A Word on Words; 2728; Bill Kovach

building and on guns in the once again welcome to word on words i guess no garbage back for another week to talk about the warp speed america in the age of mixed media welcome bill make a janitor to be back next great gadget back we left off last week talking about how a result of the melding of events have changed the character and the culture of the news media so that doesn't ban rumor and speculation and an opinion and argumentation all look i'm part the world what's put out as news both by the networks and by the twenty four hour cable news programs and year assertion along with your co author tom rose to use that this is deluded

credible an authentic news to fly just to bring any of our leaders who were here last week but today well it served them the competitive pressure of the new mixed media now with a twenty four hour news cycle has created an atmosphere that has made it possible to squeeze news and the margins of the reports now it's journalism of assertion is replacing a journalism a verification because of the competitive nature of the new system you're going through the five points to the positive talk about the finalists for smaller as a never ending cycle never ending news cycle that that pushes the envelope of competition that forces news organizations and it literally forces them to put out little bits of information that have not been connected yet let the public figure out how the pieces fit together second is the new phenomena

of confidential anonymous sources dominating what journalists do the source is now in control of how the information will be used because the source has literally hundreds of stores to shop again and the source goes from news organization the news organization until they find one that will take it on their terms you publish it in this form you will not identify me and you will publish a day after tomorrow and this is the importance of the story you emphasize that you don't do it i'll go next door they'll do it and then you'll have to report what they report so an end and he used the analogy of brooklyn story comparative to martin luther king laurie quote storybook of neverland three decades earlier in which they would try to put out information about a sex than in

longmont of the king in the news media said no we won't go along and you raise a question look it msnbc had those tapes from over and cnn new healing cnn today in today's will journalistic world would not long when it immediately thought of the msnbc and the answer is obviously will ensure that no question certain that judge would've gone with it if they hadn't or salmon coat you would've gotten on television and talked about the fact that someone was offered it didn't use the one where the other in the hour and then there is the additional factor the third point i love argumentation drama television set almost any news program now has a heated argument from experts who know little about anything because there are no reporters working for that program they have no one providing them with hard facts are hard information in as we pointed out in their study showed that in the first week for the clinton lewinsky coverage forty three percent of all the news with opinions conjecture speculation not fat

and then there are no gatekeepers anymore journalist used to say no they could sign up they could make judgments the editors were there to make judgments over borders they'll man publishers are network executives were there finally to make an alderman judgment as a gatekeeper now in that song the two in vietnam is that person that is they proved that not to know what the sourcing is we're about what no matter what the credibility of the sort the fundamental change because of the new system that's made news a commodity is that the journalist who used to sleep the obligation to the roots to listen to the offer geisha was to provide information that we use sort of the citizen is now saying by the news organization is how it's useful to them how i can draw the audience to them for their purpose and file a the blockbuster phenomenon the big

story and now there is a tendency in the big story breaks it even on a day after day hour after hour man that the men are there is no time to take a breath and found out what else is going on the world and this is where all these factors come together is the purpose being served by the organization has to draw the audience to them for their needs then all decisions are made based on how can you draw the largest audience and invariably that means the most entertaining the most speculated the most enlightened i mean most entertaining news if you can put together that's what draws the system and then you run it as long as you can twenty four hours a day seven days away but the rest of the world wait until the story is worn out in the clinton lewinsky linda tripp notion gober the phenomenon

the events that that that created those four people as the daily dominant personalities in the same new store in england obviously was there was a main story away but when you put those other three lewinsky trip and gold were together our with information about the scandal involves the president and it's inevitable lad given those five segments of the mosaic that now represents a media culture what you get is what we got was a blockbuster story that fail psycho around the clock that involves argumentation that pointed out that there were no more gatekeepers and that relied heavily on

anonymous confidential sources most often spending frequently in arab and the question is what's the poor public to do under those circumstances the public as one source and one source only either takes septic or to push back and insist that they get a little better friedman in the story they were satisfied if there are phone but you can you can change you can switch channels you can cancel elizabeth or you can certainly send in your comments and asked for for better news and the gun i mean the polls are showing it when the journalist now say the margins of seventy percent in some polls were in trouble because were done that were in trouble they agree with the public that the problem we're so they're beginning to push back as lester still vote that this book warp speed is of is the product of a committed but journalist you and tom rosenstiel concern her

and sort of committed to a dramatic shift in the committee of concerned journalists and i should know the name of the member of the government and health former but thank you for the correction it helpful in the direction that that they get on the ear off but the talk about it in those two word about writing this book first wall how committee of concerned journalists proceeded to gather information that made this report possible well the idea of the collection of information was simply to monitor the press room to actually have people who read everything that was published in the major news media much everything on television and recorded what can of information that was so we gathered an enormous amount of data in order to put that first record together and then brought them brought of material together and presented it to the reporters in washington who are covering the story

and showed them what we found about what they had done and they were great with baby and they were on the panel dull mcmanus the bureau chief of the los angeles times here in washington a producer from cbs television than a number a journalist as you remember on the family's together said absolutely right this is what the new system it's forcing us to do we have to find out ways to deal with so we have all this debt and we decided to analyze at our sales and project from that what does this say about the name at the town who works in washington and i'm up in cambridge tom would write the first draft of a chapter email it up the mere fact that up to me i would rework it send it back to him so we collaborate in that way we between the two of us we wrote dress of the chapter of the end of the book and put together effectively could because we wanted this out quickly because the public needs to have an opportunity to examine this information and

if not are painted a fallback at bgc with what he writes leon ryan goes it seems to be a seamless way of an historic lows of an awful lot of celebrity names her in this in this report by land jury in the newspapers more often names of journalists report was anchors commentators tv hosts we regularly seen on television i just know would like to take a few minutes to go over your report on some other stories in the klan whiskey well buster or the math your us case by case in the boat

one of the only is bakery in october about the baby hurry story and how the world's stores and what the public was led to believe a lot of actual of the medicare a story of the new york times broke that story and the new york times was very careful in their present asian a story not to say that bill clinton was coaching that occurred this the implications word that he goes back to her after testimony after a deposition and says i said this remember and here's what i said this new member of business but it didn't work as wrote a story very carefully just to report what they were told about the conversation every other news organization that i'm aware of that picked up that story did not report them salem think that that story to italy and said bill clinton was coaching baker he was trying to

shake her testimony when she would be called an offer to laurent literal instructional just destruction of just those tied directly to that once it got out once it got out of the new york times content or you can say but if you go back a day and read a new york times story it still holds up his silken cords exactly with what ultimately was present was presented in the invasion in and they've reacted yet but that if you go back and read every spin off story it's there somehow the second step was taken and that's where the speculation comes in that the hundreds of voices that are on the television or an aria you do know reporting take information someone else's reported and then put their spin on that the journalists are becoming the span archives not the politician not the naacp a prosecutor with the journal sentinel that becomes an artist and then there is a rolling joints are clearly we will only that vernon had obstructed justice had obstructed justice and obstructed justice

and there was never any evidence produced at any level of this to justify that and this one i think bothers me as a journalist as much as many if not more than any because there was a clear pattern i'm tryin the time vernon jordan into this story somehow and there was never presented an of honest in a factual basis any evidence just by doing that the word is that words have come from bill and india is it just part of the whole new culture take a twenty four hour news cycle take a renewal of the source dominating the journal is that or start his songs are just started its fifth and new culture but it starts with the control of the source because clearly the information was being put out buy the source in order to to be affected the course of events to affect the public's attitudes about vernon

jordan about this idea that he was trend to use vernon jordan to get monica lewinsky a job all of this information that would have been an obstruction of justice and if you are member tennis star himself in an affidavit he had a file in court about his management of the new this cast his relationship with the reporters who are covering him as the relationship between an informant and a government official he saw the journalist of information and that is a dramatic change wu and i know that's a dramatic change from the days i was a reporter when you are poor are days when i was vetted you were an editor i mean what would you save you was still losing the new york times are slow to atlantic oscillation and not the current human program what would you say to a journalist move

and then part of sourcing a story using star and you're in that and i read that actually damaged your language is a patient with the columbia and glory i go it's it's it's it's it's a computer complete their dereliction of baby it's a complete perversion of the idea of what journalism was all about that's not to say that star game out all e to mean the white house was leaning in serenading every day in exactly the same way i'm not sure that the white house foreign journalists and exactly the same why as confidential sources but they in effect turn them into low they use them as tools of their of their propaganda campaign and journalist must always be aware and better been used in make some fundamental judgment about to what

degree they're gonna allow themselves to be used and not let the consumer the information in order for the cigar the cigar was you know it was a story that day and even it if it were true to the extent that it was recorded and there's no evidence that it was there's evidence that the cigar had a better role in all this but my judgment is that's just simply a matter of taste to what degree to what degree are going in the sand to that level of disclosure on the front page of the newspaper there are things that are there are bowls friend and television exaggerated the story in the reporting of it but once you take that quote argumentation factor close quote and superimpose that only his reporting then you now relief far out comments about

what really happened and factories no evidence at a court that you have caught the journals considerable reputation cameron for in front of a computer brain making comments about a subject that that debate they donate demain them sailed the blue send us the blue satin dress was no was the story that held up in the end there are dress was there the significance of the address was there but only so far as we were able to determine the only one our reporter jackie jeb who broke the story that was ill or horror that we knew in that first week who recorded a solid source for that information and continue to

stay with it through the story turned up the right everybody else are virtually everybody else hundreds of other journalists wrote that story expanded on that story commented on that story and had no idea whether or not an led one point went through a period in which so reporters who had said it's true now be bound to debunk it because another dressed went to the drachma because another aggressive on the likely because they do not of what they were sleeping and i think as one journalist and first jackie judd i believe her when she came with a story a new song was there but then i went through a period in when she was solid it's a distorted not be with us and he hammered home everyday people began to hammer home that there was nothing to it are if there was aggressive than likely nor perhaps even destroyed again i went through greenwich out and that the reason is as though is addressed and i was laughing at the report with no this town respond to the white house

having been spun by louisiana goldberger star level that source was and that's precisely what happens to the public when the journalist behave this way they'd not sure where they can go to get enlightened information that they can trust them depend on the way okay okay but late as i'll stick with them some more because they're they've been writing that always write your rejected that was on the first panel and she said look i'm right on this melanie i'm right and i believe that i believe it for a long time and then i didn't believe in any more heavy our times have stories and that though that the dress was dumb because of id id been analyzed and turned out not to have had had his family had ever undress they have no idea whom whether they were saved but somebody is some anonymous source told them it was spun them in the same way yes jackie jutted inaccurately <unk> a white house source had no interest in spain and

that's that's right led investors to argue is how i can get this book the product of that one sentence on the indian by calling that eight hundred number five five to five for five or five five to five four five oh in the back and you can go to your book torn asked for them and emmett shear hardback or paperback this are now let's just talk about what's to be done and over two weeks now we've been talking about these this from boulder our perspective this tragic movement away from traditional model accountable credible journalism to today mixed media culture in which too often das of rumor speculation opinion are present in their lives but we have been forced to think of nouns knows

what's to be done you and tom wright about what's to be done and absent specific proposals they primarily go to what goes on the use of the large part of the problem really is inside journalism was not much the public a new laws except complain about separate obama accepted turn the television offered a castle is that this some friction but what's to be done inside journalism if the credibility of the institution is i think we all think that that is the fundamental problem is among journalists as a crisis in confidence in what they do can journalism hold its place in the information world by maintaining standards of journalism and not blaming themselves away into entertainment and in something and we say but the first step has to be that the news organization has to

in advance of any big story decide who it is and what it is what does it stand for what are its standard well i prayed it does really prep rumors does it feel an obligation because matt drudge says they have to run that they have to decide in advance are we gonna do this once they decide that once they make it clear what their standards are they should been talk to the staff about it make sure everybody in the news organization knows what the standards are here is what we believe in here are higher ethical standards here are standards of what's news and what's not be used then they should share that information with their consumers with their readers in their view or make it clear who they are this is called braindead it's what it's what mr fox did with the new york times in the days of yellow journalism all the news that's fit write that didn't mean as a lot of people think now all the news in the world if they are going over all of the news that is fit for you

to pray that that you can leave on your kitchen table and if your children online future not going to be embarrassed that what he was saying and it created one of the great newspapers in our country that branding says here's who we are so you decided who you are and what you read what you broadcast you let the public in on it and then you practice what you preach when the next story towns is an hour and i knew that when a protest or when the kathleen willey story broke know they hear broderick story right yes the new york times put that story on page ninety they had decided after this clinton lewinsky story they decided when they were going back to our standard that's not a front page story they put it on page an idea that the public can write another to come out but they wrote the story in a context that told their readers how the editors made the decision here is why the editor decided around the story

what we think of credible and the rest of it's not in here for the news organizations or began to sort themselves cells out of the silly so enough senators worried then bring the news organization everybody was part of that into it so that they understand what our values are and we communicate those standards and values to public and then having taken that stan we then is what we bring back to folk art you know the best of those little and so there is a very small mention in the book that sort of makes the point of what you might not do just one case that stands on my mind has to summon a marv albert nano marv albert is the most of the people in my family had never heard of before suddenly turned up on the front page of the newspaper and everywhere in the news again and again and that sort of thing is happening

people who are small celebrities so he had caught in a scandal and now macos lewinsky and clinton had been caught the scandal for omar robert the basketball commentator wouldn't bite winds up as front page news how do you say no bill where they march downward suddenly the margins you just say you know i mean even you either do it or get out or if you figure you think your audience needs this information because the purpose the reason journalists are protected and what they do is that they provide a service to democracy yes you believe that's important to democracy then you do that they knew the stand then you do it in what way that's the next step one hour it