Fear and Anxiety in Network Newsrooms

[kskiska]

Much that is commonly "understood" among journalists is rarely voiced in public. A pre-convention event this week in Cambridge -- where network anchors went on the record about the partisan and corporate pressures they feel -- was a bracing exception. The Shorenstein Center program was mostly noted in the news for Jim Lehrer's chastisement of the big three anchors for their stinted convention coverage. But even rarer was the theme kicked off by Dan Rather at the start: "Fear has increased in every newsroom in America." The three anchors (Rather, Peter Jennings, and Tom Brokaw) sparred with one another about whether it was "fear," "caution," or "anxiety," but its existence seemed clear.

Rather started by noting this: When you're a reporter contrasting what someone in the administration says with what you know to be the facts, pointedly laying out the differences, "You're gonna catch hell." "And those who are willing to pay the price," Rather said, are fewer today than before. In a later remark, he said the strong feelings nationwide and the guarantee that they'll be voiced not only calls up more caution than ever -- sometimes a good thing -- but causes some to ask: "You know what? We run this story, we're asking for trouble. Why do it?"

Peter Jennings, having rejected fear, said shortly thereafter, "I think there is anxiety in the newsroom, and I think it comes from the corporate suite." He hears more from conservative critics than in the past, he said, and "I think it creates concern in the corporate suites. This wave of resentment rushes at our advertisers, it rushes at our corporate suites, and it gets under the newsroom's skin."

(snip)

Judy Woodruff cited "voices listened to but not given the prominence of the flood of voices from the administration." She described a "hyper-patriotic ... mood that had taken hold to some degree in the media."

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http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=54&aid=69110

[Catch22Dem]

1. I think they're all right

They're diasagreeing about the cause without realizing that they've all made a good point. They're all correct.

[vi5]

2. Hello Kettle? Judy Woodruff here......

Just calling to let you know that you are black.