continued: Corporatization of the Media: A discussion from News World 2000 conference in Barcelona
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Docherty: Well I think the answer to that is we don't know. All I can tell you is that we know what happened in this instance, where corporate pressure seems to have prevailed at least for some. Eventually the story gets on air. I think the solitary lesson in that is that we have to take a look at them and see what happens. I think we need to have more defenses for journalists. Firewalls that I think were once in place in newsrooms throughout North America have been crumbling, is what I'm being told by my colleagues. So if Viacom is just a media company, that doesn't mean it doesn't have corporate interests, it doesn't mean that it's not lobbying certain senators or congressmen for certain changes in legislation, it doesn't mean that journalists within those organizations will feel those senators and those congressmen are off limits.

McChesney: Isn't it really a good thing that CBS had to jump through so many hoops to get this story out? You're dealing with a company that has workers and investors. The standards should be super high, shouldn't they? These are major firms; if it is a reckless story that doesn't meet standards it will do untold damage to the economy.

Docherty: I think that is what's so good about this example, because nobody ever questioned the veracity of the story at the time, and in fact the veracity of the story was proven by subsequent events. So here we had case where that wasn't a issue; it wasn't a matter of standards. In fact what happened was Bergman had stopped researching the story. He was told he could no longer talk to Wigand. So he is in position where he had cultivated a contact, made promises to him, and he is now told, "you can't even talk to this man because we may be sued."

Hargreaves: But you just leave the organization at that point. Isn't that the self-respecting journalist's answer to that problem?

Docherty: I certainly think that's one option. I think it ill-behooves us to have an industry where that is the journalist's only option to get the story on air. In Bergman's case there is a lot of dispute as to whether he resigned or not. He tells me at one point he did resign from CBS, after the story went on air. But I would say that Bergman at this point is actually fighting very hard to protect Wigand, because if CBS doesn't come on board with this story, Wigand is left out to dry.

Hargreaves: When I started work on a local weekly paper it was definitely the case that the big-guy advertisers in town were a force that the editor was frightened of. There is no doubt about that; it was a feature of small town journalism everywhere, and you learn to resist it. I don't think it is harder to resist it there than it is for these guys in CBS.

Docherty: I think that is the thing that's most disappointing about the CBS case, because with reputation and high salary does come responsibility. I think here was a chance for our most venerated journalists to give a lead to everyone else, to the small newspapers which may be facing this situation. Bear in mind that often editors will choose who they want to put on certain stories. They may not choose to put these experienced journalists on a story where they think there is going to be that kind of problem. They may decide to put someone who is very new to the organization and has a very high mortgage.

McChesney: But don't journalists have an obligation to think about the financial well being of the institution they work for? If they run a story that is going to lead to a libel suit, that could drive the company out of business and put people out of work. Shouldn't that factor into the decision-making process?

Docherty: Well I think that's a very good question. Should Bergman, Hewitt, and Wallace to "we want to save you money, so we won't run a story that is a) true and b) historically important, because possibly you will be sued under a seldom-used legal maneuver. And I would argue in that case the balance is very clear. In fact history has proven it so, because The Wall Street Journal ran essentially what was supposed to be "60 Minutes" story, didn't get sued, and went on to win a Pulitzer.

McChesney: But doesn't that prove the system worked, that the story got out?

Docherty: It proves that journalists have to fight hard to get it out, and in this case Bergman, standing tall, got it out and he deserves the credit.

Nick Gowing: I now call Chris Cramer, president of CNN International, part of the Turner Broadcasting Network, which of course is part of Time Warner, which will be soon a part of AOL if the regulators will approve the deal. Chris, can you put your hand on your heart and say there is and has been no corporate interference in your journalism or journalistic agenda because of Time Warner's overriding corporate and commercial interest?

Chris Cramer: None, none whatsoever, in the six years I've been there.

McChesney: Last week I was watching CNN in the United States and the Florida elections story of course was on. The announcer said, "and now let us see how the Florida story is affecting our stock portfolios. Here is the latest from Wall Street." What was striking about that was something that we have almost taken for granted from television news services like CNN, which is the assumption that the viewer views as a stock donor, buys business equipment, travels, this is a middle to upper middle class person. We've seen the basic writing out, not just in CNN but across the board, of the bottom third to half of our population. Labor, which used to be a standard beat in every U.S. daily newspaper in the mid-century, has been eliminated in our media culture in the United States today. We see the whole cropping of stories that are primarily of concern to people in the bottom third of our society, like the rise of the massive prison-industrial complexes in the United States, which affects disproportionately poor people. Now is there a problem here, central to how people deal with social problems in the world, that is built into this emphasis on a small section of the population of a whole, and this might do damage to a democratic society.

Cramer: I don't accept your assertion at all. There is an assumption in this room that big is bad and it is not an assumption that I accept for the moment. We live in the age of mergers and partnerships, there will be fewer delegates here next year and fewer delegates the year after. This is a fact of life. The issue is whether or not we're pulling our journalistic punches. Whether or not we are soft on ourselves. That's the issue that we need to get to the heart of.

McChesney: That is exactly right. So you have lots of stories on stocks and investments if that is who your viewers are, the five percent who own stocks and have investments. There won't be any stories on the prison-industrial complex, or very few, because most of your viewers don't go to prison. But in a democratic society in which we are building a massive array of prisons, it is a huge expense now on the United States, its tripling the number of prisons in the U.S. in the last twenty years.

Cramer: I simply don't accept your assertion. If you spend any time watching CNN's twenty services you will soon discover that CNN is in the business of a comprehensive news agenda. Particularly the international service--the international service broadcasts to 160 million people around the world. If you look across the week you will see that we're covering a whole spectrum of stories. What I'm saying is that the demographic for CNN in the United States is that five or six percent who happen to be in share ownership.

McChesney: Isn't the problem that the news is aimed at them? A program is lopsided to favor stories that interest the wealthy, when journalism is to serve the entire society. For the poor person who watches CNN, a significant chunk of your storyline is totally irrelevant to their life. Which is why they wouldn't watch it--only that six percent of shareholders do.

Cramer: Forgive me sir, not true. The majority of our viewership in the Middle East, for example, covers a very young demographic. They watch in the tens of millions, and they watch BBC World ,and they get comprehensive coverage on their own part of their world. Here I'm addressing the U.S. audience.

Hargreaves: Chris, you gave the answer I expected you to give to Nick's very straight question: that you have never suffered direct, open interference in your editorial judgments at CNN. I could give the same answer--actually I couldn't about all the organizations that I've worked for, but I believe you. I'm sure that it is an honest statement, but it doesn't take us to the heart of the matter, because the pressure that you and your colleagues are under in forming judgments about what you cover and how you cover it are much more subtle. It's not a matter of direct instruction; its about the culture of the organization. The question I would like to put to you: you have worked in the last several years for the BBC, for CNN in its Ted Turner original form, for CNN in its Time Warner-owned form. Are you saying that there wasn't any difference for you making the judgments that you make about news in those organizations?

Cramer: Before I answered a specific question about CNN. It would be much more fertile territory if you examined the previous 26 years; you know there have been uncomfortable moments for me at the BBC, primarily dealing with in-house stories, stories concerning the BBC's behavior. I'm sure you know these are very difficult stories to cover.

Hargreaves: It would be interesting to hear you compare the news culture of the BBC and the kind of internal pressures with the corporate world of the United States. This gets to the heart of it, really. continued

Next page: "They understand soft journalism, that pulling the punches and getting it wrong can destroy your brand."