater awareness of conservative perspectives across the newsroom. "It's created a kind of awakening," Suzanne Daley, the national editor, said. "It's definitely contagious."

That's good, because the conservative beat itself is not at full speed at the moment. While Mr. Kirkpatrick was shifted early last year to the team of Times reporters covering Capitol Hill, his reporting there on Supreme Court nominations has made good use of his conservative-movement sources and knowledge. Jason DeParle, who succeeded Mr. Kirkpatrick on the beat and wrote several major front-page articles last year, was thrown into the coverage of Hurricane Katrina in September and remains involved in a special project related to that disaster. ...

One payoff on beat assignments is that they foster regular contacts with sources, and sourcing and access can produce exclusive insights for readers. One hurdle Mr. Kirkpatrick faced: the "distrust" many Christian conservatives have for the mainstream media because "they think that big-city journalists are hostile to or dubious about their values." Conservative ministers being interviewed would often ask about Mr. Kirkpatrick's personal faith. His response: "I don't think I should say what kind of church I go to, because these days that is political. It would be like saying what party I belonged to."  ...

What's the future of the conservative beat at The Times? "It's too early to tell," Mr. Keller said last week, while expressing hope that Mr. DeParle will "take up this mantle" again after his special project is completed. I think the creation of the conservative beat in 2004 has made a real difference — and it could be useful through the rest of the Bush administration. But with the awareness of the conservative movement spreading in the newsroom, I would hope that the coverage eventually would be integrated into the wide array of existing beats, so that a specialized assignment isn't needed forever.

The problem is, when a beat at a newspaper (or virtually anything in the world) becomes everyone's responsibility, it becomes no one's responsibility.

One could argue that the environment touches on virtually every aspect of society. A business or municipal politics or religion reporter should be able to find an environmental angle to write about, correct?

However, I would suspect that in practice, people in beats other than environment let their regular sources and the regular flow of news events drive coverage, rather than them thinking specifically about doing what the craft calls "enterprise reporting" and digging up environmentally related stuff.

At the same time, reporting resources are limited, even at newspapers.

Maybe some beats need to be thought of as relatively short-term, to address an emerging issue and bring the newsroom -- and, by extension, its readers -- up to speed.

One example in Canada might be the Muslim community.

How many large metro newspapers in Canada can say they have someone on staff who knows their local Muslim community inside and out?

Of the biggest three newspapers, which one has a beat reporter looking at the Muslim community?

My knowledge is weakest about the N-P, but I can't identify one at the Toronto Star save Haroon Siddiqui, who's a columnist.The Globe has had Sheema Khan write the occasional column on Muslim issues, but if they have a reporter whose primary responsibility is to really get to know the Canadian Muslim community, I don't know who it is.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the people who write most about Muslims are those who cover national security beats, which says something.

Given the points of conflict in the Middle East and southwest Asia, and the high-profile incidences we've seen in Europe over the past few years, my opinion is desperately we need better reporting on both the Canadian and global Muslim communities.

Some paper should make it some lucky reporter's three-year assignment to become that expert (one year to learn the beat, two years to produce great stories).