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March 7, 1998
A FRIENDLY LEGACY The death this week of Fred Friendly... ...is much more than a sombre milestone in the history of America's broadcast news industry. It's also a disturbing reminder of just how far our commercial network news divisions have strayed from the standards of excellence that marked the career of this respected pioneer and his contemporaries. As a frontier-blazing producer at CBS and in his distinguished and varied broadcasting pursuits thereafter, Friendly championed the belief that the professional men and women who produce news programming -- the creators of content -- must vigorously protect the editorial integrity of their newscasts and documentaries. Individually and collectively, he insisted, journalists should make a difference, whether that means defeating fraudsters, propagandists and official censors, or, as in Friendly's last stand as president of CBS News, resisting the corrosive practices of profit-hungry network owners. Does this sound quaint in its purity ? Naive perhaps ? Well, stop and remember: principles and beliefs like Friendly's not so long ago made America a world leader in genuine TV news gathering and reportage. And yes, the commercial news divisions once made money, lots of it, with programming conceived to serve the public interest -- not merely to exploit the kind of sensation that excites interest among segments of the public most desirable to advertisers. Americans can be forgiven for forgetting the potential of television as Friendly saw it. "The greatest teaching tool since the printing press," he said, "it will determine nothing less than what kind of people we are." In too many ways his proud dream has become a dark prophecy. Contrast Friendly's code with the excuses of too many of our current top anchor men and women. They explain that Monica and Diana and O.J. have overwhelmed their programs because the ratings rule supreme. Sensation, sentiment and scandal sell, they say; we are, after all, just servants of our industrial parents, victims of market economics. Meantime, statistical evidence shows that as professional values have fallen, so too has the value of TV news. According to the Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism, over the past 20 years there's been a 40% collapse in the amount of straight news reporting that makes air on the major networks. In 1977, more than half of all stories (52%) were basically straight news accounts of events at home and abroad. By 1997, that figure had fallen to less than one in three stories (32%). The growth area ? Features, quality-of-life pieces and celebrity sagas. The Project's researchers conclude that the main evening newscasts have become "hybrids" -- a mixture of traditional news and the entertainment-oriented fare of the primetime magazine shows. These have replaced the hard-nosed documentaries for which Fred Friendly became famous; today only 8% of stories on the so-called newsmagazines focus on education, economics, foreign affairs, the military, national security, politics or social welfare. As a result, most of TV's investigative work now falls in ratings-driven topic zones: personality profiles, crime, consumer news, health and medicine, law and justice -- all chosen by ratings experts to spike the viewing curve. Of course these trends were apparent even to pioneers like Friendly. He commented: "Because television can make so much money doing its worst, it often cannot afford to do its best." Is this searing truth destined to be our industry's epitaph ? Not if we take to our hearts and minds the example of Friendly's journalism and the enormous respect it engendered. As he advocated, broadcast journalists can and must make a difference. First, we have to convince owners and managers that the long term health of any commercial news company relies upon its credibility, that crucial element of TV news that becomes more scarce with each passing day. Meanwhile the public -- America's news consumers -- should demand a return to the kind of balanced, responsible news presentation that was the traditional standard bearer for the networks' daily schedule. Let's face it: if the people are starved of information, how can the nation stay on the cutting edge of the information age ? The concept that the news divisions at ABC, NBC and CBS are primarily profit centers is a corruption both of Federal Communications Commission regulations and the established policies of our industry's pioneers. Providing genuine news is the public interest obligation of broadcasters, a counterweight to their exploitation of the public airwaves -- free of charge -- with sports and entertainment programs designed to maximize profit. Fred Friendly was eulogized last week by many of the nation's TV news stars. Their words are empty unless they act, as well, in the cause of higher editorial principles and practices. |
| Next time... | the lure of foreign news draws our team back to the field.
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