NIEMAN REPORTS THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

VOL. 55 NO. 3 FALL 2001 Five Dollars

The Documentary and Journalism Where They Converge

Newspaper Cutbacks: Is this the only way to survive? “…to promote and elevate the standards of journalism”

—Agnes Wahl Nieman, the benefactor of the Nieman Foundation.

Vol. 55 No. 3 NIEMAN REPORTS Fall 2001 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Publisher Bob Giles Editor Melissa Ludtke Assistant Editor Lois Fiore Editorial Assistant Paul Wirth Design Editor Deborah Smiley Business Manager Cheryl Scantlebury

Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) is published Please address all subscription correspondence to in March, June, September and December One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, and change of address information to One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098. P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108. ISSN Number 0028-9817 Telephone: (617) 495-2237 E-mail Address (Business): Second-class postage paid [email protected] at Boston, Massachusetts, and additional entries. E-mail Address (Editorial): [email protected] POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Internet address: Nieman Reports, http://www.nieman.harvard.edu P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108. Copyright 2001 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Subcription $20 a year, $35 for two years; add $10 per year for foreign airmail. Single copies $5. Back copies are available from the Nieman office. Vol. 55 No. 3 NIEMAN REPORTS Fall 2001 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

4 The Documentary and Journalism

6‘What the Hell is a Radio Documentary?’ BY STEPHEN SMITH Radio and the Internet 7Radio Diarists Document Their Lives BY JOE RICHMAN

10 Using the Web for an Interactive Documentary Project BY SUE JOHNSON

13 Radio Documentaries Take Listeners Into Dark Corners INTERVIEW WITH DAVID ISAY

16 Radio Storytelling Builds Community On-Air and Off BY JAY ALLISON

19 First-Person Narratives on Radio Document Historic Memory BY SANDY TOLAN

22 Exploring the Relationship Between Photographer and Subject BY DENISE KEIM Photography and the 25 Photojournalism at a Crossroads BY PETER HOWE Written Word 27 Photojournalism and Documentary Photography BY ANTONIN KRATOCHVIL,

WITH MICHAEL PERSSON

32 Being Receptive to the Unexpected BY ELI REED

37 A Place for Words and Images to Call Home BY ROBERT COLES

39 Revealing Afghanistan BY CHRIS STEELE-PERKINS

41 A Photographer’s Journey Begins With a Coffin BY ANDRE LAMBERTSON

45 A Nieman Year Spent Pondering Storytelling BY ROBERT DREW Moving Pictures: 47 Documentary Journalism Vanishes From Network and Local Television BY PHILIP S. BALBONI Television and Film 50 Striking a Balance Between Filmmaking and Journalism BY MICHAEL KIRK 53 Where Journalism and Television Documentary Meet BY CARA MERTES

55 Using Documentaries to Move People to Action BY ELLEN SCHNEIDER

57 Documenting Social Ills With an Eye Toward Advocacy BY MARGARET LAZARUS

59 Long-Form Documentaries Serve a Vital Journalistic Role BY ROBERT RICHTER

61 Using the Drama of Cinéma Vérité to Tell Real Stories BY CHRIS HEGEDUS

63 Documentary Filmmakers Decide How to Present Compelling Evidence BY MICHAEL RABIGER

Cover photo: Afghanistan, 1998. A young man on the doorstep of a tea house. Photo by Chris Steele-Perkins/Magnum Photos.© 65 Journalist’s Trade

Newspaper 66 A Feeling of Being Set Adrift BY THRITY UMRIGAR Cutbacks 67 The Philadelphia Inquirer: Cuts Jeopardize Quality BY JIM NAUGHTON

68 When the Cheering Stops and Anger Sets In BY CHUCK LASZEWSKI

70 Editors Need to Care About Words and Budgets BY DEBORAH HOWELL

71 Diversity Can Be Improved During This Economic Downturn BY WILLIAM W. SUTTON, JR.

73 Ownership Guides a Newspaper’s Mission BY JOHN MORTON

74 Newspaper Economics 2001: The McClatchy Way BY GARY PRUITT

76 Making Change Work Away From Public Pressures BY JAY SMITH

77 Newspapers Confront a Barrage of Problems BY STEPHEN LACY

79 Working Together, Journalists Can Have a Say in Corporate Policy BY GILBERT CRANBERG

82 News is Strategic in the Newspaper Business BY JOSEPH BOWER

84 Words & Reflections

When 86 A Neighbor Wonders About Her Role as a Media Source BY AUDREY MCCOLLUM Journalists 88 The Chandra Levy Story BY KIM PETERSEN Arrive … 91 A Bullet, a Boy, a Story, and a Reporter’s Observations BY ROBERT SALLADAY

92 My Son Became a Voice the Media Relied on BY BARBARA SCHARDT

94 With Child-Care Stories, It Still Comes Down to Mothers BY BARBARA A. WILLER

95 Journalists Ask Questions, Then Refuse to Answer Them BY DAVID FOLKENFLIK

97 Viewer Dissatisfaction Understates the Anger at Local TV News BY IKE SEAMANS

99 Silencing Voices for Racial Change During the 1950’s BY CAROL POLSGROVE Books and 101 Journalism and Myth BY WILLIAM F. WOO Commentary 103 The Evolutionary Growth of Newspapers’ Look and Feel BY WARREN WATSON

104 Editorials: Pungent, Profound and Path Breaking BY NANCY DAY

106 Essays by a Mexican Journalist Explore the Americas BY DIANNE SOLÍS

108 A Journalist Allows This Story to Speak for Itself BY WILSON WANENE

109 He Displeased His Bosses, Not to Mention Those He Covered BY JOHN HERBERS

3 Curator’s Corner Narrative Journalism: A New Nieman Program BY BOB GILES

111 Nieman Notes: Nieman Fellows Take to the Road in Korea BY STEFANIE FRIEDHOFF

112 Class Notes COMPILED BY LOIS FIORE 113 End Note

2 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Curator’s Corner Narrative Journalism: A New Nieman Program Mark Kramer brings his teaching and narrative journalism conference to Harvard.

By Bob Giles

n its Fall 2000 issue, this magazine published a series of Journalism. Kramer joins the Nieman staff as director of the articles exploring the idea that narrative writing was program and writer-in-residence. He brings with him the Ireturning to newspapers. The lead article was written by annual narrative journalism conference, which will be held Mark Kramer, a writer and highly respected teacher of the November 30-December 1-2 under the Nieman/Harvard narrative craft who has directed a conference on the narra- banner. This fall, he will teach the narrative form to the tive form each year at Boston University, where he has been Nieman class and plans to offer courses to Harvard students. a professor and writer-in-residence for more than a decade. He will be available as a writing consultant to student “The basic assertion is simple,” wrote Kramer. “Newspa- publications, thus helping to fulfill the Nieman Foundation’s pers might both improve coverage and retain more readers obligation to serve the university community. by employing storytelling techniques to convey news.” Edi- Kramer’s presence will enrich significantly our program torial interest in narrative has been stimulated, he contin- and the fellows. As Stefanie Friedhoff, Nieman Fellow ’01, ued, “in the course of a search for remedies to widespread said in her note to the class of 2002, “Mark Kramer stuffed his current business problems: declining or stagnant newspa- students with ideas of how to convince colleagues and per circulation, aging readership, and decreased minutes editors that a long narrative story here and there can have an spent reading papers.” impact; how to go about narrative and do it in a way that is Narrative was on the list, he explained, “because it en- intriguing and convincing. Thus, narrative became visible as gages readers; in this age of mega-corporate media satura- one concrete tool to do a better job.” tion, Web sites and workaholism, readers still are attracted Kramer’s overview of narrative journalism is worth not- to stories in which people’s lives and decision-making are ing. “First of all, it’s not an invented thing, but one that is vividly portrayed.” evolving,” he wrote in reply to my query. “My observations Last winter several Nieman Fellows, who were among 750 on narrative derive from common practice, although I plead to attend Kramer’s narrative conference and who attended guilty to trying to influence that practice. his class at B.U., urged me to bring him to Lippmann House “Narrative describes events as they take place over time. to teach a narrative journalism class. Mark and I had lunch This splitting of event into process of course fully mobilizes and then a series of meetings that led to reinstating the journalists’ writing skills and judgment, which is why it can narrative course for the Nieman Fellows that had been serve readers well and excite reporters, but also why editors introduced the year before by Robert Vare (NF ’97), and approach cautiously. All reporting implies a selective eye. In much more. narrative accounts, the selection is fine-grained: What events Kramer laid out a vision for making the Nieman Founda- are central? Where in the tangled rush of events might a tion a center of activity in narrative journalism. He saw it as reporter slow action to catch moments and details and an opportunity to deploy the great strength of the Nieman persons, and where brush past events? The reporter gets to name and reputation by reaching out to the working press figure it all out and to chat with readers…. Narrative invites through discussions of reporting and writing practices; the reporting beyond the least common denominator, because role of editing; the ethics of narrative reporting, and rela- it acknowledges complex emotions, human situations and tionships of reporters with sources, with readers, and with consequences, moving conversation with readers beyond the culture and institutions of journalism. He described simple shared sentimentality.” formal and informal ways in which the Nieman program So, in a sense, this narrative movement in American could support the development of narrative work, both in journalism isn’t simply about storytelling, but about con- the United States and abroad through seminars and the necting with varied readers. It invites us to deploy proven Nieman Web site. (I urge you to go to the foundation’s Web practices, including scrupulous use of set scenes and infor- site [www.nieman.harvard.edu] to read more from our Fall mation about personality. It invites the reporter’s artistry. 2000 issue about the experiences of other reporters who use Kramer adds, “It surely doesn’t include inventing an iota of this approach.) material. That’s a bedrock taboo, as industry-threatening as His ideas struck me as a natural fit with the Nieman ever.” mission to elevate the standards of journalism, serving The Nieman Foundation Program on Narrative Journal- Nieman Fellows and the larger journalism community as ism has been launched. I invite your ideas and experiences, well. We were able to quickly transform this vision into a new cautions and encouragement. ■ initiative—the Nieman Foundation Program on Narrative

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 3 The Documentary and Journalism

At a time when so much of journalism is quicker, shorter and hyped to grab the public’s presumed short-attention span, the documentary—with its slower pace and meandering moments—is finding receptive audiences in many old places and some new ones as well. In radio, documentary producers tackle society’s most pressing issues, and on the Internet, there are homes for documentary exploration. Photographers linger in communities to document the lives and places they encounter. And though documentary films are not as visible on network and local broadcast stations as they once were, on public and cable TV and in theaters, the documentary form is thriving. In this issue of Nieman Reports, we’ve asked those who document our world to explore how their work converges with ours. How is what they do related to journalism? And what does the documentary form allow its adherents to do in reporting news or exploring issues that other forms of journalism do not?

Stephen Smith, managing editor at American RadioWorks, begins our inquiry by raising—and responding to—a familiar question: “What the hell is a radio documentary?” Joe Richman, producer of the “Radio Diaries” series on National Public Radio, describes how his documentary “reporters,” who are untrained in journalism, capture moments that journalists never could. Two of these reporters write about their work as radio diarists. At 360degrees.org, documentary photographer Sue Johnson uses Web technology to merge voices and images to create an interactive opportunity for people to explore the day-to-day experiences of prison and to gain understanding about topics of criminal justice. In an interview, radio documentary producer David Isay shares his views and experiences about the points at which his work intersects with that of journalists and where it diverges. Jay Allison, an independent broadcast journalist, begins with “Life Stories,” a diary series he began in the 1980’s, and ends his article with a description of his newly developed Internet site Transom.org—“a combination library, master class, and audition stage,” where producers and citizens gather to talk and learn about radio documentary. Producer Sandy Tolan reminds us of the power of first-person radio narratives as he retraces his experience in making the award-winning documentary, “The Lemon Tree,” and Johanna Zorn at Chicago Public Radio alerts us to an October festival where radio documentaries will be featured.

Photographer Denise Keim used her camera to document life in Poland during the year she spent there. “With documentary work,” she writes, “I stretch the boundaries, nurture the subject matter, and communicate critical thinking on many layers.” Photojournalist Peter Howe, who directed photography at The New York Times magazine and Life, describes the crossroads at which photojournalism now finds itself, a place in which technology, culture and economics will determine its future. Photographer Antonin Kratochvil draws distinctions between what he regards as photojournalism and what he believes is documentary photography. They are, he writes, “identical mediums, but conveying very different messages.” Alongside his haunting photographs, he speaks about what motivates him to tell stories in this way. Eli Reed, a photographer for Magnum, takes us along as he immerses himself in the community of Eau Claire, South Carolina to

4 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 document moments that bring residents together. Robert Coles, editor of DoubleTake, a documentary magazine, and a teacher at Harvard University, returns us to the words of those who inspired him to create DoubleTake. “Pictures and words, both, is now our refrain…” he writes, in tribute to poet, artist and physician William Carlos Williams. Magnum photographer Chris Steele-Perkins’ photographs reveal what he found in Afghanistan, a country cloaked in secrecy. His mission: “to commit these people’s sufferings, their crazy ways, their grace and culture to film.” And photographer Andre Lambertson focuses his camera’s lens on the enduring plight of poor, black children growing up in decaying neighborhoods of urban America. “I wanted my work to help me and others understand why these neighborhoods continued to devour their children, how children who lived there saw themselves, and where they found hope,” he writes.

In the early years of television, producer Robert Drew used his Nieman year to ponder how the documentary method of storytelling could flourish in this new medium. By the early 1960’s, he pioneered what he calls “candid” documentary. Unfortunately, in recent years, documentaries have nearly vanished from broadcast television, as Philip S. Balboni, president of New England Cable News and a juror for the Alfred duPont-Columbia University Awards, attests in his article exploring why this happened and the consequences of their absence. “Frontline” is one of the only reliable outposts for documentary journalism left on television, and its founding and ongoing mission are the topics of producer/director Michael Kirk’s article. Cara Mertes, executive producer for the public television series “P.O.V.,” talks about how personal storytelling, told subjectively, finds links to journalism. Ellen Schneider, executive director of “Active Voice,” which includes a new media model called the Television Race Initiative, writes about trying to use the documentary form to inspire collective action within specific communities. And Margaret Lazarus, an independent documentary filmmaker, speaks to ways in which her own advocacy intersects with her filmmaking and, in turn, how her films intersect with journalism. Robert Richter, the last producer from the Murrow/Friendly “CBS Reports” unit still making documentaries, explains why the long-form documentary can’t be replaced adequately by the ubiquitous newsmagazine. “The reason: To make what is complicated able to be understood, and potentially acted upon, eats up valuable airtime.” Independent filmmaker Chris Hegedus uses the “cinéma vérité” approach to documentary filmmaking to take viewers into places like Bill Clinton’s 1992 “War Room” and the offices of a young entrepreneur’s dot-com start-up (it fails) and keeps her cameras running as the story-behind-the-story unfolds. Is this related to what journalists do? “I’m not sure,” Hegedus writes, but she explores ways it might be. Finally, Michael Rabiger, a founding member of the BBC Oral History series “Yesterday’s Witness” and author of “Directing the Documentary,” describes the methods of documentary filmmakers and how their decisions and actions influence the story the film tells. He supports documentarians who have decided “to show not only the result of their work but how they created it.” Such transparency, he argues, “is encouraging since, as with journalism, the more the public understands how a story is constructed, the more likely they are to ascribe fairness to it.” ■

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 5 The Documentary and Journalism ‘What the Hell is a Radio Documentary?’ It’s a familiar question. Now here are some answers.

By Stephen Smith

was interviewing a man in Tennes- mentary possesses a depth of research In a stunning piece of historical docu- see this year, a well-educated pro- or proximity to its subject that distin- mentary, producers Christina Egloff Ifessional in his 60’s and a devoted guishes it from a long feature or enter- and Jay Allison of the “Lost and Found listener to public radio. I introduced prise story. Length is not the defining Sound” project used audiotapes made myself by explaining that I’m based at quality; a documentary can last hours by a soldier named Mike, who died in Minnesota Public Radio and make docu- or five minutes. Documentaries con- Vietnam, to tell his story: “I have the mentaries for National Public Radio vey a rich sense of character and de- recorder here, and I’m going to try to (NPR). He cocked his head and eyed tail—or a substantial body of original keep it elevated off the ground and me funny. “What the hell is a radio investigative material—that simply away from everything here. I’m going documentary?” he said. I get that ques- aren’t heard in the majority of public to try to keep it up in the air because tion all the time. radio news reports. everything I touch here eats through Unlike television and film viewers, At the heart of the documentary my skin or bites me, or rots, some- most radio listeners don’t identify an style are moments recorded on tape in thing. This is, this is something else. investigative story or intimate human which the story unfolds in front of the The grass will cut you. The mud will rot portrait they just heard on public radio listener. These scenes function like a your skin. This is something else.” as a documentary. To them it’s just a photo essay or a film documentary, Time spent in the field is often what program, a piece, a story, a write-up, or where events play out in real time. For distinguishes a radio documentary from even an “article.” example, there is a scene in an Ameri- a feature or enterprise report. The piece Yet an increasing flow of documen- can RadioWorks documentary on child feels lush, more active. At American taries is pouring out of American radio poverty, “The Forgotten 14 Million,” in RadioWorks, we encourage producers speakers. They come almost exclusively which the mother of a family in Ken- to revisit their subjects time and again, from public radio stations but also, tucky, Janet, lectures her son Jim about to document the story over months, if occasionally, from commercial news the perils of getting married too young. not years. These kind of character- stations. Some are an hour long, others driven stories are a powerful way of 10 to 20 minutes. The best can often be Jim: “You’re allowed to get married exploring larger social themes. Some heard within NPR news magazines such when you’re 21.” producers pride themselves on never as “All Things Considered” and “Week- Janet: “Yeah, you’re allowed to get quoting experts in their documenta- end Edition”—producer Joe Richman’s married when you’re 21, but where ries because conventional news reports chronicle of the lives of prison inmates you gonna take her to?” tend to rely heavily on academics and through their audio diaries—or David Jim: “I don’t know.” government officials as on-mike Isay’s portrait of a New York City flop- Janet: “Without the money and with- sources. At American RadioWorks, we house, or the work of the Kitchen Sis- out a home, you gotta have the money try to weave the larger social context ters in their “Lost and Found Sound” and you gotta have a home to take her into a compelling, character-rich story. series. There are also documentaries to!” When we get it right, the flow of an heard on our rival network, Public Ra- Jim: “Yeah, but I’m gonna get me a engaging narrative helps carry the dio International (PRI), in programs home first.” weight of figures and facts. The trick is like “Marketplace,” “The World,” and Janet: “There ain’t no way you can choosing the right subject. ARW covers “This American Life.” get married at the age of 18 and think a mix of domestic and international American RadioWorks (ARW) makes that you can go through college, get a subjects, from global public health to documentaries that air within the ma- job, and support a family, and get war crimes, from the American prison jor NPR news magazines, but we’ve your own home and everything else. industry to the history of segregation. also made a priority of producing hour- You can’t do that. That’s what Mommy Narrative documentaries are far long special reports distributed directly and Daddy’s been a-trying to tell more common in public radio than to public radio stations nationwide. youn’s. You get your education and investigative projects, in part because These specials air in virtually all the everything, then you can get you a investigative reporting devours time major American cities. woman. Other than that, if you don’t and money. Most radio news organiza- Neither length nor audience define go through all of that, then you ain’t tions simply can’t afford it. But in Feb- radio documentaries. Ideally, a docu- gonna have nothin. And you know it.” ruary, American RadioWorks broke the

6 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Radio and the Internet story of how Serbian security forces employment opportunities. Only a people a week tuning in to the presti- serving the regime of Slobodan handful of radio producers in the gious PBS TV documentary program Milosevic burned hundreds of bodies United States actually make a living “Frontline.” of slaughtered Kosovo Albanians in an from documentary work, and they don’t I like to think that the future is industrial furnace to cover up poten- earn much money. Most producers also promising for audio (not just radio) tial war crimes evidence. This story was work as journalists for local stations, or documentaries. The Internet has al- the result of nearly two years’ work hold down editorial posts at NPR or ready created new venues for audio researching war crimes in Kosovo. PRI, or toil at an unrelated day job. work, though the audience is uncer- Do listeners want these documenta- American RadioWorks, the largest docu- tain and work suffers from the squishy ries? If you ask many program direc- mentary production unit in public ra- sound of Web audio. There might be tors—the gatekeepers to local airtime dio, has nine people on staff. other ways to distribute audio docu- on more than 600 stations nation- Still, the near future seems promis- mentaries in the multi-media future. wide—the response is mixed. Some ing for documentary radio. An excel- Some day, we might get our radio sig- insist that long-form work is at the lent radio program can be made for a nals from satellites instead of towers heart of public radio’s mission and fraction of what a quality independent and be able to chose the “all documen- distinguish it from all the brainless film costs: As a rough estimate, radio tary” channel while driving to work. chatter elsewhere on the dial. Others documentaries can cost anywhere from We might even be able to chose pro- say documentaries are a ratings killer. $20-80,000 or more per hour, com- grams on demand, á la cable television. They point out that the average com- pared to a documentary film, in which This could mean a bigger market for mercial radio listener tunes in for only the budget might start at $100,000 and audio docs. 15 minutes or so and that longer sto- soar past one million dollars. Founda- In the meantime, keep an ear open ries won’t help lure these listeners to tion and government funding for radio for the radio documentaries already our side. On the other hand, time spent documentaries, while not simple to beaming through the atmosphere. ■ listening to public radio is more like an obtain, does exist. And when a piece hour per occasion, and documentaries airs on an NPR newsmagazine it reaches Stephen Smith is managing editor recently aired within NPR’s “All Things a large, influential audience. For ex- and a correspondent with American Considered” have been among the most ample, more than 10 million people RadioWorks, the documentary popular pieces that program has aired. listen to “All Things Considered.” That’s project of Minnesota Public Radio Although documentaries are alive in a far bigger crowd than watch most film and NPR news. public radio, it’s hard to argue that the documentaries and a healthy figure genre is healthy, at least in terms of when compared to the four million ssmith@mpr Radio Diarists Document Their Lives These ‘reporters’ capture moments journalists never could.

By Joe Richman

hat made Josh Cutler a great [See Josh’s description of his work for The fact that Josh could not always radio diarist was that I never “Teenage Diaries” on page 8.] He control what came out of his mouth is Wknew what he was going to brought the tape recorder to school a kind of metaphor for this type of say. Sometimes he didn’t, either. Josh (reluctantly at first), kept an audio jour- documentary journalism. The process has Tourette’s syndrome, a neurologi- nal, and recorded all the sounds of his of going through hours and hours of cal disorder that causes involuntary daily life. Josh documented his tics, he raw audio diary tapes is like mining for verbal and physical tics. I first met him taped himself doing everything from gold. Ninety percent is junk, but then in 1995 when he was in the 10th grade. preparing breakfast to making prank every so often there are little magical I had just received a grant to produce a phone calls, and he recorded one amaz- moments that are completely unex- series called “Teenage Diaries” on Na- ingly intense and honest conversation pected. Things emerge about people tional Public Radio [NPR]. The idea with his mother that became the cen- that, in an interview, I would never was to give tape recorders and micro- terpiece of his audio diary. All together, have known to even look for. phones to a group of teens around the he collected more than 40 hours of With all the diarists there comes a country and help them report about tape, which was edited into a 15-minute point, maybe after the first month of their own lives. radio documentary for NPR’s “All recording, when they get bored with Josh recorded for more than a year. Things Considered.” the process. That’s what I’m waiting

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 7 The Documentary and Journalism

A Tape Recorder Becomes a Connecting Thread this process a step further. It’s like bringing the microphone backstage, to a place where truth and understanding By Joshua Cutler are found not just in words but be- tween words—in the pauses, accents, in the sighs and silences. I went to a small high school where Teenagers make good diarists be- everyone had some vague notion that I cause they have an abundance of time. had a disease called Tourette’s syn- It’s also an age where people are just drome. But very few students really beginning to discover themselves and knew what that meant and even fewer their world. And unlike many adults seemed to care enough to find out. teenagers simply have an inherent be- That was until I brought the tape re- lief that whatever they say is important corder to school with me. and people should be listening. When At first, I was absolutely mortified at I ask a teenager to carry a tape recorder the idea of actually interviewing any- around for six months, they don’t think one. I was in 10th grade and, back I’m crazy. then, I used to dread going to school Radio is the perfect medium for these every day. I was already enough of a diary-style documentaries. The equip- social outcast because of my condition, ment is relatively inexpensive and easy which causes me to sometimes move to use. A microphone is less intrusive or speak involuntarily. I was terrified than a video camera so people can be that shoving a huge microphone in more natural, more themselves. Most somebody’s face would cause me to be Joshua Cutler. Photo by Kate Burton. importantly, radio is intimate. Great the victim of further scorn. I was wrong. radio sounds as though it’s being whis- When I took out the tape recorder “People are always taught to think before pered right into your ear. and explained what I was doing, there they speak. Everybody has deep dark things For these reasons, I believe some of was a huge commotion. Soon, I had at that they don’t want people to know they’re the best first-person documentary work least a dozen students waiting to be thinking about. The bottom line is some- is found on the radio. David Isay’s interviewed. During this lunch period, times I actually have to teach myself not to “Ghetto Life 101,” in which two young I became closer to my classmates than care. I can’t care because most of the time I boys in a Chicago housing project were I had in the several previous years. can’t control what comes out of my mouth. given tape recorders, and Jay Allison’s Recording these diaries made me I control what comes out of my ass better on-going “Life Stories” series were both realize something important: I’d never than I control what comes out of my direct inspirations for our “Teenage really talked to anyone at school about mouth. But the last thing I want people to Diary” series. And during the past five Tourette’s. Talking in this way now think is, ‘Oh, poor Josh.’ It’s not like I’m in years the public radio show, “This showed me that people were inter- a wheelchair or I have snot dribbling down American Life,” has reinvented and re- ested and did care. After my story aired, my chin. I really just don’t want anyone to invigorated the form. even complete strangers from around be feeling sorry for me. This is not a Sally “Radio Diaries” is a small, nonprofit the country went out of their way to Struthers commercial.”—From the “Teen- company—me and associate producer, drop me a note. My well-wishers ranged age Diaries” series. Wendy Dorr. Since Josh’s story aired in from ordinary people, to a man in 1996, we have produced more than 20 diary-style documentaries for NPR. The prison in Texas, to a young lady named Joshua Cutler graduated in June “Teenage Diaries” series has included Emily, who also has Tourette’s, and 2001 from Vassar College. When he diaries from a teen mom, the daughter with whom I still correspond. was in high school, he reported two of an evangelical minister, a gay teen- The lesson I learned from docu- stories about his life and struggle ager, an illegal immigrant, and the run- menting my experience is that in some with Tourette’s syndrome. ways the cold, cruel world is not as cold ning back for an Alabama high-school and cruel as I used to think it was. ■ [email protected] football team. Other projects have in- cluded a 30-minute diary-style docu- mentary from residents of a retirement for. They’re no longer trying to sound tary journalism is time; spending home and, more recently, we produced like Tom Brokaw. They’re not perform- enough time for people to trust you “Prison Diaries,” a series of stories from ing, so they’re less self-conscious. They with their stories, hanging out enough inmates, correctional officers, and a relax and become themselves. It takes so that you’re there when things hap- judge. a lot of practice to be natural. pen. By turning the tape recorder into Diarists have to play two roles, both Of course, the key to all documen- a constant companion, the diarists take subject and reporter, and negotiating

8 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Radio and the Internet the two can be tricky. So the rules—my ‘It was just me and the recorder.’ rules, anyway—are different from tra- ditional documentaries. I give each dia- rist final editorial control over their By Cristel story. I also pay most of the diarists a small stipend for their work. In this way, the relationship is closer to the I had been incarcerated at the Rhode model at NPR and other news organi- Island Training School for three years zations: The diarist is the reporter and when I met Joe [Richman]. He asked if I am the producer—although by the I wanted to carry a tape recorder around time a diary airs on the radio, my job the training school for a few months feels more like that of a midwife. and record my life. I told him yes. But The “Prison Diaries” series, which at the same time I was wondering why aired on NPR in January 2001, was in the world would people be inter- certainly the most difficult project ested in someone that’s not famous at among the diaries that we have under- all. I mean, what’s the point? taken. After spending more than four That was 1999. Three years earlier, months trying to gain access to pris- when I was 15, I cut a girl many times ons, we found two institutions willing on her face with a razor. The judge had Cristel and daughter Rayonna. Photo by to participate. One was an adult prison locked me up for six years. I didn’t Sue Johnson. in North Carolina for 18-22-year-old think anybody would want to hear from inmates. The other was a juvenile facil- a criminal’s point of view. I figured radio. But when I heard it, I began to ity in Rhode Island. We gave tape re- people would hate me for what I did, understand why people might want to corders to five inmates, four correc- or at least they wouldn’t be interested. listen to somebody that’s not famous. tional officers, and a juvenile court At first it was strange to carry the I guess it’s so you’ll know about other judge. For six months, the diarists kept tape recorder around, but it also made human beings that you may not know audio journals and recorded the sounds me feel special. There were times when about, and hear their stories. ■ and scenes of their lives. At the end of I had no one to speak to. The recorder six months, we had 250 hours of tape. became my friend and social worker. It “Sometimes, you know, I just look out the Eight or 10 months after that, we had was like I was keeping a verbal journal. window and I just sit here and think like four half-hour documentaries for NPR’s I knew that one day, millions of people something I decided in 10 minutes changed “All Things Considered.” would hear my story. But I never pic- my entire life. Not even 10 minutes. I mean Along with the radio broadcasts, we tured it like I was talking to the whole three years gone by, and I’m still sitting here. also teamed up with an innovative world. I felt like I was just talking and What would I be doing if I was out? What online documentary project about the nobody’s listening. It was just me and would my life be like? Would I have finished criminal justice system. Called the recorder. school? Would I have settled down? Would I 360degrees.org, it allows visitors on I remember one time I stayed up all have done something worse? I just look out their Web site to enter and move around night in my cell to watch the sunrise. I the window, and I think about all this the diarists’ environments while they hadn’t seen it in a long time, and I told stuff.”—From “Prison Diaries” series. listen to their audio diaries. [See story the tape recorder how one day I was about 360degrees.org on page 10.] going to see the sunrise from a better Cristel was released in early 2000 “Prison Diaries” was the first time view. And that’s what happened. Soon after being incarcerated for three inmates have been given tape record- after that night, the judge decided that and a half years. Now 20 years old, ers to document their lives in this way. I was rehabilitated and let me out three she lives with her boyfriend and two The series tested the limits of what this years early. daughters and still carries her tape form does well but also exemplified I was scared to have my story on the recorder with her. how it can fall short. When a topic is so emotional and complicated, the ab- sence of an “official” narrator poses a difficult problem. In choosing inmates, our listeners could invest emotionally the quiet, intimate sounds, and not it was important to find diarists who in the story if they didn’t like the dia- just the traditional slamming of cell could own up to their crimes and their rist. On the other hand, so much of doors. lives, who could somehow address the what happens in prison is normally out “Prison Diaries” was also challeng- skepticism and questions of credibility of our reach, and this method allowed ing for the diarists. One thing correc- that listeners would naturally bring to listeners unprecedented access. We tional officers and inmates share is the stories. I also grappled with the wanted to document a side of prison they have to always maintain their game issue of empathy, wondering whether life that people rarely hear—including face. Honest, vulnerable moments are

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 9 The Documentary and Journalism

hard to come by. Yet what many of the ther of the girls could sleep, so for 10 Joe Richman is the producer of the diarists appreciated about the project minutes they sent each other synco- “Radio Diaries” series on National was the opportunity to let their guard pated rhythms back and forth between Public Radio. He is also an adjunct down. One inmate later said he had the cell walls. After a while the knock- professor at the Columbia University never in his life talked to anyone the ing stopped. Then Cristel picked up Graduae School of Journalism. way he talked to the tape recorder. the tape recorder, walked over to her Radio Diaries Inc., a nonprofit Buried in those 250 hours of tape from window and brought the microphone production company in New York prison are many intimate and magical close to her mouth. City, recently published a guide to moments. On one cassette, Cristel, an To hear Cristel speaking quietly into making radio diaries, the Teen 18-year-old girl incarcerated at the a tape recorder late at night, it’s almost Reporter Handbook, available for Rhode Island Training School [See possible to enter into her world, to sale and on their Web site: Cristel’s description of her work for imagine ourselves there behind the www.radiodiaries.org. “Prison Diaries” on page 9.] was re- microphone. What radio diaries can cording late one night when she heard do well is to give us all glimpses into a [email protected] a faint knock from the wall of the cell different reality and to document the next door. It was a 13-year-old girl who moments of lives that can’t be told had just recently been locked up. Nei- except by those who live them. ■

Using the Web for an Interactive Documentary Project At 360degrees.org, the U.S. criminal justice system is examined from many perspectives.

“My name is John Mills. I’m 21, a black male…in prison. I wanted to be a police officer, you know what I’m saying? When I was smaller, I used to think about that all the time. All the sirens and loud noises and blue lights. It was just something I always wanted to be. But now I hate the police. I know my life just took a big turn some- where. I just don’t know where. My mom always predicted my life: ‘You’re going to be just like your daddy.’ He went to prison. I think he pulled like five years in prison. ‘Just like your dad.’ She’d say that all the time.”

By Sue Johnson John Mills is serving seven to nine years at Polk Youth Facility. From the documentary, 360degrees.org. Photo by Sue Johnson/Picture Projects. ohn Mills is one of 1,100 young men ages 19-21 who are incarcer- Jated at Polk Youth Facility in North communities. Each story, and there We launched 360degrees.org in Carolina. His story is part of an ongo- will be eight by the end of 2002, ad- January 2001 in conjunction with Joe ing series called “360degrees: Perspec- dresses a new theme—the juvenile jus- Richman’s “Prison Diaries” series on tives on the U.S. Criminal Justice Sys- tice system, prison towns, children of National Public Radio. [See story by tem.” This Web-based documentary incarcerated parents—and is told Joe Richman on page 7.] We spent attempts to put the recent growth in through first-person stories, data that several months doing interviews to- the prison population into historical can be examined in different ways, an gether. While Joe focused exclusively perspective and examine the impact it interactive timeline, and online and on John’s story for a 30-minute broad- has had on individuals, families and offline discussion. cast, we interviewed two correctional

10 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Radio and the Internet

A panoramic photograph of the intake process. On the Web site, 360degrees.org, the visitor can pan around this photograph by moving the cursor while hearing stories from the correctional officers who work in intake. Photo by Sue Johnson/Picture Projects. officers, the warden, and John’s mother what is available, in order to generate tailed the ineffectiveness of tough-on- and stepfather. We edited these inter- accurate comparisons or calculate risks crime measures through a combina- views, along with John’s, into short and odds. To develop this, we’ve tion of anecdotes and statistics. It chal- audio clips for 360degrees. The site worked with a number of criminolo- lenged us to think about how we could uses streaming audio and navigable gists and researchers at the Bureau of illustrate—using interactivity and mul- 360 degree photographs to create a Justice Statistics. Currently, the site timedia—the rapid growth in America’s “sensurround” simulation of each offers two quizzes: “Are You a Crimi- prison population since the 1980’s and person’s environment. While listening nal?” and “What’s Your Theory?” In its impact on our daily lives. By this to each person’s story, visitors to the time, we’ll offer interactive maps of time, our multimedia documentary site can pan up, down and around the neighboring communities showing the group, Picture Projects, had already storyteller’s space—prison cells, recre- number of people going into and com- collaborated with several photojour- ation yards, living rooms, and judges’ ing out of prison and money spent by nalists, filmmakers and cultural insti- chambers. the criminal justice system in each tutions to create interactive documen- From this story section, visitors can neighborhood, and we’ll launch three taries including “akaKURDISTAN” with go to an interactive timeline that shows new dynamic data scenarios by the end Susan Meiselas, “Farewell to Bosnia” the evolution of the criminal justice of the year. with Gilles Peress, and “Re: Vietnam: system from 601 AD to the present. The idea for the project originated Stories Since the War” for PBS online. Beginning with the Code of Etherlbert, in 1998 when my partner, Alison 360degrees.org, as we envisioned which placed a monetary value on each Cornyn, and I read “The Real War on it, was larger in scale than any of these body part, the timeline conveys the Crime,” a report from the National projects. It would require a significant cyclical nature of the system by high- Criminal Justice Commission that de- team of advisors, producers and pro- lighting theories and prac- grammers and, of course, a tices that have gone in and much larger budget. As with out of fashion throughout our past online projects, our the years. The dialogue area goal was to capitalize on the is a place for open discus- assets of the medium: its sion, e-debates between in- capacity for quick computa- vited guests, and small tion, motion graphics, and closed discussion circles. the integration of audio and The dynamic data area is video, as well as the oppor- a place where we have ex- tunity to cross over geo- perimented with visualizing graphic boundaries. We and animating statistics, wanted to reach new audi- charts and graphs. This ences, primarily high school work has been conceptu- and college students, that ally difficult and the pro- have had little exposure to gramming very intensive. the criminal justice system Each interactive exercise re- or to those who had come quires a significant amount Screenshot from the online documentary, “360degrees: Perspectives into contact with the sys- of data, often more than on the U.S. Criminal Justice System,” by Picture Projects. tem but wanted to know

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 11 The Documentary and Journalism

A panoramic photograph of John Mills’ cell. At 360degrees.org, the visitor can explore Mills’ surroundings while his audio story plays. Photo by Sue Johnson/Picture Projects.

how their experiences fit into a broader database programmers, Flash anima- ferent environments, and in different picture. (We knew we were headed in tors, audio editors, photography re- ways. So it is vital for us to create a the right direction when The New York searchers, and writers. The other half “stickiness” between the stories, keep- Times reported that criminal justice goes toward the cost of outreach and ing visitors curious enough to con- was the fastest growing major on U.S. marketing. tinue exploring the site. Our goal has college campuses.) More importantly, We developed the site independent been to construct the overall narrative we wanted to tell a compelling story, of an online distributor so we’d be free by collecting many—sometimes hun- one that fully engages the audience to experiment with the technology, the dreds—of first-person stories. One of through their actions on the site, and narrative structure and, most impor- the advantages of working in this me- one that ultimately gets people think- tantly, the content. This, of course, put dium is the ability to change the site in ing about the efficacy of our current the task of audience building in our response to viewer feedback. The policies and alternative approaches to hands, which has been costly, but the downside is living with the feeling that crime control and incarceration. result has been a series of enterprising the project is never complete. Built We refer to 360degrees.org as an partnerships and collaborations. The into the architecture of our sites is the interactive documentary. When people site averages about 5,000 hits a day and space to play with different methods hear this, they want to know how long closer to 10,000 during the related for storytelling. it is. Of course, its length is determined NPR broadcasts. Adrienne FitzGerald, These large-scale projects can only by how the user travels through the a former social worker with a degree in be accomplished through collabora- site. The combination of high-end new media, has been working with us tion; they can be costly and incredibly graphic design, storytelling, to bring 360degrees into high schools time consuming. We have been en- interactivity and the nature of the sub- and universities. She created a pilot couraged by the growing community ject matter positions 360degrees.org program called the Social Action Net- of filmmakers, writers, photographers somewhere between art, documentary work, where students talk with ex-of- and journalists willing to pool their and activism. The site has been fea- fenders, judges and lawyers in a guided, experience and resources. It is a criti- tured at documentary film festivals, four-week program that takes place cal time, as the Web becomes increas- galleries and at new media trade shows. both online and offline. We are seeking ingly commercialized, to carve out a It has also been nominated for journal- funding to make this a national pro- space online for experimentation with ism awards. The blurring of the lines gram in partnership with several edu- these new forms of documentary. ■ has made it difficult for us to get fund- cational organizations, including a ing, yet a handful of foundations in- criminal justice textbook publisher. Sue Johnson is a documentary pho- cluding the New York State Council on 360degrees.org is in many ways an tographer and cofounder of Picture the Arts, Creative Capital, and the Cor- experiment in how far we can push the Projects, a new media production poration for Public Broadcasting came medium (and our resources) and how company specializing in Web-based on board while the project was in its much an audience is willing to engage documentaries. Picture Projects’ nascent stages. The budget for the site with a story. In this non-linear Web work can be found at www.picture- resembles that of a low-budget docu- environment there is less narrative con- projects.com. mentary film with half of the resources trol. Visitors to the site will listen to going toward our production team of characters in a different order, in dif- [email protected]

12 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Radio and the Internet Radio Documentaries Take Listeners Into Dark Corners

David Isay is the founder of Sound getting into dark corners of this coun- tapes. I mean, making these programs Portraits Productions. Its radio docu- try and telling stories that can’t be told is all about finding tape that’s on fire mentaries profile the lives of men, on film. and stringing it together in a cohesive women and children living in com- way. So that was great. And doing the munities often neglected or misunder- ML: Why is it a great medium for interviews when you’re talking about stood. During the past 13 years, Isay’s telling the kind of stories you want to the kind of stories that I’m drawn to, work has won nearly every award in tell? it’s kind of a cross between, I don’t broadcasting, including three Peabody know what it is. I’m uncomfortable Awards, two Robert F. Kennedy Jour- Isay: Well, it’s cheap. And a lot of kind of labeling. But, it’s sort of part nalism Awards, and two Livingston the stories that interest me are about journalism, part like social work. When Awards for Young Journalists. He was people who are living on the margins. you’re doing an interview, it can be this recently awarded a MacArthur Fel- Our mission is to tell stories of people very intense sort of verbal exchange. I lowship. Included among Sound Por- who are outside of the mainstream. A come from a family of therapists. And traits’ documentary work is “Ghetto lot of times people don’t want photo- that’s enjoyable to me. Life 101,” “Witness to an Execution,” graphs, don’t want their faces shown. “The Jewish Giant,” “The Sunshine Many times they communicate best ML: What’s the part of it that you Hotel,” and “The Executive Tapes.” Isay through talking. think relates to journalism? was interviewed by Nieman Reports editor, Melissa Ludtke. ML: You’ve spoken about finding a Isay: That it tells the truth. The kind place where the concentric circles of of radio stuff that I do is close to narra- Melissa Ludtke: Can you describe what you do well come together. Could tive journalism. It’s about a kind of why you chose the radio documentary you share what you feel are the ingre- total immersion in a topic and bringing as a way to tell the stories and reflect on dients of those intersecting circles? you into a place. If you look at some- social issues? thing like the Sunshine Hotel, it’s a Isay: It’s everything from techni- matter of going into a dark place and David Isay: Well, I didn’t choose it. cally—it is not rocket science to use doing a lot of recording and then creat- It was a series of strange circumstances audio equipment, and technically I ing this space through audio where and twists of fate that kind of led me enjoyed doing it. It was just the right people can step into this other world. into making radio documentaries when amount of technical stuff so that it I was 22 years old and headed to medi- didn’t distract me. I like asking ques- ML: A journalist who goes into the cal school. It totally kind of exploded tions. And I love editing. I love hearing Sunshine Hotel and does interviews my life and sent me in a whole might ask the same ques- new direction. So I wasn’t tions you do, or might drawn to the radio documen- not. Might get similar an- tary; it just kind of hap- swers to what you get. pened…. I wasn’t a journal- But, if that person was ist. doing this as part of a I’d never taken a journal- news story on radio, then ism class. I never listened to there’d be other compo- public radio. I mean, I knew nents and responsibili- nothing. And I certainly ties. To the best of their could have ended up going ability, they would have in different directions in ra- to check out the story that dio, or leaving radio and go- they were told, to see ing to some other form of what was true and what storytelling…. And it just so might not be true. happens that it was the me- dium that was perfect for tell- Isay: And that’s sort of ing the kind of stories that I a fallacy about the work. care about. Radio is a won- Of course we do that, the derful medium to tell emo- kind of research that goes tional stories. That interests into doing a story like this, me. It’s a great medium for On soundportraits.org, visitors can learn about David Isay’s work. even though there’s never

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 13 The Documentary and Journalism

been an expert in a piece that we’ve ML: Where there is another overlap about seeing the humanity in others. done in nine years. When we do a with the role that the journalist plays in Again, it’s hard because it’s so easy to story, we’ve got cubic inches of infor- reporting a story is in the fact that get kind of clichéd. But, that’s what it mation. Every expert that could be you’re making obvious editing deci- is. The guys who do the executions in talked to has been talked to. I mean, it’s sions about what voices to include, Texas, you know, they’re decent like jazz in the sense that you can’t what sounds to make prominent, and people. The kids who live in the ghetto improvise until you’ve got the basics the order in which the story will be or the guys in the flophouse—what- down. So when we go in we do the told. ever. I do stories about people that I basic journalistic work, the research, like, who are for the most part prob- the background, the digging, talking to Isay: Sure, absolutely. The bottom ably either ignored or misunderstood people, getting to know them, and line is that hopefully I can look the or not thought about. It’s just about checking their stories as best we can. people with whom I’ve worked in the humanity. It’s just about introducing eye and not feel embarrassed about people to people. And again it’s corny, ML: But that’s not transparent in the what we’ve done together…. I like to but just seeing that everybody is sort of work you do. think that these are places that are the same. important for people who don’t live in Isay: Absolutely. But, hopefully, [them] to experience. And for people ML: I’d like to go to your experi- when people hear the work they’ll hear to meet people living these lives that ences, particularly looking on death a solidity to it. And if it’s on public are different than theirs. Because the row, where you’ve spent a lot of time, radio, they’ll understand that it’s not eight million listeners to public radio whether it was in the jails of Louisiana done lightly. If this had been done as a are typically middle class, upper middle or more recently bringing to light the straight reported news piece, the re- class, you know, people driving to or tapes from the death chamber in Geor- search that would have gone into it, on from work. I mean, that’s who you’re gia. There’s been a lot of reporting any of these pieces, is much less than playing to. My goal always is to kind of examining the death penalty from a lot what we end up doing. We spend a sneak up behind people and almost of different angles, whether it’s the long, long time doing these pieces. like quietly lift them up into this story. racial fairness angle or the question of And that involves checking it backwards And I try to carry them for 22 minutes whether there should be a death pen- and forwards and upside down. I think without them even knowing it. Not alty. What do you think your work it’s very similar to the long-form New give them the chance to turn off the illuminates that isn’t part of the tradi- Yorker sort of journalism or any other radio, if it’s successful. And then 22 tional or mainstream journalistic cov- sort of immersion journalism. It’s just minutes later quietly put them down erage of the death penalty story? that the narration is usually in the hands and walk away. That’s sort of the image of someone who is in the place that in my head of what I’m trying to do. Isay: Again, I’m not consciously we’re working. That’s what makes it thinking like “What story can I tell that different. And that’s part of what differ- ML: You want to have left them at nobody else has told?” or “How can I entiates radio from print. that point with an emotional experi- do something different?” I was in a ence primarily, or with an experience situation in which I was doing a story, ML: Your work often airs without a that could be defined as one that in- and it just kind of occurred to me, narrator’s voice per se. creases their knowledge? “What is it like for these guys who do these executions?” And I didn’t know if Isay: It always has a narrator, be- Isay: It’s an experience where it was going to turn into a five-minute cause it’s impossible to tell a story they’ve gone some place they wouldn’t piece or a no piece. And it just kind of without a narrator. And that’s great if otherwise have gone. And if it’s emo- opened up. It was just being curious you didn’t realize that someone was tional for them, that’s great; if it’s not, and then following the path and seeing narrating. There’s always a narrator. that’s fine. Whatever that experience where it leads. And these guys who we But the narrator is not us. The narrator is. But it’s a matter of leading them into interviewed, for the most part, had is someone who is from the place where a world that they would not otherwise never been asked these questions be- this documentary is taking place. In the know of or experience, and letting fore. The warden hadn’t. None of the documentary about the executions in them meet people who they otherwise people who worked in the prison had Texas, the narrator is the warden. In wouldn’t have met. been asked what’s it like to do these “The Sunshine Hotel,” the narrator is executions…. Again, it’s as much as the guy who runs the flophouse. ML: And is there a purpose in your possible trying to be the vehicle through mind beyond the transporting of some- which people can tell their stories. ML: He’s also a character in it in one to a different place? That’s what we’re trying to do, trying to some ways, too, isn’t he? be the translator to the larger world of Isay: Yeah, because I like all the some kind of insular group or what- Isay: Yeah, he is. people that I do stories about, and it’s ever, some group of people, and to

14 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Radio and the Internet help them use this medium to tell their that you so much wanted to bring out “This American Life.” Letting people story in a way that they feel is true…. and use as documents. Instead, you see what radio could be, can be. And I’m in a really fortunate circumstance brought this consortium of stations maybe some of the work we’ve done. of getting independent funding, and together to air this, which you thought But it’s totally changed. The New York being able to do whatever I feel pas- was very important for people to hear. Times is reviewing radio documenta- sionate about, and then slamming it ries. They regularly review radio now. onto the air whichever way I can…it’s Isay: I still do. I think it’s the only We couldn’t get an intern six years ago, about not letting stories be watered document we’ll ever have of modern- and now we have the best and the down. day American executions. brightest coming out of the best Ivy League schools, lining up to do this ML: Your work, like any work, is a ML: And why do you think it’s im- stuff. People are seeing what a power- product of its time. The way that you portant for Americans to hear? ful medium this is. It’s a very exciting approach your subjects, and the way time technologically, too, because any- you approach the telling of stories has Isay: Because this is an act that’s one can take a $700 i-Mac computer something to do with the times in which being done in the name of American and have an incredibly powerful edit- we are in, with the progression or citizens. And I think people have a right ing system. You can download free change of style in terms of how the to know what’s going on…. software, and you can be at a console documentary is used. In the past, there which is a thousand times more power- seemed to be a particular sort of style ML: In terms of building this new ful than the fanciest studio was six and purpose to the documentary that consortium of public radio stations, do years ago. And you can buy a mini-disk might have changed over time in terms you think that experience will lead to player for $197, and a microphone for of the way that we, as Americans, or we, any new ways in which documentary $100 bucks, and you are a walking, as an audience, take information in. radio producers can have their stories 35mm film production studio. I mean, You may be a product of a different era aired? Or was this sort of a one-time you can’t do better than that. The po- in terms of how you go about present- situation? tential is limitless. So the dream is a lot ing stories. If you were doing “Harvest of people start picking up tape record- of Shame” today what you might do is Isay: I think that the radio docu- ers and interviewing people and play- have the migrant workers be the only mentary is vastly underutilized. A lot of ing around and adding music, and voice, as opposed to literally be stand- people should be making a lot of docu- doing all kinds of cool stuff. That would ing in the field, were you Edward R. mentaries. And there should be a lot of be the dream…. I think there’s nothing Murrow. It’s just a different style. ways to get them out there. With NPR, wrong with having a lot of great radio it’s kind of a complicated story the way journalism documentary stuff happen- Isay: Absolutely. But there were al- this happened with the decision not to ing. I think that would be the best thing ways people doing oral histories. I do broadcast the Georgia execution tapes. that could ever happen. think that doing the kind of hard hit- But I think that as much good stuff ting journalistic stuff, I mean, certainly should be able to get out there in any ML: Because we are living in an era the investigative stuff is a little bit apples way that it possibly can. All I really care where, at least, when one talks to me- and oranges with this kind of docu- about is that good stuff gets on the air dia specialists they say, “Short is better. mentary work, because usually these and gets heard by as many people as People’s attention spans aren’t there.” pieces are about kind of talking to possible. And whatever way that needs Yet this advice runs counter to what people who haven’t been talked to to be done is good with me. I think it’s you are saying. before to reveal the humanity that’s more an issue of making more people there, as opposed to uncovering hard understand what a great medium radio Isay: I think you can have a half- news. It does uncover injustice, but in is to tell stories in and getting more hour piece that seems like one minute a more roundabout way. I mean, as great stories, as opposed to there be- and a two-minute piece that seems like opposed to investigating some actual ing all these great stories that are some- seven hours. It’s about doing good single wrong that has been done. And how being kept from the public. I see work. And certainly if the stuff can with the execution tapes, that was more more that there aren’t enough. And sustain, then people will listen and similar because it’s uncovering docu- there are a lot of reasons. Because it’s appreciate it. It’s all about doing good ments that have been withheld or get- hard to make a living. But you know, stuff. ■ ting into a place that’s been routinely that’s changing, because I think we kept from the American public. So that have entered this little renaissance for would be more in that tradition. radio documentaries.

ML: National Public Radio [NPR] ML: Why do you say this? declined to broadcasting those tapes from the Georgia execution chamber Isay: I think a lot has to do with

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 15 The Documentary and Journalism Radio Storytelling Builds Community On-Air and Off ‘The journalist must be facilitator, fact-checker, ethicist, but not puppet-master….’

By Jay Allison

hat separates radio documen- made hundreds of radio features, docu- dential, lends itself to scribbled notes, tary from any documentary? mentaries and series. For much of that fragments and whispered entries at WAnd what separates public time, I’ve also been loaning out tape night. The technical inexperience of radio journalism from any journalism? recorders and tools to others, encour- the diarist doesn’t show as clearly as it Radio gets inside us. Lacking earlids, aging citizen voices on the air, repay- does in video, or even in print, and we are defenseless, vulnerable to am- ing and replaying my own start. therefore doesn’t get in the way. As the bush. Sounds and voices surprise us In an age of corporate consolidation eventual producer/editor, you are from within. As radio documentary of the press on one hand and cheap there, but you disappear. The journal- makers, we have this tactical advantage bogus Internet journalism on the other, ist must be facilitator, fact-checker, ethi- over our colleagues in print, film, tele- it is more important than ever to bring cist, but not puppet-master, allowing vision and photography. Our tool is a range of voices to the air in a sane and the listener an authentic, direct, aural story, the most primitive and pow- respectful way. The public radio jour- empathetic encounter with the teller. erful. Invisibility is our friend. Preju- nalist can assume a shepherding role. dice is suspended while the listener is Lost & Found Sound blind, only listening. Life Stories www.lostandfoundsound.com Perhaps this distinguishing trait lies www.atlantic.org quietly near the heart of public radio Our series “Lost & Found Sound” journalism, close to the utopian ideal My first batch of tape recorders went (produced with the Kitchen Sisters, that we use these airwaves to share our out beginning in the 1980’s with the Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson for NPR’s stories as we try to understand each series “Life Stories,” which sought out “All Things Considered”) offered an- other better, to not be afraid of each stories that seemed best told from the other tool to the citizen storyteller— other, to come a little closer together. source. (A six-hour collection aired on voice mail. We asked listeners to call We’re not regular media, after all, or NPR stations this summer.) It’s hard to and tell us about precious audio arti- even regular journalism. We have a say how I found the storytellers, but facts they’d saved. In my role as “cura- calling to mission and public service once I declared I was interested, they tor” I poured through hundreds of that exists outside the marketplace and seemed to cross my path. I equipped these messages, and in virtually every squarely in the civic realm. We can them, instructed them in the use of the case the phone message itself became serve that mission through traditional gear, and worked with them editori- the spine of the piece. In the message reporting and documentary, but we ally, often bringing them to mix in my was the story, the link between the also help citizens speak for themselves, home recording studio. caller and the sound. to one another, directly. The grown son of concentration The callers, in telling of their trea- I got into public radio because some- camp survivors accompanies his par- sures, seemed to be in the presence of one at NPR loaned me a tape recorder ents on their visit to the Holocaust the past. The voices they described and microphone. It was the mid-70’s Museum; he hopes they’ll talk to him were in the air around them, true and NPR was just inventing itself, al- about their experience for the first time ghosts, filled with breath, as real as a ways a good time to join an enterprise. in his life. He asks for a recorder. A lock of hair. Some of the recordings I used the recorder as a passport into young woman wants to revisit the were intensely personal—the lullaby every part of life that seemed interest- scenes and characters of her hospital- of an immigrant grandparent, the an- ing. I could find out about anything I ization and near-death from anorexia swering machine message from a child wanted. Amazing. At the beginning, I 10 years before. She needs the pass- given up for adoption. Others fell at was simply a citizen, suddenly armed port of the recorder to enter her own the intersection between the individual with the tools of production and a past. These sorts of stories cannot be and history—a family’s recording of an means of distribution, an independent told best from outside. They are better ancestor’s eyewitness account of the journalist being born. By apprenticing lived and narrated by the principals, Gettysburg Address; reels of tape made at the news shows, reading everything the main characters in the stories of in the fighting holes of Vietnam, I could get my hands on, and prodding their lives. brought to us by the platoon mate of my elders with questions, I learned the Radio is well suited to the “diary” the 19-year-old Marine who recorded trade on the fly and in the next 25 years form. It’s inherently intimate, confi- them and died there.

16 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Radio and the Internet

In every case, the direct connection nity, they actually build it. We live in a Each month a new special guest of the living citizen to the sounds of the place that is geographically fragmented writes a “manifesto” and hangs around past was the key. We called it “the (islands, after all) and each region feels the site, critiquing new work and mak- universal ancestor effect.” A itself to be more “special” than the ing conversation. Recent guests: Tony grandfather’s voice, enhanced by the others. Yet the radio signal extends Kahn, Scott Carrier, Paul Tough, The love of the grandchild who tells us across them all, disrespecting the Kitchen Sisters, Sarah Vowell, Studs about it, then shared on the radio, is boundaries. We have feuds and jealou- Terkel [See accompaning excerpts from somehow transformed to become sies, political division, parochial igno- the Web site on page 18.] Editors, pro- everyone’s grandfather. In the absence rance (Is it so different from anywhere ducers and managers throughout the of a concrete and distancing visual else?), but these stories tend, almost public radio system read and listen to image, an invisible human link is made miraculously, to break those down. this work and participate in these con- and, for that instant, nationalities and When a story begins, we don’t know versations, but they are also there for races are joined through voice and where the teller is from, so we listen, anyone to read, listen to and join. memory. All the dead are one. Your without judgment. We like what we Producers and citizens gather at mother is mine. Only radio, and only hear. But then, when we discover the Transom.org to talk about radio docu- public radio at that, has the uncanny teller is not from our island, we must mentary and to try their hands at it. means and the actual calling to make decide how to incorporate the contra- Subjects of documentaries talk with that happen. diction that may lead us, helplessly, to those who made them and to listeners acceptance. “Well, I guess they’re not about editorial and stylistic choices. WCAI & WNAN all bad over there,” we think. And, The site encourages an interactive, self- www.cainan.org eventually, we may even come to think correcting, open-eared, civic journal- of their stories as our stories. ism made possible by the Internet and We have brand new public radio extended to public radio. stations here on Cape Cod, Martha’s Transom.org The site represents virtual street- Vineyard, and Nantucket in Massachu- www.transom.org level access to national air, as most setts, the newest in America. We wanted Transom stories end up adopted by a them to sound like here, not just any- Finally, the Internet. If there’s de- national program. An on-air mention where. A place defines itself by its sto- mocracy in storytelling, it’s here. If of Transom.org drives listeners back to ries, and we have chosen to broadcast there’s an openly accessible way to the Web, making a creative circle be- our citizens’ stories on and off all day, pass on what we’ve done before in tween the traditional media and the unexpectedly—portraits, oral histories, public radio and to try to make things new. At Transom.org, we have a voice poems, anecdotes, memories, frag- better, it’s here. Our current attempt is mail line to collect stories, we loan out ments of life overheard. They pop up Transom.org (a project of Atlantic Pub- tape recorders, and we broadcast Tran- during every national show around the lic Media). We call it a showcase and som pieces locally on WCAI and WNAN. clock, short bursts of life as experi- workshop for new public radio, and So, everything ends up tied together. enced or remembered by all of us who we premiered the Web site in Febru- Journalists help citizens reach the live here. They are the thread in the ary. It’s a combination library, master air, to tell of their lives. Public radio fabric of our broadcast day. class, and audition stage. carries the voices out and back, across The effect is startling, unexpected. The site showcases new work from a borderless country populated by the You are listening to news of the world first-time producers and unheard work living and the dead. Citizen stories are and then, during a pause, an unher- from established producers. As I write shared out loud, journalists mediating alded speaker—a local elder or high- this, the featured piece is a 40-year-old, the exchange, partners in the mission. school kid or sandwich maker or scien- and utterly contemporary, documen- Somewhere between the din of the tist—pops in. The voices of our neigh- tary from Studs Terkel, which never Internet and the drone of corporate bors, surprising us, are given equal received a national broadcast. Last media is a place for these voices, testi- weight with events on the world stage. month, it was a documentary from a fying on their own behalf. ■ The concept has become wonder- first-time producer in Seattle using his fully popular here. Learning from “Lost mini-disc recorder, and skills he picked Jay Allison is an independent broad- & Found Sound,” we’ve also installed up at Transom, to craft a remarkable cast journalist living in Woods Hole, voice mail where people can tell us story about his friend’s suicide. Massachusetts. He is founder and about something that happened years Transom holds or links to virtually executive producer of WCAI/WNAN ago, or that morning. Learning from all the tools—technical, editorial, philo- and Atlantic Public Media. His radio “Life Stories,” we buy old cassette re- sophical—people would need to tell documentaries air often on NPR and corders from eBAY to loan to whom- their own radio stories. Encouragingly, his solo-crew video documentaries ever promises to use them. quite a few high-school and college on ABC News “Nightline.” Listeners have said that these little students are frequenting the site and breaks not only contribute to commu- their work has been featured there. [email protected]

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 17 The Documentary and Journalism Listening to Radio Talk At Transom.org, the conversation is about documentaries and public radio.

Transom.org, an online project of At- the best technique would be the old trying to nail Jell-O to a wall.”—David lantic Public Media in Woods Hole, one of recording everything on reel-to- Clark (writer) Massachusetts, provides tools for pub- reel analog tape. This has one great lic radio production and features advantage (assuming, of course, you “Nailing Jell-O to the wall isn’t as original work from first-time produc- were not silly enough to make a backup hard as you’d think. Getting your ers. It also hosts forums for the gen- dub): at some point in the editing you mother to appreciate it is much eral discussion of public radio jour- will lose the tape…. It will vanish; or harder.”—Andy Knight (listener, critic) nalism and storytelling. What follows you’ll step on it by mistake and crush it. are a few excerpts from the Transom Then, fate having made these deci- “Radio is like food. You spend days discussion boards. Some exchanges sions for you, you just work with what’s and months and hours gathering the are sequential. Most are not. The fol- left.”—Larry Massett ingredients, cutting, mixing, making it lowing comments were selected from cook. The minute it hits air/the table, recent conversations on the general “We work in documentary because it’s gone—but it’s transformed. The themes of radio documentary and the we don’t have enough money to hire memory of it lingers, almost like a role of public radio. Transom is fre- good actors.”—Scott Carrier dream.”—The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki quented by seasoned journalists, be- Silva and Davia Nelson, independent ginners and listeners. The happy “It’s one thing to write a piece of radio producers) equalizing effect of online conversa- fiction and say, at the end, well, okay, tion is that it matters less who you are that sure didn’t turn out exactly as I “Throw out all the good tape. Keep than what you have to say.—Jay imagined it would, and quite another only the great tape. Invent some arti- Allison to sit down to write about, say, grandma, fice to string the disparate pieces of and have grandma come out looking great tape together into something that like nothing so much as a wet card- sounds like a story. Invent many ex- “It was slowly discovered that there board box filled with old issues of cuses to tell NPR why this works so well can be no such thing as an objective Reader’s Digest, a sewing machine, and and not even a second can be changed. documentary. However, it’s such an a pot of boiling cabbage.”—Paul When NPR tells you to cut it to half the attractive illusion that documentarians Maliszewski (writer) length, throw away all the great tape are always finding new ways to fake it. and keep only the absolutely stellar That’s our job.”—Larry Massett (inde- “Sometimes I feel like I’m so much tape, then repeat above steps.”—Barrett pendent radio producer) more manipulative on the radio. I know Golding (independent radio producer) how to use my voice to make you feel “I’d say that what’s left out is at least a certain way. And that’s not writing— “We are committed to never altering as important as what’s put in. This is that’s acting. I get tired of acting some- the spirit or intent of what someone where the tension comes from. And if times. Which is why it’s nice to be able says, but we do cut the hell out of the overall tension of a story is just to go back to the cold old page. Also, them.”—The Kitchen Sisters right, then it stands on its own, like a real time is an unforgiving medium.”— tensegrity structure—tension and com- Sarah Vowell (writer, editor, “This “I strongly believe that everyone has pression, strings and rods. If there is American Life”) a story to tell. I also believe some are too much or too little of one or the unwilling and others are unable to tell other, the thing falls apart.”—Scott “Think of comedic timing, where a their story.”—Andy Knight Carrier (writer, independent radio pro- pause after the punch line allows the ducer) audience to process the joke. Then “Look for the people in the funny think of some nervous humor-impaired hats. With some people, it’s apparent “Reality is just a bunch of raw friend who can’t tolerate that tiny si- that they have stories they want to tell. data.”—Carol Wasserman (“All Things lence and jumps his own joke with With others, you have to find out where Considered” commentator) premature explanation.”—Carol they keep their hats.”—Jay Allison Wasserman “For newcomers struggling to edit “People tend to spill their guts on their tape down to manageable size, “Reading most long sentences is like long drives.”—Scott Carrier

18 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Radio and the Internet

“It’s hard to find unprocessed voices “I still maintain excellence shows the responsibility, the challenge of that are coherent and honest and up more often in public radio because public radio.”—Studs Terkel (writer, clear.”—Paul Tough (story editor, The no one owns public radio, except the oral historian, radio host) New York Times magazine) public.”—Ian Brown (radio host, “This Morning”) “What would your ideal radio day “Listening to the radio every day for be?”—Sydney Lewis (oral historian) an entire year was a prison sentence. It “The BBC is like a beacon, it can was the most depressing, annoying, turn a cool beam of light on a story “I’d want the human voice express- debilitating project I have ever under- anywhere in the world and people see ing grievances, or delight, or whatever taken, and I have a master’s degree in what’s going on. American public ra- it might be. But something real”— art history.”—Sarah Vowell dio is more like a campfire, where we Studs Terkel like to swap personal stories and feel “Public radio has always felt like the like we’re sharing the experience and “I still believe in public radio’s po- lecture hall of the world’s greatest free the understanding.”—Tony Kahn (ra- tential. Because it’s the one mass me- university. You still need to get your- dio host, “The World”) dium that’s still crafted almost entirely self dressed and down to the library to by true believers.”—Sarah Vowell ■ do the reading, but you can show up “You hear stuff you haven’t heard for the talks in your jammies. Which is before, from a stranger or from some- a great convenience.”—Carol one you know, and you think, ‘Yeah, I Wasserman am connected.’ I think that’s the goal,

First-Person Narratives on Radio Document Historic Memory While emotionally powerful, their production presents journalistic challenges.

By Sandy Tolan

ome stories are so good you just Holocaust, arrived in Ramle, now an 43-minute radio documentary broad- want to get out of their way. Or so Israeli city. Dalia would later be told cast on “Fresh Air” for the 50th anniver- Sit seemed with “The Lemon Tree,” that she was the only one on the boat sary of Israel’s birth and the 1948 war. a documentary that captured, with two who didn’t get sick. Israeli resettle- The story chronicles a slice of Middle deeply personal stories, a slice of the ment authorities gave the family a stone East history through a difficult friend- last 50 years of Middle East history. home in the center of town. ship, which began when Dalia invited In July 1948, at the height of the For 19 years, Bashir’s family lived as Bashir in with the words, “This is your Arab-Israeli War, Bashir Al-Khayri, six refugees in the West Bank, always home.” years old, fled with his family from dreaming of the future, when they’d This was precisely the kind of story their stone home in old Palestine. The return. Dalia’s went about forging a my Homelands Productions colleagues family made its way on foot from Ramle new society, always haunted by the and I were seeking when we embarked to the tent-covered hills of Ramallah in past, which they’d barely survived. on “World Views,” a series of first- the West Bank. They were among the In the summer of 1967, just after the person documentary narratives for 700,000 Palestinian refugees in a grow- Six Day War, Bashir decided to try to public radio. Frustrated with the rise of ing Middle East Diaspora; they lived in visit his house—for which his father, corporate infotainment, my colleagues shelters and crowded into relatives’ now blind, still had the key and the and I were looking for a way to cut living rooms, determined one day soon deed. Bashir made his way to Ramle through the stream of information and to return to the family’s home. and to the front step of the family’s dehumanizing images absent of mean- Three months later, Dalia Ashkenazi, home. ing, understanding or deeper context. six months old, embarked on a journey Bashir rang the bell. Most absent, it seemed—and what ra- to the new state of Israel. The family, Dalia answered. dio was best at providing—was voice: Bulgarian Jews who’d escaped the Thus begins “The Lemon Tree,” a stories told by ordinary people from

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 19 The Documentary and Journalism

the depths of their experience. Our Homelands documentaries had scribed the outlines of Dalia and We started thinking about a series of taken this more standard approach, be Bashir’s story. In 1987, at the begin- stories to be told directly by the people it with street kids in Rio, an Amazon ning of the Intifada, Dalia had written in the midst of the news. These would chief in Bolivia, farmers in India, or an open letter to Bashir in the Jerusa- be perspective-based narratives getting while “interviewing” penguins in Ant- lem Post on the eve of his deportation beneath the surface of daily events, arctica. from Ramallah. (Bashir was suspected telling the story from a deeper place With a first-person story, especially of being an organizer of the Intifada than conventional reporting could. At controversial ones or those narrated and deported to Lebanon.) Dalia had this point (1993) there were a few by someone with a strong point of urged the Israelis not to uproot Bashir examples of this emerging in public view, issues of balance, representation a second time, while also urging Bashir radio—Jay Allison’s “Life Stories” se- and context emerge. What about the to moderate his political views. From ries, Dave Isay’s “Ghetto Life 101,” along other side of the story? What is being exile, Bashir had written a response, with public television’s “P.O.V.” and left out that would ordinarily be filled published in Arabic and eventually in the BBC’s “Video Diaries”—but our in by a reporter/ narrator, and how can Hebrew. Lamis knew Bashir and idea was to get reports from the ground, we put that context back into the piece? thought he’d be willing to talk to me. throughout the world, as stories un- What happens when someone wants One night, over dinner in Jerusa- folded and historical events were re- input, or even editorial control, in the lem, an Israeli filmmaker told me the called. telling of his own story? (For example, story again. It was a powerful story, she We imagined, for example, a Cuban in adapting a writer’s work for broad- agreed, but she didn’t think Dalia would narrating her story from a raft bound cast.) And how, ultimately, do you find agree to talk. Dalia, she said, felt used for the United States. Or an African a story that is both particular and meta- by people trying to frame her history to American traveling to the old slave phorical of a larger reality? suit their political purposes. house on Senegal’s Goree Island, re- For “The Lemon Tree,” balance was The next day Lamis and I ran into versing the journey of his ancestors. Or not an issue. In their own ways, Dalia Bashir on the street. Sure, he said, he’d a Moscow investigative reporter, one and Bashir represented the fears and be happy to sit for some interviews. of the first to write publicly about the aspirations of their peoples. Far more And though he hadn’t seen Dalia in KGB, telling a personal history of the complicated—for an assignment to years, he thought she would be, too. dissident movement in the former So- identify a story that was somehow rep- Bashir was right, and over the course viet Union. Or a Ukrainian nuclear resentative of the 50-year struggle be- of the next three weeks I shuttled from physicist recording an audio journal of tween Israelis and Palestinians—was Ramallah to Jerusalem and back, re- day-to-day life in the aftermath of in determining this was the story among cording five sessions with each, per- Chernobyl. Or a New Delhi poet and many to tell. haps 15 hours of tape in all. I envi- an “untouchable” rickshaw driver de- For the first two weeks, on the sioned simply intercutting the stories: scribing their chance encounter across ground in Israel, the West Bank and Bashir’s invitation to Dalia to visit his vast barriers of caste, culture and life East Jerusalem, I did no recording. family in Ramallah (nearly unprec- experience. (Some of these ideas were Instead, I read and listened to history, edented in 1967); Bashir’s father’s sub- inspired by experiences of my 1993 including Israeli military accounts, Pal- sequent visit to the house in Ramle and Nieman colleagues.) estinian oral histories, Israel’s “new” the tears streaming down the blind But what we didn’t anticipate was historians (who challenge the tradi- man’s face as he touched the family’s how much the series—indeed the en- tional Zionist accounts), the heroes of old lemon tree; Dalia’s shock at Bashir’s tire genre of first-person narrative— what the Israelis call their War of Inde- imprisonment in Israel on charges he would present significant challenges pendence and the sons and daughters had helped plan a supermarket bomb- not to be found in the standard news of what the Palestinians call their Naqba, ing in Jerusalem; Bashir’s revelation documentary. In the traditional form, or catastrophe. Soon I began record- that his own fingers had been blown the reporter (and/or producer) inter- ing similar accounts, considering the off as a child, picking up a booby- views, records sound, writes and nar- chasm between them that had scarcely trapped mine in a field in Gaza. (Bashir rates, balancing the story with compet- narrowed in the last 50 years. But still had managed to hide this from Dalia ing perspectives. From Edward R. I searched for the story and characters for years, his left hand always in his Murrow forward, this has been the that would connect the narratives and pocket.) style of choice for many an aspiring tell the larger truth. I felt as much like In the end we decided that these radio journalist. The style itself need a casting director as a journalist. stories, powerful as they were, could not be dry, especially when accompa- Earlier my wife, Lamis Andoni, a not be sustained for 43 minutes. I ob- nied by compelling interviews, vivid Palestinian journalist who covered the tained archival tape (early radio ac- writing, a strong sense of place Gulf War for The Christian Science counts from the 1948 war; a CBC broad- (Murrow’s London rooftops come to Monitor and the Financial Times (and cast in the wake of the supermarket mind), and evocative use of sound. was a 1993 Nieman Fellow), had de- bombing) and approached a pianist to

20 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Radio and the Internet compose music to use at key moments. This gave breathing space between the A Festival to Celebrate Radio words, varying the aural images and allowing time for the words to sink in. To add historical context and move the Documentaries piece through time, and at the urging of Danny Miller, executive producer of Organized by Chicago Public Radio, it happens in “Fresh Air,” I added snippets of narra- tion at several points in the story. October. But what made the narrative work were the voices that mined the history: Dalia’s, in evocative English, and By Johanna Zorn Bashir’s, read by a native Arabic speaker, Walid Haddad, so as not, literally, to Imagine a Sundance Festival for radio 150 entries, our final tally is more than lose anything in translation. and you start to get the idea of what the 300 from a dozen different countries. These voices speak to the potential Third Coast International Audio Festi- There is a renaissance of interest in the of first-person narratives for radio. val is all about. This festival is designed documentary form in print, film and in Though they can be fraught with com- to honor and enrich the world of docu- radio. Ira Glass, host and producer of plication, and the producers must of- mentary audio and create new oppor- “This American Life,” recently explained ten struggle with issues of balance, tunities for extraordinary work to reach it this way: “At this odd cultural mo- historical context, and the ethics of audiences. It’s a competition with ment, when we’re inundated with sto- who gets to tell the story, first-person monetary support going to the win- ries all day long, it’s still remarkable narratives can cut through the sludge ners. It’s a weekend conference, Octo- how few TV shows, movies, songs and of endless information to the truth as ber 26-27, magazines it’s felt on the ground. In this way they in Chicago. actually cap- hold promise to be a democratizing It’s a pro- ture what force in media. gram to be our lives are Of course it also helps when you hosted by really like. have a narrative vehicle as powerfully Ira Glass We hunger simple as the one I encountered in and featur- for some- “The Lemon Tree”—a stone home of ing the thing that shared memory. This is the house that award-win- puts our Dalia, after the death of her parents, ning works. lives in per- declared should be dedicated to the It will be spective. common history of the Ashkenazis and produced That’s what the Al-Khayris. Today the place is called and distrib- documen- Open House. During the day, it’s a uted by Chicago Public Radio. And it’s tary is for.” kindergarten for Arab children in Is- a Web site (www.thirdcoastfestival.org). The Third Coast festival is a new rael. In the evenings, it serves as a Chicago Public Radio created this opportunity to celebrate the audio house of encounter for Arab and Jew: a festival because there is a bounty of documentary form, revealing the power place to discuss history and to look for engaging work being produced today of radio and the Internet to document a way forward. ■ on radio and the Internet. Documen- our world.■ tary programs are emerging from the Sandy Tolan, a 1993 Nieman Fellow, networks (National Public Radio and Johanna Zorn has worked as a is co-executive producer of Home- Public Radio International) and also producer/director at Chicago Public lands Productions, based in from stations (Chicago’s “This Ameri- Radio for 20 years. For the past 10 Gloucester, Massachusetts. Among can Life,” WBUR’s “Inside Out”), from years she has produced the nation- other awards, “The Lemon Tree” won independent radio producers and in- ally acclaimed series, “Chicago the 1998 Overseas Press Club Award creasingly from people who never Matters.” As part of this series, Zorn for best radio news or interpretation thought of themselves as “producers.” has had the opportunity to work of foreign affairs. Tolan is currently Writers, artists and others in the last with many of the nation’s top docu- working on “Border Stories,” a series group share a fondness for radio and mentary producers. of documentaries for public radio often have a powerful story to tell. about the U.S.-Mexico border. I suppose we should not have been so surprised when, instead of receiving [email protected] [email protected]

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 21 The Documentary and Journalism Exploring the Relationship Between Photographer and Subject ‘Documentary photography is purity and freedom….’

By Denise Keim

ocumentary photography is a tary photographer, an intimate rela- art and are interesting and rewarding medium of aesthetic expres- tionship was more difficult to establish career paths. News and documentary Dsion in which form and con- because of cultural differences. I was photographers are complementary in tent need to collaborate with the sub- met with more suspicion than I find in that together they provide a rich visual ject matter to capture an unchange- the United States. This experience in history of our time. ■ able image. This collaboration provides Poland taught me that a close relation- an active examination of contempo- ship between subject and photogra- Denise Keim is a photographer rary society and a presentation of expe- pher is much easier established in an whose work has appeared in The riences to enhance historical and cul- open society but, once established, the Village Voice, Ms. Magazine, The tural awareness. For me, documentary results are the same. Washington Post, American Photo, photography is purity and freedom: Ultimately, all photographers pho- and the Erie Daily Times. She was the purity of the relationship between tograph for themselves. How they also a Fulbright Scholar, where she the photographer and the subject and choose to use the medium and their spent a year documenting life in the freedom to create images of life as vision dictates how pictures are made Poland. it happens. With documentary work, I and seen. Both news and documentary stretch the boundaries, nurture the photography have their own form of [email protected] subject matter, and communicate criti- cal thinking on many layers. To compare documentary photog- raphy to newspaper photography is to view them as a mirrored set. They ap- pear to be the same, yet they live in two different worlds. Both mediums show aspects of a situation and each add creative tension as they convey images. As a news photographer, I felt honored to provide a community service, but constrained by the selection of subject matter, editing, deadlines and the stan- dards of the publication and commu- nity. However, when I devote my ener- gies to documentary photography, creative possibilities are limitless. I have the freedom to allow my uniqueness to permeate all parts of the process. Frequently, when photographing, I am asked if I work for a newspaper. People react differently when con- fronted with the expectation of being “in the news.” But when I tell them I am photographing them for myself, some- thing natural and pure opens up. It becomes a more intimate experience, about me and them and the camera. This reaction is not universal. When I spent a year in Poland as a documen- Poland, 1994. Photo by Denise Keim.©

22 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Photography and the Written Word

Poland, 1995. Photos by Denise Keim.©

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 23 The Documentary and Journalism

Poland, 1995. Photos by Denise Keim.©

24 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Photography and the Written Word Photojournalism at a Crossroads Technology, culture and economics will determine its future.

By Peter Howe

lthough rumors of photo- the faces, bodies, homes and lifestyles documentary photography is viewed. journalism’s death have been of those celebrities whom our culture Salgado has produced a body of A substantially exaggerated dur- now deems worthy of attention. work depicting the tragic consequences ing the last decade, it certainly isn’t The cult of celebrity worship is per- of migration around the world result- what it used to be. Its glory days are vasive, and its effect on photojournal- ing from severe economic hardship, long gone, days when Life, Look, Pic- ism has been devastating. InStyle, a internecine wars, natural disasters, and ture Post and others employed teams publication that breathily brings to its other forces that cause families to leave of dazzlingly talented photographers readers a sanitized version of the their native environments. It took seven and when Fortune regularly printed lifestyles of the rich and vacuous, is the years and millions of dollars to pro- the work of icons of photography like most successful recent magazine launch duce and is a project of such power and Walker Evans. And the more recent of Henry Luce’s company. Not that enormity that it is impossible to absorb display of hard-hitting, relevant docu- Luce would have disapproved, given in one viewing. Its value as a document mentary work in the pages of Paris his embrace of the bottom line. And of witness is unquestionable. What is Match, under the magical direction of neither should we too sentimentally questionable is the value of having the late Roger Therond, is mostly a revere Time, Fortune and Life under work of this quality and importance memory. his stewardship. After all, Life brought displayed on gallery walls where fewer What caused this decline is com- us such cutting edge features as “How people can absorb it and where its plex, with the whodunit qualities of an to Undress in Front of Your Husband” message is in danger of becoming Agatha Christie mystery. The easy an- and offered further assistance to the muted. swer is that television killed photo- ladies of the time with a picture feature In the way that painting in Italian journalism or, if it didn’t inflict the fatal on how to smoke. But Life as a weekly society of the Renaissance was a part of blow, seriously wounded it. The speed also showcased superb work by Alfred everyday life for rich and poor alike, with which television news crews Eisenstaedt, Carl Mydans, Robert and photojournalism once similarly was record, transmit and display their work Cornell Capa, and W. Eugene Smith. integrated into the lives of millions of to audiences of millions severely re- Their likes are not to be found in the Americans, British, French and Ger- duces the ability of photographers to pages of InStyle, or anywhere else for mans through its publication in popu- compete for the attention of those same that matter, except perhaps Mother lar magazines. Painting in contempo- viewers. But it’s also true TV’s offerings Jones. rary society has become mostly the are mostly unsatisfying 30-second seg- It is, of course, simplistic to argue domain of the urban, educated and ments that, at best, only skim the sur- that photojournalism’s past was golden often wealthy elite. It would be a trag- face of stories. Common wisdom re- and its present leaden. What is more edy if this was the only future for pho- minds us that a photographic image interesting and much more mysterious tojournalism since one of its great has a lasting value that television’s is photojournalism’s future. My wife strengths lies in its ability to communi- ephemeral nature can never equal. and I recently attended a private open- cate across linguistic, cultural and na- What photojournalism gives up in ing of the magnificent show by tional barriers. speed, it more than makes up for in the Sebastião Salgado, “Migrations,” at the The “Migrations” exhibition is stun- power of its frozen image. International Center of Photography ning, and the ICP must be applauded But there is more to this story. Tech- [ICP] in New York City. She was stand- for being one of the few institutions nological developments rarely replace ing in front of powerful and distressing dedicated to giving wall space to such what precedes them, though they do photographs of starving women refu- photography. But the effect would be force change. A more significant influ- gees in Africa when a waiter in a white much greater if Salgado’s photographs ence on photojournalism’s declining jacket offered her a tray full of beef appeared not only on gallery and mu- appearance in mainstream publications sirloin hors d’oeuvres topped with fois seum walls but also in newspapers, is a cultural shift begun in the 1980’s gras. She looked at him, then at the magazines and on television in America and continuing today. Financial re- photographs, and politely declined. and across Western Europe, or in any wards seduce many photographers into Her discomfort in many ways was a other part of the world where people shifting their focus from documenting reflection of mine, a comment on what are able to actually mitigate the causes news to creating flattering images of seems a trend in the way contemporary of displacement.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 25 The Documentary and Journalism

Salgado also offers another glimpse era, no one has found a way to make Modern Maturity, I commissioned a into the future of photojournalism, money. However, what pushes possi- large part of this project, little of which this time with a focus on how he works. bility into the realm of probability is was used in the magazine despite He begins by identifying a theme that the increasing availability of high-speed spending a significant amount of money fascinates him, then raises the funds connections through cable modems or on it. So it’s possible that the Web can necessary to ensure that he leaves no domestic DSL lines. No longer is there become a medium that exceeds the photographic stone unturned in his time to brew coffee while a large pic- kind of display that once was the do- coverage. His themes—migration, ture file reveals itself on the screen. main of magazines. workers, children, landless peasants— As with similar advances, turbo- Another question mark in a profes- are of global dimensions, so this re- charged access brings with it an inter- sion already plagued by too many is the quires considerable effort in esting dilemma. The combination of a long-term effect of digital cameras. For fundraising, something he does with cable modem and sophisticated com- wire services, the development of this his wife and work partner, Lélia. They pression techniques will soon produce technology is a blessing that poten- are now able to attract such corporate a media environment in which, for the tially contains a poison pill. Armed heavyweights as British Petroleum, but first time, a viewer will be able to choose with cameras and a laptop, the photog- this was not always so. To fund the between streaming video and still pho- rapher can shoot, edit and transmit in “Workers” project, they assembled a a fraction of the time it would have consortium of magazines: Each paid taken to process and scan traditional for territorial exclusive rights to pub- …a photographic film. It also empowers the photogra- lish the work as it was produced. As image has a lasting pher, who essentially becomes a front- director of photography at Life, I pur- line editor of his or her own work. chased the North American rights. The value that The danger lies in the potential loss (London) Sunday Times bought the television’s of archival images whose importance is UK rights; Stern the German, and Paris ephemeral nature not apparent until years have passed. Match the French. Through their charm, On many occasions, an image of lasting passion and examples of their work, can never equal. historical significance is found at the Sebastião and Lélia ensured that “Work- tail end of a roll of film or two frames ers” would achieve the epic propor- away from the photograph originally tions that it eventually did. tography. Experience tells us that the selected. In the era of digital photogra- When I hear photographers com- still image not only remains in the phy, for example, the picture of Presi- plaining that today nobody pays for viewer’s subconscious but also en- dent Clinton hugging an insignificant work over an extended period of time graves itself upon the psyche of the intern would never have been found. It or that magazines aren’t commission- culture. Think of memorable images: simply would not have been preserved. ing meaningful stories (both of which Eddie Adams’ photograph of the Viet- Documentary photography will sur- are mostly true), I remember the nam police colonel executing a vive. While the craft might now be at a Salgados in the early days and the ef- Vietcong suspect, Carl Mydans’ picture crossroads, there are simply too many forts that they made to do work on of General MacArthur wading ashore practitioners—young and old, good their terms. It might be unfortunate in the Philippines, and Joe Rosenthal’s and bad—struggling against great odds that photographers have to jump classic portrayal of the Marines raising for there not to be powerful photo- through such hoops, but for those who the flag at Iwo Jima. These events were graphic images in the future, images do, the reward is work uncompromised filmed, too, but viewers did not have that will disturb, enlighten, inform and by the demands of deadlines or the the opportunity to choose which ver- invigorate us. Where we will find them, whims of editors. For the talented pho- sion they wanted to see. In the MTV era and who will pay for them, has yet to be tographer it usually means photogra- of video—with video’s ubiquitousness determined. ■ phy that more accurately reflects his or among younger generations—the her passions and sensibilities. Unfortu- Internet could be the medium that Peter Howe was a working photo- nately, it also usually means the work finally kills photojournalism as a journalist for 13 years before becom- only reaches the public through exhi- method of mass communication. ing director of photography at The bitions or limited editions of coffee Right now, however, the Web is a New York Times Magazine and Life table books. much-used vehicle for documentary and a vice president at the digital On the other end of the communica- photographers, many of whom have photo agency Corbis. He is now a tion spectrum is the Internet. In those developed their own sites, including consultant, providing assistance to heady days before the dot-com crash, online galleries and print sales. On several photographers and picture its potential seemed limitless. The pos- MSNBC.com, there is a powerful agencies as they adapt to the digital sibility for the Web to become a major project on aging in America by the environment. outlet still tantalizingly exists, but like photographer Ed Kashi. In the early so many other enterprises in the digital 1990’s, when I was a consultant for [email protected]

26 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Photography and the Written Word Photojournalism and Documentary Photography They are identical mediums, sending different messages.

By Antonin Kratochvil with Michael Persson

ime in photography isn’t only sports have become the norm. And the potential to stimulate all senses. about its passage, whether mea- news photography keeps pace. But has But photographs that do not fulfill this Tsured in hours, days or months. speed changed the content quality of potential remain visual data whose It’s about its captured moments, be it what we see and, for that matter, how meaning is limited to the boundaries in a second, or five hundredths of a life is portrayed? To these questions, I of the frame; the viewer is left to look, second. answer yes. comprehend the information pre- Increments of time are impercep- There is a division in photo report- sented, and move on. tible to the eye, but not to light sensi- age. There is photojournalism and there There are photographers who cre- tive film. The difference between a are photo documentaries: Identical ate exhibitions and books from their fifteenth of a second and a hundred mediums, but conveying very different photojournalistic images, but what is and twenty-fifth of a second alters the messages. Documentary photogra- achieved is only sensationalism. One way in which what stands before the phers reveal the infinite number of extreme moment after another is camera is depicted. A blending hap- situations, actions and results over a cobbled together and made to look as pens at slower shutter speeds. What period of time. In short, they reveal though it captures “life.” Having trav- can be seen as sharply defined objects life. Life isn’t a moment. It isn’t a single eled to many of the world’s disaster turn to mood and atmosphere that situation, since one situation is fol- areas and having seen extreme trag- could have come from an artist’s lowed by another and another. Which edy, I can attest that these moments do brushstroke. one is life? happen. But around them there is more Shutter speed is just one technique Photojournalism—in its instant shot to see and more that must be under- photographers use to take visual infor- and transmission—doesn’t show “life.” stood. There is more than the angry mation to a level beyond what, on its It neither has the time to understand it mob: There is the “why” and the “how” surface, it represents. To the viewer, nor the space to display its complexity. behind their actions. There is more the photographic image can invoke The pictures we see in our newspapers than the flood of refugees: There is feelings, trigger thoughts, and project show frozen instants taken out of con- what they leave behind. There is more perceptions to be pondered. And when text and put on a stage of the media’s than the funeral of a martyr: There is it does, a photograph achieves what making, then sold as truth. But if the the space they leave empty in their imagery has always endeavored to do— Molotov cocktail-throwing Palestinian family’s life. it stirs emotion and leaves an indelible is shot in the next instant, how is that Because of time constraints the pho- impression. told? And what does that make him—a tojournalist doesn’t often capture these In photography, these captured nationalist or terrorist? From the pho- more subtle but essential images. The moments aren’t the only vehicles in tojournalist, we’ll never know since documentary photographer does. Pho- which time works to bring about feel- time is of the essence, and a deadline tojournalists look to add meaning or ing. The days, weeks, months and years always looms. Viewers can be left with message to their pictures by employ- devoted to gathering visual informa- a biased view, abandoned to make up ing contrasts and juxtaposition. In ac- tion on a particular subject also con- their minds based on incomplete evi- tuality, these are time and space savers. tribute. It is this passage of time com- dence. Juxtaposition implies an intersection bined with the moments seen through Through documentary work, the where extremes or opposites meet. the camera’s eye that costitute a docu- photographer has a chance to show the Contrast conjures up black and white. ment known as a photo essay. It is in interwoven layers of life, the facets of But what sits in the between—the gray, such documents that much of our re- daily existence, and the unfettered the similar, the normal? Documentary cent visual history has been told. And it emotions of the people who come photography offers witness to these is these documents that are at the core under the camera’s gaze. When finally less obvious aspects of life. of what began as photo-reportage. presented, viewers are encouraged to The role of photojournalists is im- Today, photojournalism is different use their intelligence and personal ex- portant nonetheless and, as a fellow from what it once was. Speed is what periences, even their skepticism, to photographer, I respect what they do counts. Instantaneous reports about judge. By eliciting associations and under the difficult conditions in which world events, stock markets, even metaphors in the viewer, an image has they must produce. But the product

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 27 The Documentary and Journalism

they create comes from the need for tions in visual portrayal we, as viewers, won many distinguished speed, and this necessity simplifies (and need to be wary of the solo image and awards,including the Infinity Award sensationalizes) the images most treat it in the way we do other bits of from the International Center of people see. Should this be the way we random information. Without a broader Photography. His books include process the visual information that we context, skepticism must be exercised “Broken Dreams: Twenty Years of use to inform decisions we make in a as the sensationalistic photograph is War in Eastern Europe,” “Mercy: democracy? handled similarly to unfounded words. From the Exhibition,” and a new Separating the documentary pho- Documentary photographers walk book of portraits, “Antonin tographer from the photojournalist is in the wake of this instantaneous pa- Kratochvil: Incognito.” the reaction each has and the relation- rade of visual information. They gather ship each holds to the images created. and create images that can look soft, [email protected] One reacts almost instinctually, the speak loud, and transform the split other with more studied calculation. second into an everlasting glimpse at Michael Persson has worked for The journalist takes what the camera the truth. ■ many of the world’s news photogra- lens captures, while the documentary phy agencies in areas including the photographer makes the images as a Antonin Kratochvil, a freelance Persion Gulf, Soviet Union, Eastern form of storytelling, seeking to elevate photographer based in New York Europe, Africa and Yugoslavia. understanding about what the camera’s City, is with the VII photo agency. In eye is recording. Given these distinc- nearly three decades of work, he has [email protected]

This is one of the saddest of the many pictures in my collection. Captured street children in Ulan Bator, Mongolia’s capital, are hosed down before being put into a youth detention center. A tiny child cowers against a cold wall, await- ing his violent shower. Cropping within the viewfinder helps to show how small and frail the boy is in relation to his environment. He is the main subject. But to the side, in a watery light, another boy looks into the lens, judging me or you and seeming to ask if we have the right or the guts to stare. He is ghostly, making his presence all the more ethereal. In a way, with this photograph I capture myself becoming the event I thought I was documenting. I am being assessed, and I am not afraid to show as much. So often, the press can become the event. Sweeping in, they drain a situation of its drama, unaware that their subjects are reacting to them and not their plight. Their subjects become simply figures to Mongolia, 1996. be photographed, filmed, quoted and forgotten as the press move to their next revelation. It is doubtful that photojournalists would have taken this larger picture because the cowering figure is what matters to those who deal in shock value. But respect for people, respect for their lives, is as important as a reporter’s duty to cover their stories. As I spent time with these children, they grew comfortable with me, perhaps to the point of trust. This shot was my way of giving them a voice that dares the viewer to enter their desperate world.

28 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Photography and the Written Word

The Gazeris are the oil scavengers of Romania’s crumbling infrastructure. Working the con- taminated land, they salvage seeping, second- hand oil in order to survive. This story isn’t shocking enough for photojournalists to cover. Why? No one is dying or dead, and no one is ablaze with oil. Where’s the news? Yet what I found in these images is an excellent illustra- tion of how humanity prevails in whatever pathetic capacity, in whatever terrible condi- tions, exist. This picture comes together through the use of metaphoric symbols. There are no juxtapo- sitions, no contrasts, just unrelated moments that come together to make a whole. The di- lapidated, arcane trolley with a funnel tipping out from a solitary barrel seems to me to represent futility at rest. The two people walk- ing in opposite and disconnected directions. The indistinguishable liquid on the land—is it water or oil? The way the woman in the fore- Romania, 1995. ground bows her head and folds her arms. This isn’t the body language of someone who is happy. Finally, there is the hole from which comes what allows the Gazeris to survive. Or the hole might represent a pit into which life’s interminable crap is to be unloaded. In Czech we have a saying, “Je to v pytly.” It’s all in the bag. It means, what does it matter, it’s all for naught. These observations and associations come to me when I shoot because I have time to think about what it is I’m doing and not simply react to what’s in front of me. On the surface, this picture seems nothing much until you dig deeper and then, your prize. This is not dissimilar from the Gazeris and their labors.

The bodies lie all about, two deep. Left in a church where their putrid smell was enough to make me feel I’d just passed through the gates of hell. I walked among them instead of shoot- ing the rotting pile of flesh through the window. I chose to meet the image head on, not skid around the carnage. The body in the fore- ground confirms what the viewer fears. Yes, these are dead people. The image is shot in low light, giving the image a slight blur as if what’s on view had been painted by Brueghel. This image would have been considered too abstract and technically unacceptable for photojour- nalism. But to the living, death remains surreal in spite of all we know. As I walked through the bodies, I apologized each time I accidentally stepped on an arm or a leg. Who was listening? I don’t know, but perhaps this was a way for me to retain my sanity. Rwanda, 1994.

Photos by Antonin Kratochvil.©

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 29 The Documentary and Journalism

This shows the half-masked identity of one of the “Interahamwe,” the death squads who car- ried out the mass slaughter of Rwanda’s Tutsis during the country’s genocide. Cropping al- lows for the concealment of identity and subtlety of message. Killers do not walk with signs saying “killer” on them. They look like you and me. It is what they do that makes them what they are. So their appearance inspires the mind to conjure thoughts of what it is they do and how. By hiding some of the information and allowing the mind to fill in the rest, the picture lays the foundation for deeper thought. In this image, the unidentified people in its hazy background help this process by raising the question about whether they are killers or survivors. There are no dead bodies, so it is even a more complicated question. We are left with an eerie feeling of concealment, border- ing on the clandestine. In photojournalism, identity is everything: Faces must be distin- Goma, Rwanda, 1994. guishable so viewers are able to relate to the subject. But how can someone sitting in New York with a job and modern life have any affinity with a wounded or dying man from a place and culture so far removed from their own, or with a murderer of hundreds of countrymen? A galaxy of dissimilarity separates subject from viewer, and there can be no connecting across this chasm. By not forcing this connection, documentary photographers keep their differences intact while giving viewers the chance to feel and imagine on their own levels, engendering a response—no matter how vague. The main thing is that viewers aren’t bullied or coerced into an emotion that they wouldn’t naturally have. Perhaps the space in the shot is the distance between the killer and his victims, or the separation from the group, distinguishing him from the rest by his actions. These are all questions, not answers. Questions, however, do stir.

This shot is a prime example of using slower shutter speeds to create images that go beyond what they are. I call this my “Pieta.” Brush strokes of light transform this mother carrying her dying child into a picture bearing an array of religious undertones. This is in no way belittling the fact of what is really happening. A mother with a dying child is one of the most desperate situations a human can face. Why, then, transform it into something that lessens this tragedy? To my way of thinking, literal images begin and end and have no other way of going beyond their literal self. A more abstract image can associate itself with other images or memories and isn’t asking to be taken in as pure information. It is a prompt for the multi- tudes of links to come to life, thereby leaving a lasting impression through the memories and ideas it inspires.

Afghanistan, 1988.

30 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Photography and the Written Word

The screaming man in this shot reminds me of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” When I work, I see much of what I do as a personal journey, and the images I make are a reflection of my experiences and endeavors. Being a married man and a father, having seen my parents pass away, and thinking about my own death give me feelings of what it is to be alive. The older I become, the more I understand, and my pho- tography reveals this changing comprehension of mortality. Many young photographers hit or miss with their documentary photography. When they hit, it might be a feeling they’ve stumbled on or a technique they’ve inadvertently mas- tered. But missing means life has yet to reveal its gifts. In this photograph, “life” appeared while I was busying myself with the shot behind the screaming man. In fact, when this reaction exploded, my subject’s arm seemed to grow out from the head as I pressed the shutter. This Romania, 1995. image speaks of how things in front of the lens can also react with the lens. It is a two-way street. As much as you look at them, they look back at you. One’s personal journey of life is woven into documenting this particular mo- ment.

The little boy with the prosthesis may be a victim, but this photograph is not a “victim shot.” Ravages of war are apparent, yet it is hope that jumps out of this image. It shows the various obstacles life presents—the boy’s miss- ing leg—and that with a little help from his grandfather who guides him, people can emerge from despair and walk in the light once again. It is optimism I show here, the healing process after injuries have been suffered and sustained. The boy’s face is barely discernible. His identity is unimportant. There are perhaps thousands of boys like him with similar fates in Cambo- dia, Angola, Mozambique, not to mention his own country. It is a picture that speaks of something that will happen, not that has hap- pened. Photojournalism concerns itself with results, not intentions. Intentions don’t make for drama. Actions and their consequences do. This generic symbol speaks to all of us about the courage we find in the midst of adversity. It speaks to us of the human condition.

Afghanistan, 1988.

Photos by Antonin Kratochvil.©

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 31 The Documentary and Journalism Being Receptive to the Unexpected A photographer immerses himself in a community to tell its stories.

By Eli Reed

am in that place again of waiting being there. What I learn before arriv- photos I took that morning share this for a documentary project’s begin- ing is put in a place I call “a compro- sense of something being different Ining moments and, as always, my mised compartment” of my brain, con- about this group. stomach rumbles with anticipation. I’ve sidered flawed until proven otherwise. Score one for the unexpected. And promised myself that I’m not going to Everything is listened to, looked at, the project continued in that fashion. fight the eternal battle that goes on visually poked at and tasted as it gets As I found myself asked to attend more inside of me whenever I am preparing mixed into this stew of information. meetings, I complained again about to go somewhere I haven’t been be- Over time, I become immersed in where how static they are for visual portrayal. fore. I try to imagine what is happening I am, and the rest of the world begins to But then I’d stop by and listen for a there, and then I wonder how I will, drop away as I fall deeper into the while and frequently I’d get ideas of this time, get inside of the place and its mindset of my work in the here-and- places to go outside of the meeting people’s lives. now. rooms. Being receptive to the unex- Documentary photography is usu- When I went to Eau Claire, people at pected was a critical component on ally a series of single photographic the Indivisible project had given me this project, as was remaining close to images brought together to create a names and phone numbers of people the action, even if it seemed, at first, to vision of someone or something. It such as Reverend Wiley Cooper. When offer little of interest for my camera. may be accurate to a fault, or it could be I called Reverend Cooper, he suggested In the nearly 20 days I was there, I the faraway view, revealing little but we meet at a scheduled Rotary Club also drove around a lot throughout the evoking an emotional re- Eau Claire area looking for sponse. What matters is that people doing things. Soon, moments that are documented What matters is that moments days blended together as I got by the camera take viewers to to know the people at work places within themselves that that are documented by the and in their homes. When my they don’t often visit. camera take viewers to places coworker, George King, who A structured documentary within themselves that they conducted the oral history in- essay also means searching for terviews, arrived, I introduced a way to begin, a middle to don’t often visit. him to the town’s inhabitants. sustain, and a way to get to a This gave me more opportuni- natural ending. It is finding a ties to update and refine some way to move myself out of the way so I meeting. Since meetings never trans- images I’d been making of the resi- can let the images in. It also requires late into very interesting pictures, I dents. The photographs began to seem letting go of preconceived notions and explained that I’d need different kinds an almost natural byproduct of our withdrawing from the pull of predict- of settings to connect with—and even- meetings. My slow-paced stroll through able, safe and reliable images. tually to convey through photo- Eau Claire, coupled with the generous Beginnings of photo-essays are usu- graphs—what was happening in his help of the people there, enabled me ally daunting. Entry into this vast and community. to reveal through my photographs new environment can feel like hitting a We did meet that morning at the something new about their hopes and wall of white noise. To break through, Rotary Club. What else was I to do? dreams for their community. I try to locate what I call the quiet core, Turns out his idea was a good one. It Documentary work can take years and this, more often than not, becomes immediately struck me that the partici- to develop and produce. The most my beginning. When I started work on pants were not the usual older white satisfying part of the journey might be the Indivisible project, I found this men in suits; they were black and white, its quiet conclusion, when the photog- core within the quiet conversations I men and women who were from all rapher tries to tell a complete story had with the people I began to meet in kinds of professions and disciplines. without stumbling over the doubts with Eau Claire, South Carolina. [See page Here they were, together, sharing their which he arrived. Much of the docu- 32 for information on “Indivisible.] varied points of view and bringing co- mentary work I’ve done has emerged I research a documentary project by hesion to this community, and the from my personal interest in a particu-

32 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Photography and the Written Word lar subject. Once the interests come, through the thick layers of the surface Eli Reed, a 1983 Nieman Fellow, has questions are not far behind, and it is and probe inside. been a photographer for Magnum these questions that lead the camera The best stories still seem to be ones since 1983. His award-winning into new and interesting places in the the photographer has to fight for from photographs have appeared in Time, hope that more complete pictures— beginning to end. This means finding Newsweek, Life, Vogue, Sports Illus- with concepts and ideas springing from the story and finding the place to pub- trated, The New York Times Maga- them—will reveal themselves. lish it. Photographers are working more zine, and many international publi- There used to be adequate time pro- independently than ever, by grim ne- cations. Reed’s two books, “Beirut, vided to take the photographs neces- cessity. City of Regrets,” and “Black in sary for publishing a photo-essay in a Though the market has changed, America,” both published by W.W. monthly magazine. That time is gone. what makes a photo-essay work hasn’t. Norton, contain his photography, If the photographer receives three days The human element inside the photo- text and poetry. He is working on a for a photo-essay, that’s a lot of time. essay has always been the dominating book about the lost boys of the Many photographers and editors don’t factor, even when the core of the sub- Sudan and also collaborating on a seem worried about what is lost by ject was its sense of place. The sense of feature documentary film about the compressing this time, or they don’t place and urgency is and will always be same subject. take the time to recall what once ex- what guides documentary photogra- isted and why it is so important to get phers. ■ [email protected]

Documenting Democracy in America The Indivisible project portrays grassroots activitiy in 12 communities.

What does democracy look like away and cultural development. Capehart, Lynn Davis, Terry Evans, from Capitol Hill? How is it created Among the efforts documented are Debbie Fleming Caffrey, Lauren and maintained today among the indi- marine conservation in Alaskan fish- Greenfield, Joan Liftin, Reagan Louie, viduals in one dot or another on the ing communities, Haitian immigrants Danny Lyon, Sylvia Plachy, and Eli Reed. map of the United States? And who are fighting drug use and crime in Florida, To gather the voices, journalists, those individuals? For such an inquiry, a Navajo Nation project to renew tradi- oral historians, radio producers, and requiring an immersion in local detail tional knowledge and skills involving folklorists conducted extensive inter- to make a meaningful larger picture, a sheep and wool, and a Philadelphia views. They were: Merle Augustin, Dan documentary approach seems apt. neighborhood converting 87 aban- Collison, Barry Dornfeld, George King, “Indivisible: Stories of American doned properties into a local cultural Jack Loeffler, Jens Lund, Karen Michel, Community” is a multi-media docu- center. Daniel Rothenberg, Jeff Whetstone, and mentary project of the Center for Docu- In each location, a photographer Joe Wood. mentary Studies at Duke University in teamed up with an interviewer to “Indivisible” is traveling as an eight- partnership with the Center for Cre- record the community life in images city museum exhibition. It can also be ative Photography at the University of and through the voices of individuals. seen at the project’s Web site, Arizona, and funded by the Pew Chari- Twelve photographers were chosen www.indivisible.org, in postcard ex- table Trusts. The project seeks to docu- who “have made considerable contri- hibits, and in a book titled “Local He- ment grassroots democracy in 12 loca- butions to social history and the art of roes Changing America” (W.W. Norton tions in the United States where photography, and bring their own ar- & Company, with Lyndhurst Books, community members are working to- tistic viewpoint to each community 2000). The photographs, tapes and gether in local initiatives to address site,” according to the project’s press transcripts will be housed at the Uni- concerns such as race relations, health release. Those who participated were: versity of Arizona and Duke University, care, housing, environmental issues, Dawoud Bey, Bill Burke, Lucy and made available to the public. ■

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 33 The Documentary and Journalism Indivisible: Eau Claire, South Carolina

Rhett Anders, Community Council president and real estate agent, in front of an historic property.

A street at dusk. Photos by Eli Reed.©

34 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Photography and the Written Word

Parishioners at Wesley United Methodist Church prior to a baptism service.

Toliver’s Mane Event barber shop.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 35 The Documentary and Journalism

Eau Claire High School color guard practicing a routine.

Scott Trent peers inside Monteith School, the oldest black school structure in South Carolina. Photos by Eli Reed.©

36 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Photography and the Written Word A Place for Words and Images to Call Home At DoubleTake, photographers and writers document the human experience.

By Robert Coles

e who work at DoubleTake The ears (and now the tape recorders) them reading a book, the rest gazing at magazine try not to forget how catch the sounds, and the camera the sky’s all-important, distant daily Wour publication got to be and catches the views, the human scenes light. For Hopper, the point was a why we still want to remember fondly waiting their turn to be noticed, and if shared moment of stillness—he was the spoken and written words of Will- someone is paying close attention, exploring an act of self enhancement iam Carlos Williams. In his words, we waiting to be caught on film—[well, all through the effort of devoted attention find his yearning determination to re- of that is then] conveyed to the rest of to one of nature’s possibilities. His spect mightily the range and authority us hungrily curious folks, eager to take picture shows people waiting patiently of American voices, to render them in what’s out there.” for the warm light that can transform directly, and respond to them as the An outspoken person, Williams was them, that can give them a heightened city doctor he was in Paterson, New ever alert to the expressive life of ordi- sense of themselves, as they (and pre- Jersey. nary people and also to the way they sumably others) scan their sunned In the pages of DoubleTake, docu- presented themselves to one another’s selves. But for Williams something else mentary methods are used to convey eyes. As an artist and poet, he knew was afoot: “They could be mumbling to stories to our readers in much the well (and championed the works of) themselves or addressing the one sit- same way William Carlos Williams em- artists such as Charles Demuth, ting near them, the way we sometimes ployed his many talents as an artist, Marsden Hartley, Charles Sheeler. He do on a bus or subway, never mind the poet and keen observer—all in the also had made the acquaintance of beach—as in my old refrain: pictures hope of capturing evocative moments Edward Hopper and, once, talking of and words, both.” from the human experience. him, said, “His [Hopper’s] pictures beg Williams’ old refrain—“pictures and Once, at his home in Rutherford, for words—he was a genius at showing words, both”—is now our refrain at New Jersey, Williams talked about his us what we have to tell! There are DoubleTake, a magazine founded ex- medical work while pressly to affirm and also addressing his realize on its pages passion for the ... our task [is] to create and sustain a place the reality of what is world outside of the where human stories are told in ‘the full seen or spoken. Six hospitals, the clin- years ago, photog- ics, and the sick picture,’ in their unfolding and complex raphers and writers rooms of urban ten- dimensions, and where images add essential who had worked to- ement buildings layers of understanding to the words. gether on documen- where he went up tary projects initi- and down the stairs ated this magazine on his way to home in the South. In their visits. “I keep my eyes and ears open silences in his pictures, but not in some work, they’d gotten to know people when I’m sitting with my patients, of of us who look at them, staring long who were poor, or ones who managed course, but lots of times I’m walking and thinking of what we’d hear, if some- to get by, if not all that well, or who the streets, watching what goes on, how, through some magic, we were were comfortable indeed, doing “right hearing what people have to say,” he there to listen!” Then Williams, too, well,” as Southerners like to say. In said. “There’s a poetry of everyday life was silent before he spoke tersely: “A founding this magazine, they kept Dr. that we all miss—a poetry of words big challenge, to connect what we see Williams’ advice in mind, but also spoken by people as they go through to what we might hear, if we were by looked to others for guidance. In par- the rhythms of their time spent here in some magic where Hopper’s folks are ticular, they sought advice from several this country of ours, or elsewhere, in sitting—his ‘people in the sun,’ for extraordinary Atlanta journalists— other countries, and a poetry of life instance.” Ralph McGill, Eugene Patterson, and being enacted, of eyes widened or shut Williams had in mind a specific oil Pat Watters. Each of these men struggled tight, of smiles or grimaces, of bodies painting of Hopper’s, done in 1960 in his own way during the 1960’s to do bent or put to great and demanding and bearing that name. In it, men and justice to a changing South’s efforts to use, a poetry of statement and of sights. women are sitting in chairs, one of end segregation in schools and in com-

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 37 The Documentary and Journalism

munities, or as McGill once put it, book tells a story, but then it’s pub- tures folks like me take will live side by “across the board, wherever people lished, though the story goes on. In a side with poems and good essays, good come together.” newspaper, there is today’s story pri- fiction,” the photographer Eugene McGill was the person who first marily. Magazines can keep at it, tell Smith once told a writer for a profile in mentioned the idea of a documentary those stories, give them lots of atten- The New Yorker, a magazine that, then, magazine such as DoubleTake. As he tion, give the reader the full picture.” didn’t publish photographs. Today at put it, “Someday there will be a maga- McGill was musing, trying hard to DoubleTake photographs have ample zine that will have the space to put on emphasize a newspaper’s capability, room to show aspects of human expe- the record all that’s happening, a maga- but giving us a glimpse of what a maga- rience, even as writers do their level zine that brings the stories of those zine like ours could do. Now that best to say what is on their own minds, going through ordeals like this one to DoubleTake exists (with the help of as well as those of others—a double the attention of the world. We try to do individual and foundation funding), take, as it were, that we hope does this all the time here [at the (Atlanta) we still recall this early vision of its worthwhile, instructive justice to a Constitution], but there is so far we possibility, just as we recall the words magazine’s given name. ■ can go with a daily newspaper. I often of Dr. Williams—we are minded thereby tell my teacher friends that they some- of our task to create and sustain a place Robert Coles is an editor at times underestimate the educational where human stories are told in “the DoubleTake, a teacher at Harvard (oh, to be highfalutin’, the cultural) full picture,” in their unfolding and University, and the author, recently, value of newspapers; and even more so complex dimensions, and where im- of “Lives of Moral Leadership.” of magazines. A magazine allows for ages add essential layers of understand- longer stories, for continuing stories. A ing to the words. “Someday the pic- [email protected]

Cover from the Spring 2001 issue. Photo by Adam Shemper.

38 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Photography and the Written Word Revealing Afghanistan Chris Steele-Perkins captures a people’s grace and culture.

“What then is the purpose of all this travel and photography in Afghanistan? Not to change the state of their lives, but to sate my curiosity, my wandering urge. So how do I differ from the hippy of my youth, bent on self-gratification and adventure? Perhaps I bring more under- standing to the situation. I can bring my sou- venirs back in the form of photographs and select and order them in a book for sale, rather than spout rambling tales amongst friends over beer and a shared joint. “Also, I was working. Someone paid me to be there to commit these people’s sufferings, their crazy ways, their grace and culture to film. I did it, I believe, with more passion and engage- ment than the hired hand need bring to the task. Perhaps my pictures did make some dif- ference. Raised some money for an aid organisation, raised someone’s awareness. Awareness? So nebulous a word. If I am lucky this slim volume can enter as a trace of memory, a record of these people, of this time, this country. Afghanistan. “But is that enough? I engage and then fly away. Taking their gifts, my photographs, to a distant land they will never visit. My coun- try.”—Chris Steele-Perkins

From “Afghanistan,” published by Westzone (French version: “Afghanistan,” by Marval). Steele- Perkins’ work is found on The Magnum Photos Web site, www.magnumphotos.com.

Afghanistan, 1996. Teacher and pupils in Mazar Sharif, before the Taliban occupied the town. Under the Taliban, all girls schools have been closed. Photo by Chris Steele-Perkins/Magnum Photos.©

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 39 The Documentary and Journalism

Afghanistan, 1996. A man having a shave in Kabul. Although not liked, the Taliban have brought some stability and rule of law so that, for men at least, daily trade can continue.

Afghanistan, 1994. Amputees—mainly victims of land mines—are equipped with false limbs at the Red Cross center in Kabul.

Photos by Chris Steele-Perkins/Magnum Photos.©

40 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Photography and the Written Word A Photographer’s Journey Begins With a Coffin By documenting youngsters’ lives, he hopes to understand what is happening.

By Andre Lambertson

y photographic journey into squeezed tightly into a narrow casket. Baltimore, Chicago and New Orleans the lives of black youth in Bal- He seemed ready to open his eyes at trying to understand and convey Mtimore began in an accidental any moment. through images what was happening way. The newspaper I worked for sent Sweat was rolling down my arm and, to their young. ■ me to photograph a young woman for after a long moment of silence, this a column called “Candid Closet,” and woman said, “That’s nothing new. It’s Andre Lambertson is a photographer she was supposed to represent one of happening all the time.” She began to based in New York City with the the most fashion conscious people in tell me about all the young people photo agency Saba Press and is a the city. Known for her Sunday-best being killed and killing each other. She contract photographer with Time dress hats, she had inherited part own- said that youngsters in the city had magazine. He has received several ership of her family’s successful fu- grown accustomed to death, to seeing awards, including a Crime & Com- neral business in Baltimore. its face up close, to visiting their friends munities Media Fellowship from the As I was photographing her, I was in funeral homes, and talking about it Open Society Institute to continue having a hard time finding a good loca- as they might a social outing. It was one his work on children and programs tion with the kind of light I wanted. I more party to dress up for, another involved in the juvenile justice backed into a large room, filled with occasion to wear black. system. He is also working on a daylight, turned around, and found Her words shook me. It was after book, “Ashes,” a study of juvenile myself staring into the face of a dead this experience that I began what was violence. 13-year-old boy. He was dressed in an to become a five-year photographic off-white suit and his tiny frame journey into black neighborhoods of [email protected]

These youngsters endure the harsh realities of deprivation and racism. Many of these chil- dren attempt to shield themselves from an environment they find profoundly threaten- ing. Beneath their stony exteriors there is trauma that outsiders rarely know. I was fa- miliar with the work of some photographers who had tried to portray the poverty and de- spair within some black communities, but I didn’t feel the photographs conveyed insights deeper than the obvious circumstances. I wanted my work to help me and others under- stand why these neighborhoods continued to devour their children, how children who lived there saw themselves, and where they found hope. Most deeply, I wondered how I could help. After all, I was drawn to photojournalism be- cause I felt it was a tool I could use to bring about positive change in people’s lives.

Robert Taylor Homes projects in Chicago. Photo by Andre Lambertson.©

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 41 The Documentary and Journalism

I think that the best journalist is seldom subjec- tive. Any journalist with enough curiosity and heart can tell any story if he asks the right questions of himself. To tell the best stories, he relies on his heart. He uses what he knows, often his own experiences, to get inside a story, to find its walls and penetrate them. Being black and adopted, I wondered how I would have fared in one of these communities. A loving and strong parent had helped me to find my path and stay out of harm’s way, and per- haps this made me want to tell these stories about children who didn’t have someone to do this for them. The biggest question I asked myself as I documented these children’s lives was why people don’t care more about why they are dying so young.

With a counselor from Gang Peace, a young man talks about available jobs.

When I mentioned this idea of photographing these children and their communities, my edi- tors back at the newspaper told me simply ‘Kids killing kids is nothing new. The story has been done.’ But I feel that it is the job of journalists to tell stories again and again in new and creative ways. By bringing a deeper, more com- plex way of examining the issues of juvenile violence, I wanted to shed light on the compli- cated conditions and issues that embraced these children. No one was born a killer. What hap- pened along the way to make them do this? And I wondered how the mainstream press would have reacted if these children were white. Would this be considered an epidemic? Of course, this was before Columbine happened.

Boys playing cops and robbers at LexingtonTerrace, West Baltimore.

Photos by Andre Lambertson.©

42 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Photography and the Written Word

My burning desire to be a photojournalist was fueled largely by my desire to be seen and heard and to give voice to those who aren’t heard. The apathy toward this story that I heard from my editors pushed me harder to do it. I wanted to show dimensions of these youngsters’ lives that would portray them in more sensitive ways. I felt the mainstream press often demonizes these youth.

Cabrini-Green projects in Chicago.

The work I produced during these years often left more questions than answers. Indeed, there was light to be shed, but there was darkness, too. During the first year, I kept an eye out for reports of shootings or stabbings among youth. If I found an incident, I’d show up at the funeral and, with permission from the family, begin photographing. Some people wanted no part of me; others welcomed my presence as a way to bear witness to their pain and grief. One mother, unable to cope with the loss of her 12-year-old son, dove headfirst into the casket, knocking the body to the floor. To deal with this level of sorrow, I needed to cross into people’s inner depths of pain. The ability to do this is only accomplished through intense documentary work, and this involves a great deal of time.

Funeral for a 13-year-old boy killed in a drive-by shooting.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 43 The Documentary and Journalism

After a year of working on this project, I had images attesting to the unrelenting violence, but another question lingered. What was pro- ducing it? I had befriended a young man who I knew had a drug problem. One day I asked him if he could take me into his community, a very tough project in West Baltimore. Through him, I met people who lived there. Often, when we’d arrive, we’d bring food from an organization I knew that collected food for the homeless. Neigh- bors began seeing my friend as someone other than a junkie, and they also began to trust me. Soon, they opened their doors—and their lives—to me. Deep documentary work is about sharing heart to heart. During this time I was with them, I was able to see and capture a much deeper perspective of their lives in this tough place. I understood that without light, without hope, dreams vanished. Love from someone, from anyone, remained the key. Two boys play at the Lexington Terrace public housing projects in West Baltimore.

In the end, I felt this project became a prayer. For me, it was a daily vigil to remember the amazingly painful lives that a small commu- nity in this country bear. That suffering is a part of our lives, too, because everyone is touched. I’ve made a conscious effort to keep returning to these communities and doing my work there, trying to shed light on those who have had hardship in their lives but have found their way. Their lives show hope. I want people to meditate on life and to understand that answers are often found in places of complete darkness. To show the light among us some- times means grappling with the dark as well.

A pregnant woman looks out the window at the Robert Taylor Homes projects in Chicago.

Photos by Andre Lambertson.©

44 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Moving Pictures: Television and Film A Nieman Year Spent Pondering Storytelling ‘TV documentaries were dull because they misused the medium.’

By Robert Drew

n the early 1950’s, with television I watched Edward R. Murrow’s “See It The prime-time documentary ought in its infancy, the ability to capture Now,” but did so without sound, sim- to be different. What it adds to the Ireal-life moments as they happen ply watching the picture. Its progres- journalistic spectrum is the ability to and use those images to tell a story was sion disintegrated. Then I turned the let viewers experience the sense of little more than an idea of what the picture off and listened to the sound; being somewhere else, drawing them documentary approach on this new the program tracked perfectly. Later, into dramatic developments in the lives medium might become. I’d spent 10 these TV programs were printed in of people caught up in stories of im- years at Life as a correspondent and book form and read very well. portance. editor and experienced firsthand the The storytelling problem was begin- As my Nieman year progressed, my powerful force that candid photogra- ning to sort itself out for me. Stories mission was becoming clear: convey phy of real life can produce. And from could be told in different ways, using experience. Leave the rest, the exposi- my work on a magazine show for NBC, different means of communication, but tion, analysis, elucidation, to others in I knew that improving photography, each medium had its unique strength the media better suited to those tasks. writing and editing Then, one evening, would not make the Omnibus presented a difference in creating TV documentary, this kind of effect on “Toby in the Tall television. Corn,” about a travel- What had to evolve ing tent show, that was an editorial ap- conveyed feeling and proach that valued re- experience that was ality captured with the strong enough to over- intimacy of the still come an inane narra- camera and the tech- tion. nology to allow this to I flew to New York happen in motion pic- and asked the execu- Jackie Kennedy’s gloved hands as seen in “Primary.” tures. But once that tive producer, Bob happened—and we Saudek, why “Toby” knew it would—those of us wanting to for doing this. And its unique strength was so powerful. “Because I assigned pursue this new type of reporting would was, not surprisingly, its best. TV docu- Russell Lynes to write the narration,” need to know how to transform these mentaries were dull because they mis- he said. sounds and images into documentary used the medium. The kind of logic I asked Russell Lynes the same ques- television. that builds interest and feeling on tele- tion. “Because I focused the narration During my Nieman year in 1955, I vision is dramatic logic. Viewers be- on the economics of the tent show,” he focused on two questions: Why are come invested in the characters, and replied. documentaries so dull? What would it they watch as things happen and char- I found cameraman-director Rich- take for them to become gripping and acters react and develop. As the power ard Leacock at a moviola in the base- exciting? Looking for answers, several of the drama builds, viewers respond ment of a townhouse. Hardly looking Harvard mentors steered me towards emotionally as well as intellectually. up from his editing, he responded, an exploration of basic storytelling. So It was also becoming clearer to me “Because Russell Lynes wrote the nar- I studied the short story, modern stage that journalism is not relegated to one ration.” play and novel, and watched how some medium or another. It is a task to be Leacock and I went out for coffee. I of these forms came across on TV. combined with the means to commu- wanted to know how he’d been able to By the time I felt I knew the answer, nicate that which is discovered. And in make this film look like it had been I was embarrassed at how long it had TV the nightly news, for example, is photographed candidly and spontane- taken me to realize it. What I finally saw one “medium,” doing what it does best, ously, when the bulky equipment and was that most documentaries were which is to summarize the news, often mistrained talent available to him made audio lectures illustrated with pictures. by lecturing with picture illustrations. this nearly impossible to do. What we

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 45 The Documentary and Journalism

discovered that day was our mutual interest in making the impossible pos- sible. My Nieman colleagues, all of them newspaper people, were not shy about offering me a challenge. Often we de- bated into the night the question of what, if anything, all of this stuff about storytelling had to do with journalism. Back then, for me, storytelling was about trying to envision a new televi- sion journalism that allow the docu- mentary to do what it does best. This meant leaving to other media what they can do best. The right kind of documentary programming should raise more interest than it can satisfy, more questions than it should try to answer. When my year ended, I wrote an article for Nieman Reports entitled, “See It Then,” setting forth my ideas about this journey on which I was about to embark. It would take me five more years to conceive and develop the edit- ing techniques, assemble the teams, Robert Drew holds the microphone. reengineer the lightweight equipment, and find the right story to produce for my first TV documentary. “For five days and nights we recorded almost every move the candidates made, the sights and Finally, in 1960, with the camera sounds of the campaign, and the way the public responded. For one sequence at a senstive time, hefted by Richard Leacock and the tape Leacock and I split up. He filmed alone the tension in Kennedy’s hotel room as election returns came recorder carried by me, we set out to in. Four cameras converged on Kennedy’s victory. With twenty hours of candid film in hand, I was tell the story of a young man who able to plan the editing of a story that would tell itself through characters in action, with less than wanted to be President. His name was two minutes of narration.”—Richard Drew John F. Kennedy, and our drama fo- cused on his tough primary fight in Wisconsin. Though burdensome by today’s standards, the equipment made it possible for the first time for us to move the sync sounds camera-recorder freely with characters throughout a story. The film was called “Primary” and is regarded as the beginning of American cinéma vérité. ■

Robert Drew, a 1955 Nieman Fellow, is an award-winning documentary producer. As an editor at Life, Drew specialized in the candid still pic- ture essay. Among some hundred Drew films, those that established cinéma vérité in America include “Primary,” “On the Pole,” “Yanki No!,” and “Faces of November.” Richard Leacock holds the camera.

[email protected]

46 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Moving Pictures: Television and Film Documentary Journalism Vanishes From Network and Local Television Withdrawal of advertising and emergence of news magazines were among the factors that killed it.

By Philip S. Balboni

his autumn, for the 12th year in care?” After all, there is still PBS, and matter. And it is not just the great a row, I will take my seat around many of the cable networks, like Dis- documentaries like Murrow’s that are Ta large conference table in the covery, HBO and A&E, are presenting gone. In recent years, the documen- historic World Room at Columbia documentaries even if ABC, CBS, NBC tary as a genre of work has nearly University’s Graduate School of Jour- and Fox are not. I’d argue that all vanished from the traditional networks nalism, joining seven distinguished Americans should care and care pro- and the local affiliates. colleagues as we begin three long days foundly because the documentary, es- In an effort to quantify this observa- of judging the best work in American pecially at an hour or more in length, is tion, we asked ABC, CBS and NBC to radio and television. Weeks of indi- one of the most powerful forms of provide the title and a brief description vidual screening lead up to these final human expression. Nothing can take of any hour long (or longer) documen- deliberations, which often involve dif- its place; no single report on the tary they broadcast in 1965, 1975, 1985, ficult and emotional choices as we glean evening news, no glitzy television and 1999. Perhaps it is not surprising 12 winners from an original roster of newsmagazine piece, and certainly that none of the networks was able, or 600 or more entries. This vantage point none of today’s endless TV talk shows willing, to provide the information. We as a juror for the Alfred I. duPont- have the depth, substance, detail and made a similar request of six local tele- Columbia University Awards, the most emotional strength of a well-executed vision stations that have historically selective and purely journalistic prize documentary. been considered among the very best in television, has given me a valuable Moreover, while the cable networks in the industry: WBBM-TV, Chicago; perspective on trends in broadcast jour- may be an adequate substitute on the KRON-TV, San Francisco; WCVB-TV, nalism. national level, there is virtually no en- Boston; WFAA-TV, Dallas; WCCO-TV, The picture that emerges is at times tity to stand in for local broadcast sta- Minneapolis, and KING-TV, Seattle. inspiring but more often distressing: tions in hundreds of cities across Here, too, none could provide a useful inspiring because each year there is America. With local television’s aban- amont of information, if any. work that is intelligent, brave, histori- donment of the documentary, Ameri- Fortunately for Americans, the Pub- cally important, and deeply moving; can communities have lost an impor- lic Broadcasting System (PBS) has main- distressing because most entries fall far tant local voice in the examination of tained a strong documentary presence. from this mark. Sadly, the commercial key social, political and economic is- One standout is “Frontline,” produced networks and the local affiliates have sues. The broadcasting industry should at WGBH-TV in Boston, arguably one allowed their standards to drop pre- be ashamed of this failure to serve. of the most brilliant and substantive cipitously—in most cases overwhelmed The great American documentary documentary series ever created. [See by the financial demands of corporate tradition is rooted in such powerful Michael Kirk’s article about “Frontline” owners who have little appreciation progenitors as CBS’s “Harvest of on page 50.] “Frontline” has been show- for the sacred trust that goes with own- Shame,” which exposed the cruel mis- ered with major awards including the ing a news organization. treatment of East coast migrant work- George Foster Peabody Award from This trend is nowhere better or more ers. According to A.M. Sperber, Ed- the University of Georgia, often called clearly seen than in the near extinction ward R. Murrow’s biographer, “‘Harvest the Pulitzer Prize of television, and two of the television documentary on the of Shame’ burst upon the public, an duPont-Columbia Gold Batons, its high- major broadcast networks and their updated ‘Grapes of Wrath,’ a black- est honor. Also “American Experience,” affiliated local stations. This trend has and-white document of protest usher- the documentary series “P.O.V.,” [See been developing over several decades, ing in the sixties on TV.” It turned out Cara Mertes’s story about “P.O.V.” on but by the mid-1990’s it was clear that to be Murrow’s last great work for CBS. page 53.] and other independently pro- the documentary on commercial tele- Sadly, we never see work as coura- duced but PBS-aired documentaries vision was almost extinct. geous as this on CBS today, or on any add further diversity and intellectual Some might ask, “Why should we of the other major networks for that richness.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 47 The Documentary and Journalism

As for cable, I 69, agreed to serve as have screened a duPont-Columbia some truly out- juror. His observa- standing docu- tions about American mentaries from the broadcast journalism Discovery Channel are fascinating to read and HBO, among in the context of others. But in my today’s even greater experience the decline in standards. cable network “It is not enough to documentaries say that news must are, for the most never be thought of part, much weaker as part of entertain- journalistically, ment,” Haley said. and they are pack- “News must not be aged more for their thought of merely as entertainment part of a television value than for the program. News—and enlightenment of in this word I the audience. Of include…news docu- the cable net- mentaries—is the life- works, HBO has blood of democracy. probably made the Without free, full, and strongest commit- uncontaminated in- ment to documen- Edward R. Murrow reporting in “Harvest of Shame” about the conditions of migrant formation on all taries, for which it farm workers. This “CBS Reports” program was originally shown on Thanksgiving things that matter, the should be com- evening 1960. Film image courtesy of CBS Photo Archive, CBS Worldwide, Inc.© people have no mended. However, sound means of mak- HBO’s documenta- ing choices and de- ries lean heavily toward a cinéma vérité locally originated documentary pro- ciding.” non-journalistic style which works well gramming in 12 subject areas which Think of the important national and for some subjects but is not conducive the duPont-Columbia jurors felt were local issues facing the American public to more complex issues. of major importance. The categories in today: health care funding, missile de- CNN has also made worthy contri- this survey still read today like a lexi- fense, a sliding economy, grave energy butions to the documentary tradition, con of significant social issues, includ- problems, global terrorism, improving although it has never achieved the same ing international affairs, politics, birth primary and secondary education, So- level of performance here that it has in control and population, disarmament, cial Security funding, campaign finance its breaking news coverage. Neither of youth and education, the urban crisis, reform, poverty, immigration policy, the more recent entrants into 24-hour environment, poverty, crime and vio- and the list could go on and on. How cable news, MSNBC and Fox News lence, medicine, psychology and reli- can it be argued that we do not need, Channel, has shown any discernible gion, science and space. and need badly, the insight which well- interest in documentaries. The survey results were dismal. researched and well-produced docu- From the mid-1980’s on, both the “Documentary programming in the tra- mentaries could provide? quantity and the quality of documenta- ditional sense of the term had hit a new Another survey, done in 1980, took ries produced by the broadcast net- low,” the duPont-Columbia jurors note of an important factor behind the works and local stations fell dramati- stated. “The decline of the serious con- decline—the rise of the network televi- cally. Yet the seeds of the decline of the troversial television documentary…can sion news magazine. It observed that, television documentary on commer- be traced at least in part to lack of ironically, the success of “60 Minutes,” cial television can, in fact, be traced advertising support. This reticence in particular and “the rush to imitate it back to the late 1960’s when profes- comes almost in equal parts from a fear seemed to diminish the likelihood of sional observers began to notice prob- of boring and of offending the public.” any of the three networks finding prime- lems. The duPont-Columbia Survey of In the year 2001, how quaint that time for the regular airing of hour-long Broadcast Journalism for 1968-69 asked sounds. documentaries.” The reasons were that nearly 500 television stations located Sir William Haley, a former editor of the magazine format was being given in the top 100 largest markets to report the London Times and director gen- priority and “subjects worthy of ex- on their documentary work during the eral of the BBC, during a 16-month tended treatment were appropriated prior year. Stations were asked to list residence in the United States in 1968- for briefer magazine-length attention.”

48 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Moving Pictures: Television and Film Remembering Documentary Moments

Looking back at television’s more than equities of U.S. courts and prisons “Blacks in America: With All Deliber- 50-year history, the “golden years” for (1971). ate Speed,” a two-hour CBS Reports documentaries on both the networks special (1981). and the affiliates came during a 20- “A Seed of Hope,” by WTVJ-TV, Mi- year period beginning in the mid- ami, on drug addiction among middle- “The Billion Dollar Ghetto,” by 1960’s and lasting until the mid-1980’s. class youth in Fort Lauderdale, Florida WPLG-TV, Miami, an investigation of A review of the archives of the Peabody (1973). government projects in Dade County and duPont-Columbia awards serves (1982). as a reminder of some of the excellent “Chile: Experiment in Red,” by ABC documentary work that used to be News about President Salvador “The Defense of the United States,” offered to the American people and Allende’s impact on Chile’s economy, CBS News, a five-hour long examina- also starkly highlights what we are politics and society (1974). tion of America’s nuclear defense poli- missing out on today. What follows is cies (1982). a random selection of the type of docu- “The Sins of the Fathers,” NBC News, mentaries that once graced the televi- on the plight of American-fathered chil- “The Gene Merchants,” “ABC News sion landscape.—Phil Balboni dren left behind in Vietnam (1974). Closeup” on the impact of genetic en- gineering (1983). “The Slow Guillotine,” by KNBC-TV, “The Timber Farmers,” KGW-TV, a documentary focusing on air pollu- Portland, Oregon, a documentary ex- “People Like Us,” “CBS Reports,” on tion in the Los Angeles area (1969). amining the future of the Pacific North- the impact of federal budget cuts on west timber industry (1978). the poor (1983). “Charlie Company,” CBS News, the famous story of an infantry company “Race Relations: Where Are We “The War Within,” KRON-TV, about on patrol in Vietnam (1970). Now?” by WFAA-TV, a two-hour exami- Vietnam veterans’ struggle to re-enter nation of race relations in the Dallas mainstream society (1984). “This Child is Rated X,” an NBC Fort Worth area (1978). “White Paper” on juvenile justice and “The Smell of Money,” WJXT-TV, children’s rights in America (1971). “Water: Arizona’s Most Precious Re- Jacksonville, Florida, on the economic source,” KOOL-TV, Phoenix, on the and health effects of the city’s major “Justice in America,” CBS News, a debate over the Central Arizona Project polluters (1985). ■ three-hour, four-part series on the in- (1979).

A similar problem was afflicting lo- the ratings sweeps periods, which de- television. Serious and important in- cal television. The 1980 survey noted a termined the prices management could ternational, national and local issues decline in the number of documenta- charge for the subsequent quarter’s are being ignored. The American ries getting on the air and in their place commercials.” That ratings were figur- people, and American democracy, are “was a dramatic rise in the number of ing increasingly into editorial decisions not being served. mini-documentaries strung through was admitted by two out of three news The solution, however, is not gov- regular newscasts.” The jurors said that directors reporting to the survey. To- ernment intervention because govern- in some cases these reports “added up day, the focus on ratings and the com- ment has no place in the newsroom. It to worthwhile coverage of substantial petition for viewers’ attention totally is true that the deregulatory fervor, topics,” but more frequently they dealt dominate the newsrooms of America. begun under President Reagan and with sensationalized topics. Behind the ratings fixation lies the continued in both republican and Any viewer of television news in the unceasing demand by owners for in- democratic administrations and con- intervening 21 years has seen a pro- creased profitability—this in an indus- gresses since, has had an enormous found escalation of this phenomenon. try that has enjoyed enormous profit- negative impact on the quality of broad- Even a generation ago this survey noted ability, especially at the local station cast news, permitting vast consolida- that “these obvious appeals to the level. tion of media power and placing news morbid interests of the stations’ target All of these forces have combined to organizations in the hands of giant audiences were habitually run during crush the documentary on commercial corporations that have little feel for the

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 49 The Documentary and Journalism

traditions of journalism. But asking for major employer. This year a high-rank- those who are taking it are also making additional government regulation, par- ing news executive has been assigned an important contribution to the soci- ticularly in the area of news content, is full time to oversee long-form report- ety in which they live. ■ not the answer. ing and documentaries, and we added The solution, if there is one, must targeted funding for this in our budget. Phil Balboni, a veteran journalist, is come from public pressure and from If only one network and/or one sta- the president and founder of New leadership within the profession and tion group would step forward and England Cable News, the nation’s within the television industry. At New make a serious commitment to fund largest and most honored regional England Cable News, documentaries and broadcast a set number of docu- news network. He is a board mem- have been a part of our news produc- mentaries every year, that would send ber and former chairman of the tion for several years, featuring such a signal that would be heard loud and Association of Regional News Chan- topics as a breast cancer patient’s deci- clear by its competitors, but more im- nels and a member of the editorial sion to choose hospice care over more portantly by its customers and viewers. advisory board of the Columbia aggressive chemotherapy and a year- The first to step forward will be re- Journalism Review. long exploration of the impact on a warded beyond measure both in pub- small Maine town of the closing of its lic approval and in the knowledge that [email protected]

Striking a Balance Between Filmmaking and Journalism At ‘Frontline,’ the producers and their vision are front and center.

By Michael Kirk

wenty years ago, a South African The series would be produced by “A producer’s series,” he said with charmer named David Fanning the legendary Boston PBS station, satisfaction. Tand I were sizing each other up WGBH—but Fanning’s new idea was That did it, he had me. I was on my in a bar at the Century Plaza in Los that the station would act more as a way back to Boston. Angeles. He was putting together a publishing house for independently During the next 20 years, David and weekly PBS documentary television produced programs (“authored works,” I (and dozens of producers) have made series, and I was trying to parlay a as he put it). The individual programs nearly 400 “Frontline” documentaries. freshly minted Nieman year into some would be made, said Fanning, by the It’s been a wild ride. kind of honest work that didn’t involve best producers he could find, wher- I signed on as senior producer for cranking out news pieces, or those ever they lived and worked. I lived and the first seven seasons (Michael Sullivan things they call “seg- ably followed me ments” on so-called and is now putting “newsmagazine” The truth is, in the early going, we weren’t together PBS’s am- shows. sure what a ‘Frontline’ was—but we figured bitious new maga- Fanning’s vision zine program). As was infectious and, as we’d recognize it when we saw it and, of those of us present it always has, matched course, after a while, we did. for the creation of my enthusiasm. He “Frontline” steered was promising a (some would say weekly, one-hour veered) among the public affairs documentary presence worked in Seattle. remarkably complicated choices in- on PBS unfettered by the usual death Then, the big finish: We weren’t, he volved in inventing a new kind of tele- knell to ideas on Public Broadcasting: whispered, going to succumb to that vision, the series began to take on a life political deals between stations, inde- other TV beast—the 800-pound gorilla and style of journalism all its own— pendent producers, and other con- known as the face-time-demanding-on- slightly edgy, iconoclastic, politically stituency-driven groups. air-correspondent. perverse, and frequently surprising.

50 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Moving Pictures: Television and Film

Of course, this business of inventing a new kind of TV show had its own peculiar learning curve. First there was the issue of picking the stories. The hundreds of aspirants that inundated us wondered when our “RFP” was go- ing out. We didn’t know what an RFP was. (A “Request for Proposals,” our grant-writing friends taught us.) “Back of an envelope,” was the way David described the way we worked out our best film ideas. But try telling that to a producer who had spent years preparing 20-page treatments for the labyrinth formerly known as “PBS/Cor- poration for Public Broadcasting fund- ing committees.” Then, of course, there was the daunt- ing task of finding just the right pro- ducers. Louis Wiley, our founding se- ries editor (and the ongoing conscience of the broadcast), wrote a paragraph that became our working definition of a “Frontline” producer: “We seek a Images from “Frontline’s” Whitewater program. proven track record with long-form documentaries; a willingness to work people), we took the plunge and, in We lit the rocket with “The Unau- under the editorial direction of an ex- typical early “Frontline” style, we went thorized History of the NFL.” That ecutive producer, and a journalistic all the way—and, in NBC News anchor/ program’s back-of-an-envelope descrip- sense of fairness.” The last two criteria star Jessica Savitch, we got Godzilla tion read: “The mob influenced the were designed to publicly define us as and Fay Wray. As difficult as Jessica outcome of at least one Superbowl and a fundamentally journalistic institution often was, we came to believe in her L.A. Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom and to define the difference between role as a kind of marquee figure and, was murdered as part of it.” The pro- our producers and that other thor- when Judy Woodruff signed on after gram was a blockbuster premier and oughly worthy but undeniably differ- Jessica’s death, that role actually grew immediately put “Frontline” on the ent group of “independent documen- to include a thoroughly legitimate jour- map. The program got the highest rat- tary” producers (with an emphasis on nalistic function. ings of any public affairs documentary the word independent). Armed with the anchor, the produc- in the history of PBS. We found some of our first col- ers, those back-of-an-envelope ideas, But just as we rode the rocket up, we leagues languishing at the moribund and our own early 30-year-old enthusi- also rode it down. In that tension be- “CBS Reports” and “ABC News asms, we then set about creating (and tween good filmmaking and good jour- Closeup” units. Others came from the defining for ourselves and the produc- nalism, many believed the filmmaking BBC and that newly invented pool, ers) exactly what a “Frontline” docu- (some of it artful but sensational) got downsized producers from local sta- mentary was. the best of the journalism. The pro- tions that were going out of the serious It was, as Wiley said, “designed to gram was savaged by TV critics, sports television journalism business help the citizen perform his or her civic fans, and many journalists. The highly (Westinghouse, for example). Bill duties,” but it was decidedly not one of respected television critic of the Los Moyers had trained some, and so had those occasionally boring network Angeles Times, Howard Rosenberg, said WGBH. “white papers,” as they had come to be the program was sufficiently flawed to Then, of course, there was the prob- called. It was investigative, but not a bring into question the continued ex- lem of getting an audience. For that, piece of advocacy; stylized but not over- istence of the series itself. PBS and our board of directors clam- done (we had lots of rules about music Then, the very next week, we re- ored for a star—that 800-pound gorilla and re-creation). The truth is, in the deemed ourselves with “88 Seconds in David so proudly eschewed during that early going, we weren’t sure what a Greensboro,” a dark southern tale first meeting in Los Angeles. After six “Frontline” was—but we figured we’d about the Ku Klux Klan and a shootout months of kicking and screaming (and recognize it when we saw it and, of with some communist party members interviewing some very difficult course, after a while, we did. in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 51 The Documentary and Journalism

Rosenberg, writing again in the Los filmmaking and journalism have been talked about in so-called serious dis- Angeles Times, said perhaps he’d sig- the central challenge. cussions about broadcast journalism: I naled the death knell too early for Itching to try my hand at producing/ actually direct my films. I think about “Frontline,” and that this film showed directing and writing my own image systems, lighting, scene setting, real promise for the series. For our “Frontlines,” I left the senior producer mood and music. money, in “88 Seconds” the real “Front- job in 1987. Since then I’ve made more When I can, I employ the devices, line” had emerged. Both films, by the than 30 documentaries for “Frontline,” film grammar, and time-honored struc- way, were produced and directed by each and every time struggling to get tural sense of Hollywood movies. I Bill Cran (CBC, BBC). In “Greensboro,” the balance between good filmmaking know that sentence shocks my more the writer Jim Reston’s spare narration and good journalism just right. While sober colleagues, and it’s often the and Bill’s instinct for narrative every experienced “Frontline” pro- cause of spirited debates inside “Front- storytelling neatly matched. Now we ducer has his or her own method (that’s line,” but the truth is, in order to tell knew what a “Frontline” looked like part of the beauty of what Fanning my stories, I’m pushing the bound- and where our journalistic aspirations created), I have some rules of my own aries—and challenging the conventions should be aimed. particular road. of straight-up-and-down documenta- Over the years, the combination of I live and breathe in the world of ries. So in that “Frontline” struggle writer and filmmaker has yielded some character-driven narrative. I also love between style and substance, I find of the most powerful “Frontline” docu- chasing a story everybody in the pack myself paying attention to the filmmak- mentaries: Richard Ben Cramer and thinks is dead and buried. If it has great ing as much as to the journalism. Tom Lennon’s biographies of Bill characters and a story arc—and if the In the two decades that I’ve spent Clinton and President George Bush, journalism circus has come and gone— trying to hone the craft, I am most “The Choice;” Bill Greider and Sherry my team (co-producers Rick Young and proud of the films that raise questions, Jones’s “Washington Behind Closed Jim Gilmore, correspondent Peter inspire debate, and sometimes even Doors,” and their series on democracy. Boyer) and I turn the gravestone over change policy. Critics don’t always like Peter J. Boyer and I have collaborated and look for the things everybody the films, but audiences seem to—they on a dozen stories ranging from Waco missed: The Branch Davidian siege in are consistently among the highest to Whitewater; Reston, Cramer, Grieder Waco, Texas, turned out to be at least rated “Frontlines.” But these aspira- and Boyer appeared in the films—but partly about an internal struggle within tions—and outcomes—are not mine they were hardly correspondents in the FBI; Whitewater wasn’t just about alone. As my dear friend and colleague the classic network model. Their con- “a failed land deal” but also about a David Fanning and I—after several de- tributions were intellectual, structural successful one named Castle Grande cades in the business and suitably less and collaborative. True to Fanning’s (speaking of character-driven narra- naive—now say, this business, if done original promise, the producers have tives!); The Chief of Naval Operations right, doesn’t get any easier. It gets always been the leaders of the teams, Mike Borda’s suicide wasn’t just about harder—harder to stay the serious and the task of blending narrative, struc- some bogus medals of valor but about course in a television environment so ture and content has always been our the struggle between men and women littered with less. Harder to find the province. And, perhaps most impor- at the pinnacle of the Navy’s all-male money but, most importantly, harder tantly, those relationships have been culture—the fighter pilots; the so-called to satisfy our own quest for the perfect developed personally, not imposed in- largest police corruption scandal in “Frontline.” ■ stitutionally. the history of Los Angeles, Rampart, During these years, other models was really about a supercharged racial “Frontline” has won the Gold Baton for classic “Frontlines” have emerged: climate and a very slick misdirection by and several silver batons from the Ofra Bikel’s extensive body of work, a cop and his buddies nabbed in a duPont-Columbia awards, six including her stunning investigation cocaine bust. The list goes on. George Foster Peabody Awards, and of the allegations of child abuse in There are, naturally, limitations to dozens of Emmys. Michael Kirk, a Edenton, North Carolina; Mark the method. While we unearth docu- 1980 Nieman Fellow, has won his Obenhaus’s trilogy about life in Chester, ments, new footage, and fresh insights, fair share of those awards as a Pennsylvania, including the riveting I’m not really in the business of trying producer/director, as well as two “Abortion Clinic,” and David to make or especially break news (that’s Writers Guild of America Awards. He Sutherland’s epic six-hour mini-series, for my colleagues Marty Smith and now serves as a consulting senior “The Farmer’s Wife.” “Frontline” has Lowell Bergman). Because the stories producer to “Frontline” and pro- also thrived on the investigative work aren’t happening at the same time as duces two films each season as an of producers like Lowell Bergman and I’m shooting them, the cinéma vérité independent producer. Marty Smith and the quirky films of style (the stunning access of filmmak- Marian Marzynski. In every one of these ers on the spot) isn’t, as they say, in my [email protected] programs, the competing demands of toolbox. So I’ve developed a skill rarely

52 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Moving Pictures: Television and Film Where Journalism and Television Documentary Meet Connecting with viewers ‘through personal stories and subjective approaches.’

By Cara Mertes

ocumentary journalism is alive passions have always run deep when it widely noted in both the practice and and well, contrary to reports of comes to questions about truth and reception of journalism. Dits early demise. Yes, funding is media—particularly when pictures are Gone, too, are the days when what is extremely difficult to obtain, and broad- involved. Writing about photography printed is taken as “the truth,” or at casts even harder to achieve. Of the only 30 years after its invention, Oliver least generally believed, and what ap- hundreds of documentaries made each Wendell Holmes, Sr., in a much-quoted pears as news on television or radio is year, most never get beyond family, 1859 essay, was the first to identify actually believed to be news by a skep- friends and the core interested con- photography’s delicate dance with ve- tical audience. Today’s journalists work stituencies. But at “P.O.V.,” PBS’s non- racity. “Every conceivable object of under a cloud of public cynicism, pull- fiction showcase, where I am the ex- Nature and Art will soon scale off its ing extra weight just to convince their ecutive producer, we are seeing more surface for us,” Holmes wrote. “Men audiences that their story is important, and more documentaries that handily will hunt all curious, beautiful, grand truthful and worth devoting time to. meet the criteria of journalism. objects as they hunt cattle in South They work against the increasing time Journalists, like the French with their America for their skins and leave the pressures on Americans, the innumer- language, are highly protective of their carcasses of little worth.” This is an able media distractions passing as news unique domain. Their job is unusual. aggressive image, describing a world or its close cousin, infotainment. Be- The social function journalism fills in- where content would always be sacri- yond the still-thriving “60 Minutes,” volves a combination of expertise and ficed in the search for the most “curi- broadcast documentary specifically has trust, and yet, in the end, the outcome ous, beautiful and grand” surface. been relegated to the infinitely cross- is inevitably subjective. There are few Holmes’ statement is remarkably linked and cross-promoted human-in- hard and fast rules, but many sugges- prescient. In today’s television jour- terest stories on “Dateline,” “20/20,” tive guidelines. And journalists are con- nalism, ever-new marketing goals and and other news and magazine shows. stantly refining the definition of their revenue-generating practices have be- Despite these much decried devel- work and patrolling the borders of come the standard by which all similar opments, or perhaps, ironically, be- their practice for interlopers. products are judged. These approaches cause of them, journalism has seen Central to determining whether frequently clash with journalism’s goal new forms emerge in recent years, something is or isn’t journalism lie to seek out and report informative, forms which attempt to connect with questions about truth, accuracy, moti- meaningful, verifiable stories about the viewers through personal stories and vation and fairness. Print journalism’s world we live in. Yet surfaces dominate overtly subjective approaches. These relationship to these qualities has a and content suffers daily in the broad- new forms don’t raise the same ques- long and pedigreed history. However, cast journalist’s world. And it’s not as if tions or suspicions that the use of “ob- journalism done with words and im- this is an entirely new phenomenon. jectivity” as a format invites. ages is relatively new, and deep suspi- Certainly, we can look back on “the Using this approach, journalists see cion remains in many quarters when good old days” when television news themselves as active participants, at- judging a visually based medium in broadcasters worked with journalists tempting to connect with communi- terms of its journalistic qualities—par- on regular, in-depth, well funded pro- ties, to rejuvenate a sense of citizenry, ticularly moving images and, more spe- ductions about important social issues to promote the operations of democ- cifically, images broadcast on televi- and didn’t expect fact-finding to get racy, and even to suggest possible solu- sion. So deep is the power of images to mixed up with moneymaking. That era tions to problems. Some refer to this as move us that some believe everything produced such classics as “Harvest of public or civic journalism, or journal- they see on television that is presented Shame.” Of course, Edward R. Murrow ism with a problem-solving focus. It is as fact. Conversely, knowing the height- complained of corporate interference within this rubric that many of the ened power words and images have to in his work in the late 1950’s and early point-of-view documentaries about manipulate, some trust in little or noth- ’60’s, so the tension between journal- contemporary social issues shown on ing they see represented as mainstream istic ideals and the reality of daily work- PBS’s “P.O.V.” find their home. news today. place politics is not new. Nevertheless, After 14 years on the air, “P.O.V.” is Both responses are extremes, but a fairly recent, radical shift has been home to many journalists-turned-film-

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 53 The Documentary and Journalism

makers. They have come to public tele- “P.O.V.” and PBS accepted the film the two sides we portrayed, our com- vision, often from commercial media precisely on its merits as a fairly and mitment to clearly expressing the Na- (print and broadcast), for a chance to accurately compiled story. It is a thor- tive-American point of view might cause explore their stories from an explicit oughly researched, well-documented some to call it a ‘sympathetic treat- perspective, to work over a long pe- piece, and the filmmaker had ap- ment.’ But I feel strongly that it is a riod of time—sometimes as long as a proached the Boy Scouts numerous piece of journalism.” decade—and for the chance to have times requesting an interview, but was Both of these films used personal total editorial control. refused. As Shephard explains, “Be- (and therefore subjective) testimony Through their work, “P.O.V.” show- cause ‘Scout’s Honor’ takes a position extensively. More than this, the films cases much-needed antidotes to the does not disqualify it as a piece of overall, because of their emphasis on superficiality endemic in so much journalism. Quite the contrary: [I] took certain characters or circumstances, broadcast media today. The work of great pains to employ high standards support particular interpretations of two such filmmakers is airing in the of journalism—rigorous document and the events. These techniques draw the “P.O.V.” 2001 series: “Scout’s Honor,” archival research, broad coverage of viewer in and give them different ways by Tom Shepard, and “In The Light of to identify with the issue. Yet this Reverence,” by Toby McLeod, co-pro- doesn’t destroy their claim as journal- duced by Malinda Maynor. These serve Today’s journalists ism. On the contrary, a point-of-view as examples of the kind of carefully work under a cloud documentary is an incredibly powerful crafted films that have expanded the of public tool to bring people to stories and craft of journalism into documentaries experiences they would otherwise so effectively that “P.O.V.” has been cynicism…. never be exposed to, in ways that not able to pioneer new approaches to only interest them intellectually but audience engagement around both move them emotionally. Often people their online and on-air broadcasts. reexamine assumptions and attitudes “P.O.V.” was created in recognition events and subjects, sensitivity to in response to seeing these films. of the power that nonfiction film has in interviewees, special attention to the At “P.O.V.,” we encourage viewer promoting civic dialogue and around time necessary to comprehensively tell response through online dialogues, controversial issues of common con- stories, engaged filmmaker/subject rap- specially produced Web sites, and a cern. Race and identity (“Blacks and port. Ultimately, the test of ‘fairness’ toll-free number. Our broadcasts have Jews,” “Tongues Untied,” “First Person and ‘accuracy’ is in the material; how resulted in tremendous outpourings Plural”), health (“The Vanishing Line,” does the filmmaker present the mate- of sympathy for subjects of a film, of- “Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter”), rial he or she researches and collects? fers of resources, in-depth discussions, labor (“Roger and Me”), education Does it fairly represent the positions of and activities in response to the issues (“Fear and Learning at Hoover Elemen- the characters who posit that informa- portrayed. We’ve also seen how dis- tary”) are just a small sampling of the tion? Does it honor the integrity of the cerning viewers are when assessing spectrum of topics more than 160 films film’s subjects and events?” whether a film is fair and accurate. have covered. McLeod’s film, “In The Light of Rev- While not every “P.O.V.” is journalism, “Scout’s Honor” profiles the work erence,” takes a different tack. Cover- or made by a journalist, the films— of Petaluma, California, Boy Scout ing the story of three different loca- exploring the many and complex truths Steven Cozza who, at the age of 12, tions where Native and non-Native of our lives—generate a tremendous cofounded “Scouting for All,” an orga- communities are struggling over the response and illustrate powerful and nization working to change the stated use of lands sacred to the Native tribes, convincing arguments for keeping Boy Scout policy of excluding openly he uses journalistic techniques to fo- documentary journalism as a mainstay gay members. The PBS broadcast stirred cus on community and individual re- in American media. ■ up a protest among several conserva- sponses to the legal, tribal and eco- tive groups adamantly opposed to not nomic repercussions of these Cara Mertes is executive producer of only the message of the film but the controversies. “P.O.V.,” a project of American broadcast itself. People were drawn to Less personality driven than issue- Documentary, Inc. Mertes is also an protest by the claim that PBS should focused, the film nevertheless makes award-winning producer/director not be allowed to use taxpayer money clear its goal of educating non-Natives and has published in several media to air point-of-view films. If the film about Native concerns. Meticulously journals. She is a contributing editor isn’t objective, they argued, it must be researched and constructed, McLeod to The Independent. propaganda. The first is a familiar logic says, “My goal was to report a complex that quickly dead-ends if applied to all story of clashing world views accu- [email protected] of the uses of taxpayer money. And the rately and fairly. It took 10 years to charge of subjectivity goes to the heart make the film so it’s obviously different of what is or isn’t journalism. from daily deadline journalism and, of

54 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Moving Pictures: Television and Film Using Documentaries to Move People to Action Films serve as powerful catalysts for the Television Race Initiative.

By Ellen Schneider

torytelling has brought commu- even citizen engagement. At a time to experiment with a media model that nities together and enabled them when media images are so ubiquitous, I called the Television Race Initiative Sto pass on knowledge since the our challenge is to transform visual (TRI). Since then, I’ve been working dawn of time. Yet only recently have essays into energizing resources, ones with a small team of facilitators and we, using television, begun to tap the that people not only reflect on, but act trainers to help a handful of communi- enormous power of stories to stir col- on, ones that move them from being ties and the public television stations lective action. A finely wrought docu- passive consumers to active partici- that serve them use documentaries as mentary can set pulses racing—strik- pants. powerful catalysts for addressing a ing an emotional chord elusive to other Today, facilitated by relatively cheap range of local issues in which race is a forms of journalism. digital cameras and editing systems, factor. Viewers called “P.O.V.,” the Public scores of filmmakers are painstakingly The programs we’ve supported have Broadcasting System’s independent researching subjects that mainstream been scheduled for broadcast on PBS documentary series, to say that “Rabbit media ignore. They’re asking tough and have ranged from long-form re- in the Moon,” Emiko Omori’s first- questions, searching for truth in claus- portage such as “Facing the Truth with person memoir on the internment of trophobic editing rooms, and resisting Bill Moyers,” his unflinching look at Japanese Americans during World War pressure to dumb down their stories. South Africa’s Truth and Reconcilia- II, helped them tion Commission, to raise painful bur- Orlando Bagwell’s ied issues with par- epic series, “Africans ents who had been in America,” to an up- imprisoned. Oth- coming series, “The ers wrote to say New Americans,” that a documen- from the makers of tary on AIDS moti- “Hoop Dreams.” vated them to vol- With support from unteer at a the John D. and hospice. And the Catherine T. most successful MacArthur Founda- stories resonate tion, we’re now also across racial and working with docu- class lines. When mentaries that deal “Frontline” aired a with issues beyond piece on the SAT race, such as mental and meritocracy, illness, the experi- students from the ence of being an ado- most privileged lescent girl, and group—orga- A young woman comments after a community screening of “Digital Divide,” a Televi- handgun violence. nized by a white sion Race Initiative documentary. At TRI, we have high-school stu- two principal chal- dent in California who was incensed by Some cobble together the financial sup- lenges: to identify documentaries and what he learned—traveled to Sacra- port to finish their work. A still smaller works in progress with the power to mento to oppose standardized tests number find a national broadcast for open up new ways of thinking about that gave them an unfair advantage. their documentaries on one of few race or other neglected, critical and I’m fascinated by these reactions, outlets for long-form journalism. contentious issues, and to find ways of having long wondered how these raw Understanding the potential such transforming raw individual responses responses of individuals lead to public programming holds, in 1998 the Ford into some group sensibility or conver- conversations, sustained inquiry, or Foundation provided me with support sation. We make a deliberate effort, in

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 55 The Documentary and Journalism

both cases, to work with as dialogues among orga- multicultural and diverse nizations that work with groups as possible—and, immigrant and refugee more importantly, the in- groups. In every one of stitutions that represent these communities, them. conversations emerged In the process, we have about the “opportunity” found that the most effec- to make one’s home in tive films have an emotional the United States and honesty and personal voice about what this country that invite viewers to enter could and should stand into a sort of relationship for in this new era of with the filmmaker. When globalization. we screened “P.O.V.”/ Some of the docu- Deann Borshay’s film, “First mentary filmmakers Person Plural,” about her who work with us do so U.S. adoption from Korea, because they are activ- for a “brain trust” of ists and want to inspire multicultural leaders, we collective action. Oth- learned that it resonated ers bring a journalistic not only among people background to their who had adopted children work and do not take a from other nations, but position on how or among Native Americans whether their work trig- who protested the place- gers a community re- ment of children from the sponse. Regardless of reservation into urban fami- the filmmaker’s orien- lies. tation, our role in work- To explore ways in ing with them remains which these documentaries the same: We want to might result in action encourage well-re- within specific communi- searched and powerful ties, we seek advice from a documentary work that variety of groups. We also offers people a way to seek partners in commer- engage in meaningful cial and print media, foun- discussion about com- dations, faith-based orga- plex issues that have nizations, and community Bay Area youth act on what they’ve seen in “Digital Divide.” such an impact on how groups to host sneak pre- we interact with one an- views, community dia- other personally and logues, and events that help build long- mined who would stay in the United politically. At a time when so many term alliances. States and who would be sent home. random bits of information are thrown All of these elements came together Our work with community leaders at viewers from so many sources, there in “Well-Founded Fear,” Shari prior to the June 2000 broadcast of this is abundant need for places to turn Robertson and Michael Camerini’s documentary on “P.O.V.” assured a where thoughtful, engaging and some- stunning, two-hour film about the pro- wide range of responses afterwards. In times provocative insights can be cess of applying for political asylum. the San Francisco Bay area, a group of gleaned from visual storytelling. Those Filmed almost entirely in offices of the clergy decided to meet with INS offi- are the destinations that TRI is trying to U.S. Immigration and Naturalization cials in an attempt to improve condi- create. ■ Service (INS), it focused on each tions in the holding areas and offices person’s effort to persuade an officer where those interviews took place. In Ellen Schneider is executive director of a “well-founded fear of persecution North Carolina, asylum attorneys re- of “Active Voice,” a division of on grounds of race, religion, national- ceived offers from other lawyers to American Documentary, Inc. She ity, membership in a particular social work pro bono on asylum cases. In was with “P.O.V.” for 10 years, most group, or political opinion” in his or Minnesota’s Twin Cities, a community recently as executive producer. her home country. In case after har- in which 75 languages are spoken, the rowing case, a single interview deter- program was the hook for organized [email protected]

56 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Moving Pictures: Television and Film Documenting Social Ills With an Eye Toward Advocacy Women’s health, homophobia, domestic violence, and rape are topics mainstream media often ignore. By Margaret Lazarus

y partner Renner Wunderlich simply choosing one side or the other. versy. It was disqualified from the and I approach the documen- We also unconsciously wanted to re- American Film Festival because mem- Mtaries we produce and direct produce the far-reaching, vociferous bers of the medical category jury be- from a position of advocacy. Often a arguments, often from many perspec- lieved that challenging radical mastec- film idea begins as a roaring argument tives, that were part of our own learn- tomies was promoting dangerous related to an issue that one or the other ing process about critical social issues. medical advice. It was not shown in of us has been committed to either as As we set out to do our first indepen- medical schools and hospitals outside an activist or supporter. We are not dent film, I was becoming interested in of coastal urban areas, but its distribu- journalists, but what we produce argu- the growing opposition to radical mas- tion was supported by the Boston ably overlaps, in some respects, with tectomy, the lack of adequate medical Women’s Health Book Collective, au- the ways in which reporters and pro- research on women, over-medicalized thors of “Our Bodies, Ourselves.” They ducers find and tell stories that touch childbirth, demeaning advertising in gave us their mailing list with the names on important issues of our time. medical publications, unnecessary hys- of organizations that purchased mul- It was during the 1970’s that Renner terectomies, and in the growth of tiple copies of the book, and we used it and I began producing and directing women-controlled feminist health cen- to get out word of our film. documentaries and public affairs pro- ters. All of these interests coalesced in Often our topics emerge out of our gramming for commercial television. It our documentary in an exploration of everyday experiences, as well as our was a time when women were active in the women’s health movement; our curiosity. Our 1982 film, “Pink Tri- building a “movement,” a time of anti- clear intention was to give “voice” to angles,” about homophobia, emerged nuclear demonstrations and draft reg- this nascent movement. from an extended family argument istration opposition. For us, there As a journalist might, we spent a lot about lesbians and gay men. Renner seemed too wide of a chasm between of time researching and discovered and I were surprised to hear otherwise what we saw going on around us and groups engaged in similar but mostly “progressive” people feeling perfectly what was considered “acceptable” tele- unconnected activities. A common okay about labeling gays “abnormal,” a vision programming. We both quit our thread among those people we inter- term they would have been uncomfort- jobs and founded a nonprofit organi- viewed was their resistance to patriar- able applying to other social groups. zation whose mission was essentially chal medical practices. While we agreed This seemed a useful topic to explore. to create independent media that gave with this sentiment (and wanted our We began our usual research process voice to opinions, ideas and groups viewers to feel the same way), fre- seeking out educators and activists that were ignored, misrepresented or quently we decided not to include com- engaged with this particular issue. We trivialized by mainstream media. mentary by those whose research could then decided to create a nine-member We were also inspired by the “direct not be independently verified. “collective” of lesbian, gay, bisexual cinema” movement from the Massa- Another journalistic approach might and straight men and women to pro- chusetts Institute of Technology to cre- have been to document the absence of duce this documentary about ho- ate work that did not have the ubiqui- supporting evidence among the groups mophobia. tous narrator, the person who told you we, in the end, didn’t include, but our In the past, Renner and I have been what to think or who neatly framed the belief was that there was already a great solely responsible for both the content discussion in a “balanced” dance of deal of discounting of the women’s and form of our work, but in the spirit pros and cons. This approach acted as health movement, largely backed by of this project we believed the subject if all questions had only two equally the mainstream medical profession. would be best served by opening the valid perspectives, as if very limited What we saw as our mission was to process to people with direct experi- controversy needed to be resolved in a document the serious and increasing ence. For a year we met weekly and bicameral way. We wanted to create efforts of women to regain control of divided up the research. By consensus, documentaries that challenged people their bodies from powerful forces we came up with a rough plan of what to argue and express their points of within the medical community. aspects of homophobia were impor- view rather than passively receive in- “Taking Our Bodies Back: The tant to include, then agreed on poten- formation, believing that the contro- Women’s Health Movement,” our first tial interviewees and image segments. versy had been delineated, and then documentary, generated great contro- After film was shot, we reduced the

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 57 The Documentary and Journalism

transcript to file cards and as a group abusers. Renner, Stacey and I clearly Softly,” produced in 2000, explores arranged and rearranged the se- wanted to support the efforts to re- the connection between negative rep- quences. Even though this process took duce domestic violence. But others resentations of women and girls in the six months, it was the only way all nine who shared these goals had questions media and their sense about them- of us could participate in the editing about applying the idea of self-defense selves, their body image, and possible because there were too many of us to to the actions of women who killed connections to violence against use the small film-editing table. their abusers. women. Clearly, this film was not about Renner and I were the only mem- Debate raged within our produc- presenting the good and bad and arriv- bers of the group who had any prior tion group as well. Was there such a ing at some kind of consensus opinion. filmmaking experience, and often the thing as justifiable homicide? Did the We were tackling head-on what we saw group deferred to our ideas about film women we were about to interview as embedded ideology in media im- subjects, interviewing and editing. But believe their lives to be in danger and ages, then commenting on them from we’d never been on the receiving end felt they had no other option but to the perspective of recent writings about of homophobia and deferred to oth- kill? Was battered woman syndrome a girls’ and women’s psychological de- ers’ ideas about the relative impor- reasonable legal option? Or should the velopment by researchers such as Drs. tance of particular issues, the credibil- focus be self-defense? Most important, Carol Gilligan, Valerie Batts, and ity of interviewees, and the significance how did this relatively small number of Catherine Steiner-Adair. of the statements they made. We loved women who killed their abusers relate We are currently in production on a this collective process and sought it to the thousands of women and family documentary about rape. Our approach out again when we produced other members who were being killed every is to explore new developments, such films. year by batterers? as the first-ever classification of rape as “Defending Our Lives,” our 1993 We spent a great deal of time with a war crime by the International Crimi- documentary about the magnitude and each woman and independently inves- nal Tribunal in The Hague. Rape as a severity of domestic violence, began as tigated what she said. No academic or crime against humanity has now found a request from Stacey Kabat, an advo- legal experts were asked to comment acceptance when rape is committed as cate for the victims of domestic vio- in the film on their innocence or guilt. an act of war. But what about rape by lence. Stacey and I were part of a Though we had to edit many hours of an acquaintance or the rape of a child women’s organization, and she told interviews into a 30-minute film, we by a family member? As in the past, we me about her work at a local prison. did not cut out sections that would will do the research necessary to make She had found a group of female in- reflect poorly on their credibility. Our certain our potential subjects are cred- mates who were incarcerated for kill- editing goal was to convey to the viewer ible and honest. Once they pass that ing their abusers, and she wanted some the essence of their experience. scrutiny, we will not alter their stories taped interviews from them that she As expected, this documentary also to make them more believable or ap- could send to a national conference on generated controversy. Despite win- propriate. domestic violence. She thought that ning an Academy Award, “Defending As with all of our documentaries, no this was important because domestic Our Lives” was rejected for broadcast one watching will emerge from the violence organizations were not par- by PBS because “one of the members of experience not knowing our viewpoint ticularly receptive to hearing about the production team [Stacey] was a as producers and as advocates. If ob- these women. Cases like theirs gener- member of an advocacy organization jectivity and balance are the test of ated a great deal of controversy even [Battered Women Fighting Back, com- journalism, then our work doesn’t within women’s advocacy organiza- posed of Stacey and eight incarcerated qualify. But if fairness and solid report- tions. women] who had a vested interest in ing are the benchmarks of journalists’ Renner and I went to the Massachu- the subject of the documentary.” Of work, then our work as documentar- setts Correctional Institution at course, the irony of this is that PBS airs ians has a home in this community of Framingham to make an unedited tape countless programs produced by those whose job it is to question what for this conference. We left knowing former and future industry consult- we see and hear around us. ■ that we had to make a film about these ants and political operatives. I believe women’s stories and about how severe what PBS really objected to was the fact Margaret Lazarus is an independent a problem domestic violence is. Stacey that our bias was not hidden behind a documentary filmmaker who works became a co-producer and co-director careful selection of experts and a “pro in Massachusetts. The films she has with us, and she went on to found an and con” narration. What we thought, produced and directed with Renner organization that worked actively for as its producers, was up-front and ob- Wunderlich include, among others, the release of these incarcerated vious for the viewer to support or re- the “Killing Us Softly” series, “Strong women. Using a human rights model, ject. at the Broken Places” (1998), and she also began to document, on a re- Bias in mainstream media is some- “Defending Our Lives” (1993). gional level, the extraordinary number thing we’ve addressed in a series of of women who were killed by their documentaries. “Beyond Killing Us [email protected]

58 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Moving Pictures: Television and Film Long-Form Documentaries Serve a Vital Journalistic Role Today’s complexities don’t fit into tidy news magazine packages.

By Robert Richter

f the famous Edward R. Murrow/ The media masters who control agribusiness and how it affects farm- Fred Friendly documentary about broadcast journalism are failing in their ers, consumers and the land in Asia, ISenator Joseph McCarthy had been incredibly important responsibility of Africa and Latin America. merely a 10- or 12-minute segment of a informing the American people about •“Do Not Enter: the Visa War Against newsmagazine show, the Wisconsin major issues in meaningful ways. It Ideas” explored the McCarran Walter “Commie-hunter” today might rival clearly is more essential for Americans Act’s denial of U.S. visas on political Strom Thurmond as the oldest mem- to learn about and understand tough, grounds to a variety of individuals in ber of the U.S. Senate. Instead, that complex realities than to be dumbed many countries. one-hour McCarthy exposé is credited down to with a million pieces of com- •“For Export Only” investigated the by historians with helping put the nail mercially profitable trivia that fill the export to the developing world of in the political coffin of a man, and the airwaves. pesticides and pharmaceuticals that era named after him, for his demagogic As a broadcast journalist, I love the are banned for use in our part of the ways. It is a great example of the adage challenge of “connecting the dots” so world. It also won a duPont-Colum- about an informed citizenry being nec- that the big picture is revealed and the bia award. essary for democracy to work. audience can gain greater insights into I found the McCarthy investigation what is a prime mission of journalism: Each of these documentaries began so powerful when I first saw it back in to report on how important institu- with a central premise: a belief there is the 1950’s that I swore to myself I tions really work—and why. That’s journalistic value in “thinking globally” would do everything I could to be- become my mission, as well. and comprehensively demonstrating come a Murrow/Friendly documentary The first two-hour documentary on how people are affected and act in producer. In my youthful fervor I had PBS’s “Nova” was my “A Plague on Our these kinds of situations. no doubt I was destined to become Children.” It was about toxic wastes Today there probably is no better part of their team. It took 10 years for like dioxin and PCB’s, how they are way to reach a large audience with vital my dream to become reality. created and how communities around information than with Ed Bradley, Steve I believed then, and still do, that the the country (Love Canal et al.) were Kroft, Morley Safer, Mike Wallace, Leslie best of those CBS documentary hours trying to deal with these poisons. The Stahl, and the rest of that venerable “60 exemplified one of the most important program raised so many industry hack- Minutes” news team. They represent ways of alerting people to the vital les that a Wall Street Journal editorial present-day broadcast journalism at its issues and realities of their time. I re- questioned my patriotism. This effort best. But I am certain that each of main convinced that a major responsi- to inform, explain and question what them—and Andy Rooney—would ac- bility of broadcast journalism is to was happening and why won a duPont- knowledge that the format they em- present this kind of documentary pro- Columbia Broadcast Journalism award. ploy is not the only way, or even the gramming, especially in today’s increas- Similar documentary efforts I’ve best way, to deal with some issues. At ingly complex world. made tackled other perplexing prob- times, it seems, they are trapped in a Of course, that McCarthy program lems and did so in ways that revealed style of reporting that exploits who was telecast when there were only three the complexities of both the actions they are more than it reveals the sub- or four channels to choose among. and potential consequences. jects they cover. Show business has With fewer television choices it was a always been an element of broadcast lot easier to get the nation’s attention. •A two-hour PBS independent spe- journalism and, while it probably al- Today, with the explosion of commu- cial, “Can Tropical Rainforests be ways will be, there are other valid and nications technologies, media merg- Saved?” traced the complicated valuable ways to deal with what jour- ers, specialized cable outlets, and the causes and effects of what it means nalism should be about, ways that have growing role of the Internet, it is virtu- to try to save these extraordinary gotten lost in the quest for ratings and ally impossible to expect Americans to forests. profits. sit up and take national notice of al- •A 90-minute PBS presentation, “Hun- The world is not getting simpler to most anything except scandal. gry for Profit,” peered into global understand, but most of those who

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 59 The Documentary and Journalism

control what is reported are not inter- Is this good enough? Do these re- account would require, in my view, at ested in complexity. The reason: To ports help viewers understand what least an hour. make what is complicated able to be the real issues are that these people are In the mid-1970’s, I examined these understood, and potentially acted protesting? Do they tell us who is be- questions for the PBS “Nova” series, upon, eats up valuable airtime. There hind the protests and what links pro- and the manufacturers of nuclear are incredibly important issues, such testing groups in different countries? power plants tried to keep my report as the debates about global warming, And what do these protests mean for off the air. One of those manufactur- or ethical dilemmas such as stem cell Americans? It is increasingly danger- ers, General Electric, now owns NBC. research, that deserve major attention ous to claim the American public is not For viewers who saw my documentary, and are ill-suited for today’s shorter interested in learning more about these “Incident at Browns Ferry,” the disas- news magazine segment, a format de- global power brokers and their dis- ters a few years later at Three Mile signed to incite rather than provide senters. And if the public was to begin Island and Chernobyl would not have insight. The result: Virtually all of to understand how these issues fit to- been a surprise. today’s broadcast journalists either gether, they will have more interest in PBS, the last bastion of the occa- completely ignore in-depth stories on learning how the World Bank, IMF and sional long-form documentary, is torn such issues or touch on only a periph- WTO policies and practices affect them between airing an occasional gutsy eral or sensational angle. and other countries and what others documentary and trying to build audi- There are all kinds of prime-time are doing about it. When, as citizens, ences. Perhaps there should be two television shows today that cover snip- we don’t know how major institutions PBS networks. One would be geared pets of reality, and the commercial like these really work—and their pow- toward entertainment and audience success of “60 Minutes” or its many erful effect on the lives of ordinary ratings, and its profits would fund the clones, ranging from their own “60 people—we are unable to play the nec- other, which would be for ITVS [Inde- Minutes II” to “Dateline” to “Inside essary role of watchdog that our de- pendent Television Service] and other Edition,” can’t be ignored. But too of- mocracy demands. independent programs. This would ten their “investigations” are little more Focusing on one country, making it provide a home for the many issues than “featurettes.” What the long-form, representative of the issue, could be an that PBS now will not squeeze into its prime-time documentary offers is the interesting approach, but that ignores ratings-driven schedule. unique opportunity to weave together a major aspect of the story: The pattern In a nation in which the quality of facts and present patterns of activity— of actions by these financial giants is public education has been arguably in short, to create an understandable global in nature and should be under- declining, there must be more airtime context—that simply cannot be as reli- stood in global terms. Investigating made available for long-form documen- ably constructed or communicated in and documenting that pattern is a jour- taries that focus on the vital issues of briefer segments. The public deserves nalistic challenge. More than 10 years our time, regardless of the possible and needs to know more than they can ago, before the protests, I took on that short-term loss in advertising revenue. learn in isolated presentations of news. challenge, but PBS said my documen- Only with this kind of responsible re- To take one example, there is a little tary had “a bias in favor of the poor” porting can democracy be made to known and often hidden history con- and wouldn’t run it. But that 90-minute work better for all of us. ■ nected to what the World Bank, Inter- documentary, “The Money Lenders,” national Monetary Fund (IMF), and ran in prime time all over Western Robert Richter is the last producer World Trade Organization (WTO) have Europe, the Middle East and Latin from the Murrow/Friendly “CBS been doing, good or bad, and their America, and is still being seen at hun- Reports” unit actively making docu- actions that affect billions of people. dreds of universities all over the United mentaries, long-form when possible. Since November 1999, more than 50 States. A former New York Times reporter, protests about their policies have taken Another example: The Bush Admin- his documentaries also have been on place in more than 15 countries with istration has been calling for more NBC, ABC, PBS, TBS and Discovery. well over one million people protest- nuclear power to relieve what they Three were duPont-Columbia Broad- ing those policies. They’re not all loon- claim is an energy crisis. Since that cast Journalism award-winners and ies or radical anarchists as one might White House plea, has anyone in tele- two received the Science Journalism conclude from watching snippets of vision put together a documentary on Award from the American Associa- broadcast reporting, in which demon- how nuclear power really works, how tion for the Advancement of Science. strators are seen breaking down fences “safe” it has been or may be in the Information about his documenta- and the police are seen responding. future, and what can be done to cope ries can be found at These pictures and sound bites have with the radioactive materials that are www.richtervideos.com. been squeezed into 60-second or accumulating? A skilled producer and shorter news reports, one demonstra- editor might tackle aspects of this story [email protected] tion at a time, wherever in the world it in a shorter format, but to present this has happened. story with a well-rounded and clear

60 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Moving Pictures: Television and Film Using the Drama of Cinéma Vérité to Tell Real Stories It often conveys news, but is it journalism?

By Chris Hegedus

ince the mid-1970’s, I’ve collabo- ing films work, so in this respect I com mania, I think our film caught rated with D.A. Pennebaker on wanted mine to be theatrical. And, like people’s interest because it put a dy- Smovies that follow the drama of great narrative theater, I wanted drama, namic human perspective on the news real life stories. Being immersed in not information, to be its goal. To cre- stories. Viewers feel as though they are people’s lives when they’re doing what ate our films, we edit images together, there with the film’s protagonists as they care passionately about, when risks constructing scenes and condensing they raise millions of dollars, then are great and stakes are high, is a thrill- time to tell the story. In this sense, our struggle to fight off the competition ing adventure. Whether our “cinéma films become works of the imagina- that could bring down their fledgling vérité” filmmaking approach is related tion, though they are driven by reality. company. Some might root for their to what journalists do, I’m not sure. And when they are finished, they take success while others might hope for But what we share with every reporter the audience into situations they could their demise. For us, the power of the is the desire to pursue and tell real never envision without the camera tak- camera—peering into lives in ways that stories. And how our films portray these ing them there. reveal intense emotion—provides all stories seems quite similar to how nar- Our films—such as “The War Room” the explanation their story needs. The rative journalists convey theirs. (a portrayal of the political hub of Bill film is their story. My first film job was photographing Clinton’s 1992 presidential cam- An aspect of our filmmaking that burn surgery for a doctor regarded as paign)—resemble journalism because sometimes makes journalists uneasy is one of the best in his field. Suddenly I the characters we follow are real, not the relationship we have with our sub- was thrust into a world I knew nothing invented. Our stories happened. Our jects. What is most important to us is about, and I realized that my camera characters exist. Perhaps the strongest access, the kind of open access many was granting me access to situations I aspect of our method is that we allow people are reluctant to offer. Without would never normally have been al- the audience to experience for them- securing this access, we’ll be able to do lowed to watch. The operating room selves what is taking place in front of nothing that most TV or print journal- was raw, chaotic, intense and often them. We seldom interview; instead, ism doesn’t already do. This access funny. But I was not there to evoke the we let our characters define themselves cannot be bought. It is a complete kind of drama seen on ER: My job was by their own words and actions. The compliance between the filmmakers to record accurately, as only the cam- stories follow real time events, with and their protagonists. By letting us era can, the surgical processes so they little or no narration, and the climax witness their lives, our characters have could be later studied. I was showing and resolution are motivated by the the possibility of watching themselves what happened as it happened and not drama inherent in witnessed events. in their careers when the ride is rough- trying to recall it with words. We differ most from journalism in est and their bets the highest. We do Yet the natural drama of the operat- our reluctance to retell the story not consider our arrangement to be ing room—its tension broken by occa- through a narrator, or even a witness, adversarial. We look for people who sional jokes—was not lost on me or by whose version we would have to ac- know how to do whatever they do very the camera. With neither script nor cept as the truth. When viewers watch well, perhaps better than most. actors, what I was recording was as “The War Room,” they are not being To induce them to allow us into exciting as anything I had ever watched told what it was like to be in that their lives, they must trust us. They on television, with one important addi- situation. They are there, in that room must also be convinced that the film we tion—it was not created but real. That’s along with James Carville and George are making will be their film as well, so when I knew that I wanted to make Stephanopolous. The film doesn’t tell when we offer to show them the final films about real events with characters viewers what to think about Carville; it version before its release, which we that people could identify with, who lets each form an opinion by watching always do, we are not asking them to spoke naturally rather than memoriz- him confront people and events. re-edit or remove embarrassing things ing scripted dialogue. There were sto- “Startup.com,” a recent film co-di- from it. We want them to look at it for ries with an inherent dramatic struc- rected with Jehane Noujaim, follows accuracy and to point out errors and ture, the kind that writers of fiction the adventures of two young aspiring possible mistakes that we can correct. struggle mightily to design. entrepreneurs. Despite the barrage of The intimacy we were able to cap- I knew drama was essential to mak- stories by journalists about the dot- ture in “Startup.com” that so intrigued

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 61 The Documentary and Journalism

audiences was the result of the access that access to the candidates (both the film technically. At this point, our provided by Jehane, who had been a George Bush and Bill Clinton) would film had a different ending. Within the roommate of one of our main charac- be limited and that our story would be next few weeks, it became apparent ters. This sort of situation might easily relegated to the Clinton campaign staff, that the company was in trouble. I compromise the integrity of the film, we were initially discouraged. How knew that we had to continue filming so we approached the process care- saleable would a film be about the staff the story and see our characters through fully, aware of the benefits as well as of the losing candidate? It’s always a to the end, even if it meant giving up the pitfalls. However, we remain con- gamble for us because we don’t know the opportunity to launch the film at vinced that when our characters are what is going to happen. But if we’re Sundance. The company’s future was focused on what they are doing, espe- lucky, a character will emerge who is as decided on January 1, two weeks be- cially when the stakes are high, our charismatic as James Carville. fore the film festival began. Fortunately, presence has very little effect on their During that election, the majority of Sundance allowed us to project the actions. broadcasters were content to aim their film in video instead of the normally Our arrangement with our charac- cameras at candidates walking in and required 35mm blowup. This was for- ters is almost always a handshake, but out of hotels and airplanes for nightly tuitous because not only were we able in some instances, where the legal risk news coverage. We took a different to tell the story that happened, but the is high, we have signed agreements path. Our access in “The War Room” festival gave the film the boost it needed limiting their exposure and ours. In was unique because that room was off to compete in the marketplace. “Startup.com” our agreement with the limits to the press, so that we had to We try to release our films in the- two characters and the corporation identify ourselves as guests and never aters, where they will be dealt with limited their objections to any scenes step outside (if we could help it) for seriously by film critics and given, we that inadvertently revealed company fear of not getting back in. In the end, hope, a leg up the highly competitive secrets or something that would be the film was interesting for this very ladder of distribution. There, people demonstrably injurious to the com- reason. No one had bothered to tell expect to see drama, not news, and this pany in a major way. This was a broad, this story, and audiences were curious creates an aura about the film that somewhat ambiguous right of approval, to see the people who had engineered helps in its promotion. A danger of this but since the company had just raised this incredible campaign. strategy lies in the temptation to over- $60 million—and our subjects were It is also important to remain inde- dramatize our story to help it compete responsible to board members and in- pendent in order to film the whole with other films. This, I believe, is pre- vestors—this type of vetting was neces- story and not be pressured to compro- cisely the challenge many in print and sary to get the access we needed. The mise a story because of programming TV journalism confront today because agreement was risky for us as filmmak- constraints. I learned this the hard way of demands of ratings and advertis- ers, especially if the subjects had de- in a film we made for British TV about ing—how to ensure the integrity of cided later on to be uncooperative. In auto entrepreneur John DeLorean, who material while pushing for broader dis- the end, the stock market crash worked was building his stainless steel, gull- tribution. to our advantage. When the company winged car in Northern Ireland. Unfor- Releasing a film theatrically allows went into bankruptcy and was sold we tunately, life does not always progress us to show it the way we intended no longer needed to be as concerned at a pace that is convenient for broad- artistically, without censorship or edit- about the company’s right of approval. cast schedules. A month before British ing by layers of management along the With “The War Room” we simply TV was set to air the DeLorean show, way. And theaters do not get the same agreed to show the finished film to we were warned that something cru- government scrutiny as radio and tele- Carville and Stephanopolous before cial was going to happen to the com- vision. This is, of course, particularly we did anything with it. Our main con- pany. Unable to reschedule the broad- important for films with politically con- cern was with matters of accuracy. We cast, the station aired the show as it troversial subject matter. However, it had no intention of having them re- was. A few days later the papers ex- also affects subjects as apparently harm- edit anything else in the film, nor of posed a financial scandal that eventu- less as music. “Monterey Pop,” a film course would they. No clear-headed ally destroyed the company. A year we did in 1967 that was funded in part politician wants to get caught with his later, DeLorean himself was busted for by ABC television, was screened in hand on the editing machine. dealing cocaine. Missing the end of this rough for people at ABC. They deemed As filmmakers, it is crucial to be able story was a painful lesson, one that I Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin’s perfor- to function independently and not be did not want to repeat. mances unsuitable for family viewing tied to a network. This gives us the “Startup.com” was accepted in the and told us they would not show the freedom to find and follow the story prestigious Sundance Film Festival, a film on their network. We bought the and characters as we go along. For valuable launching forum for indepen- film back and turned to theatrical re- example, our original intention in “The dent films seeking theatrical distribu- lease to earn our expenses back. “Pop” War Room” was to watch a man be- tion and critical exposure. We were was one of the first concert films to come President. When it became clear delighted and proceeded to complete have a successful theatrical exhibition—

62 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Moving Pictures: Television and Film and launched the careers of Hendrix film’s longevity. After their initial run succeed?” story into one in which every and Joplin—as well as paving the way in theaters, films are often sold to tele- action of our young entrepreneurs for the movie “Woodstock.” Ironically, vision in this country as well as abroad. seemed like a prelude to failure. a year later, after a popular theatrical Home video and DVD extend their I suspect that our films and journal- run, ABC bought the film for showing shelf lives for years. Unlike news re- ism share similar goals. Both want to on their movie hour. ports about the Clinton campaign or inform, challenge and move audiences. Without a theatrical distribution, the Internet revolution, our films are The art of our work lies in letting audi- both “The War Room” and viewed for years, transforming them ences experience life through the lives “Startup.com” would not have had such into historical retrospectives. And, as of others as seen through the vigilant wide and positive critical response. time passes, films are seen differently. camera and the observant eyes and When looking for funding for these For example, “The War Room” begins ears of the reporter. ■ films, all the major networks rejected with Clinton denying an affair with our proposal, and in the case of “The Gennifer Flowers. Now that we know, Chris Hegedus is an independent War Room” we were also turned down by his own admission, that he did have filmmaker based in New York City. by every foundation we turned to, in- such an affair, the beginning of the film In 1994 “The War Room” was nomi- cluding the NEA. Because television takes on a new perspective. nated for an Academy Award and did not welcome our independent pro- “Startup.com” was similarly overtaken cited as Best Documentary by the duction, we were forced to film the by events. When the film was test National Board of Review. stories on our own. But with no net- screened for the distributor, dot-coms “Startup.com” continues to play in work to overrule us, we were also able were the epitome of successful invest- theaters around the country and to release them ourselves in theaters. ment. By the time the film went into will be released on video and DVD Again, this distribution brought a spe- theatrical distribution six months later, in the fall. Her company’s Web site is cial value to all of their eventual sales. the majority of Internet startups had PennebakerHegedusFilms.com. One interesting aspect of distribut- failed. This gave us valuable marketing ing a film theatrically is its effect on the relevance; it transformed a “Will they [email protected]

Documentary Filmmakers Decide How to Present Compelling Evidence Using film to tell a story changes nearly everything.

By Michael Rabiger

imilarities abound between the while print journalism tends to reside bring viewers into contact with a sub- reporting methods used by docu- in the reflective past tense. ject, whether it be famine, family or- Smentary filmmakers and print But this perception of impartiality deals, or farmers confronting hoof-and- journalists. But the results are regarded omits the human element. It is, after mouth disease. At the core of any ap- differently, with more people believ- all, a human decision—an insertion of proach is the presentation of compel- ing the documentary is more objective. subjectivity—that places a camera in a ling evidence, and this evidence can be The information on the screen often particular location, chooses a lens by gathered differently. Filmmakers work- seems unmediated and more reliable. which to render space and perspec- ing on issue-oriented documentaries This perception is in part a holdover tive, selects a recording medium, each might use a passive, observational style from television’s early years when its with its own bias in color and contrast, for events that tell themselves, use ac- elder statesmen—Edward R. Murrow, and decides when to turn the camera tive, probing interviews where useful, Walter Cronkite—assumed the stance on. In the editing room, there are or even bring two parties into confron- of objectivity. Documentary also choices to be made about what mate- tation to develop and present the crux seemed impartial because an inanimate rial is significant and the order and of the information. In character-driven instrument like a movie camera, taking juxtaposition of segments on the documentaries, a particular character “truth 24 times a second,” seemed in- screen. or group is chosen to generate the capable of deception. Film (including Documentary journalists use a vari- basic situation, then followed and per- video) is always in the present tense, ety of techniques to try to effectively haps interrogated over time to illus-

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 63 The Documentary and Journalism

trate the situation’s causes and its con- Raymond’s series in the 1970’s, “An them—seldom the same thing, as the sequences. American Family.” While filming the Louds found out. By their nature, docu- What emerges, after editing, is never daily lives of the Louds, a family chosen mentary films often transform what is actuality but an artfully constructed as representative of American white messy and contradictory in life into impression of it, for all documentaries, middle-class life, the son announced tidy and effective narrative. For ex- even the most spontaneous, are con- that he is gay, the husband proved a ample, if a film crew follows a person structs. Typically, authorship of a docu- compulsive womanizer, the wife filed who is trying to buy a house, and a mentary rests with a team, the film for divorce, and the family went into second film crew concurrently follows ultimately representing their shared meltdown. the sellers, there are now two strands experience and perspective. This pro- When the series went on the air, of story to be intercut. Placing the sa- cess starts as soon as they decide what critics and audiences alike were con- lient parts of each story against one images to collect for their film’s bank of vinced that manipulative filming and another—the buyer deliberating while visual and aural records, which are the family’s desire to make a high dra- the seller decides on the price—cre- infused with the values, beliefs, cir- matic impression had colluded to cre- ates a juxtaposition for which no arbi- cumstances and instruments current ate these changes. And who knows that ter exists. A single decision during ed- at the time of recording and editing. they were entirely wrong? All observa- iting can make the seller appear venal Nearly every documentary relies on tion changes what is being observed, and the buyers naive, or vice versa. people who appear on camera as part but being filmed 14 hours a day for Films contain dozens of such juxtapo- of the story. From their perspective, seven months probably changes it more sitions, and similar ones are certainly the hope is that pertinent truths—as than most. When the Louds signed on, possible in print, as well. they understand them—survive the they were unaware of the crucible they The impulse to record and transmit process of filming or reporting. But were entering, although the Raymonds truth always faces compromise because can the journalist or documentarian be insist they duly warned them. it rests on the quirks of memory, on trusted to accurately represent these The public outcry surely affected ethics, on the ability to draw a wider truths? how family members saw themselves perspective, and on the enduring need When film is an intermediary, this on the screen. The Louds did not see to tell a good story even when repre- question can become more difficult to the filmmakers’ perspective emerging senting the real world. Knowing this, answer. While a reporter conducts an until the programs were broadcast and, during the past two decades some docu- interview, a camera takes footage. Tak- as a result, began to see each other in a mentarians have tried to show not only ing and using is at the heart of docu- different light. Shocked to discover the result of their work but how they mentary filmmaking and so, unfortu- what had been created from their in- created it, and so have examined and nately, is misrepresenting, though it put, some of the family objected bit- shared the deceptions that reality, and happens differently with film than it terly, saying they felt like victims of films about reality, practice upon their does in print. In reading an article, alchemy and treachery. Lives were makers and audiences alike. actions are described, voices are imag- wrecked, careers broken, and for years Such transparency of the process by ined. What gets lost are dense layers of the cause of the intimate TV documen- which documentaries are made is en- meaning that the person conveyed vo- tary seemed irretrievable. couraging since, as with journalism, cally, facially and bodily. In the hands Like journalism, documentary film- the more the public understands how of skillful writers, these will be selec- making relies on distilling a story from a story is constructed, the more likely tively implied, but to exist they depend what is remembered or recorded and they are to ascribe fairness to it. And on a writer’s sensitivity to nuance. The involves reduction, simplification, re- this is, after all, more than objectivity— same transaction, captured by the cam- arrangement and re-creation—all haz- is, after all, what journalists and docu- era, gets it all the first time, and the ardous to the truth. Who is to say that mentary filmmakers should strive to footage can be searched afterwards for my notes and memories of an event produce. ■ deeper layers of meaning. coincide with those of anyone else who In making the BBC film “The Battle was present? Journalism is research Michael Rabiger was a founding of Cable Street,” about the 1930’s Brit- and memory, assisted by notes and member of the BBC Oral History ish fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, I resting on subjectivity. Diligent jour- series “Yesterday’s Witness” and is learned most from running and rerun- nalists check facts and consult numer- the author of “Directing: Film Tech- ning sections of the interview. His pa- ous sources to gain the increased per- niques & Aesthetics,” “Directing the ternal habit of widening his eyes when spective of multiple versions, but the Documentary,” and “Developing telling you certain things became more writer’s point of view can only be mini- Story Ideas.” During the past four and more sinister as my editor and I mized, never eliminated. years, he has chaired the film/video realized when and why he did it. It is less easy to quarrel with a filmed department at Columbia College in A most extreme case of what a record, but responsible documentar- Chicago. documentary can reveal—and perhaps ians feel accountable for fairness to set in motion—was Alan and Susan their subjects and being fair about [email protected]

64 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Journalist’s Trade

Cutbacks. Lay-offs. Buyouts. Early retirement packages. Offered under different names and circumstances, the bottom-line objectives are similar: trim the staff to keep the enterprise afloat. Few journalistic homes have been spared cuts in staff during this economic slump, though newspapers, especially those belonging to the Knight Ridder chain, are experiencing deeper and more rancorous downsizings. We ask, in this issue, whether such cutbacks mark the correct path to long-term survival and what effect they have on the content and quality of the journalism being produced.

Thrity Umrigar, who writes for the Akron Beacon Journal, a Knight Ridder newspaper, takes us inside the newsroom during this year’s second round of staff cutbacks. She writes of its funereal atmosphere: “And, indeed, something had died—that naive and idealistic belief that the folks who ran newspaper companies realized that theirs was more than a business—it was a sacred charge.” Jim Naughton, president of The Poynter Institute who held numerous editor positions at The Philadelphia Inquirer (a Knight Ridder paper), tallies up the losses from cutbacks at his old paper and shares concern about how they jeopardize that paper’s high-quality journalism. Chuck Laszewski, a projects reporter at the St. Paul Pioneer Press (a Knight Ridder paper), reports that the corporate decisions to reduce the newshole size, cut sections, and remove bodies “to keep profit margins astonishingly high, won’t leave much of a newspaper for our readers to use.” Deborah Howell, Washington bureau chief for Newhouse Newspapers, describes Knight Ridder budget seminars she attended as an editor at the St. Paul paper. Though she knows more about how journalism is financed, “it’s not the reason I got into it. It’s not the reason I stay in it,” she writes. Working now for a privately held company, she reports that “I am lucky. I haven’t had to do anything this year that I think is wrong or long-range stupid….” William W. Sutton, Jr., a deputy managing editor of The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, urges corporate media leaders to keep the value of staff diversity in mind as cuts are considered.

Media analyst John Morton examines how newspaper owners react to the tug of Wall Street pressures and the consequences that decisions made today might have a few years down the road. McClatchy Company president and CEO Gary Pruitt explains why pleasing shareholders at his company has meant neither newshole nor staff cutbacks. And Jay Smith, president of Cox Newspapers, describes how a privately held company reacts to economic hard times with fresh approaches to news coverage. Michigan State journalism professor Stephen Lacy links changes in societal trends—public ownership, decline of newspaper competition, societal diversification, and growth of electronic media—to the financial decisions that confront newspaper executives today. Gilbert Cranberg, co-author of “Taking Stock: Journalism and the Publicly Traded Newspaper Company,” suggests workable ways that issues of journalistic quality can be become central to the decisions made by corporate directors. Joseph Bower, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, describes the special strengths of newspapers and writes that decision- making by corporate leaders should never imperil newsgathering that lies at the heart of its enterprise’s unique mission within its community. “Credible news presented to attract readers is the golden goose,” he writes. “For that reason it should be at the core of any sensible economic decision-making about the newspaper business.” ■

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 65 Journalist’s Trade A Feeling of Being Set Adrift At the Akron Beacon Journal, more buyouts create more uncertainty.

By Thrity Umrigar

he atmosphere is carnival-like. thought saddens and scares me. had already lost our beloved Sunday There is a joviality in the room, To some degree, the buyout an- magazine in January—and wondered Tan hysterical hilarity that has nouncement alters the landscape of about our new, scaled-back role. Re- been missing from my newsroom for the newsroom. For the first time in porters complained about how light many months. For a few minutes, I am months, the heavy depression that de- and flimsy the Sunday paper felt com- stunned, angry even, at this abrupt scended like a fog after the first round pared with that of our competitor, The change in mood. We have just been of cuts seems to lift. I’m not sure why (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. The news told that the Akron Beacon Journal is that is. Perhaps it is the thought that, staff was reorganized; beats such as looking to offer buyouts to 14 news- unlike the first round of layoffs, which social issues were folded in with other room employees in an attempt to fur- affected the newest and most vulner- beats. Some reporters were suddenly ther reduce staff. And yet the atmo- able hires, this buyout will benefit some told to cover ludicrously wide geo- sphere is totally different than it was at of our colleagues. Whatever the rea- graphical areas. The worst part was the staff meeting a few months earlier son, the mood is different. looking in the eye the eight colleagues when tearful, grim-faced editors an- Earlier this year, coming to work who were to be laid-off, knowing that nounced the first-ever layoffs in the daily had felt like attending a close the day of their departure was fast paper’s history. friend’s funeral. And, indeed, some- approaching. Cynically, I think, “Nothing like toss- thing had died—that naive and idealis- Spurts of defiance occasionally tore ing around a few thousand bucks to tic belief that the folks who ran news- through our despair. The entire news- make people forget that this buyout is paper companies realized that theirs room wore black the day Knight Ridder merely a layoff with sugar coating.” was more than a business—it was a executives visited the newsroom. We We are in the J.S.K. room, named sacred charge. A fellow reporter said it handed these same officials a long list after legendary Beacon Journal editor best: “How strange it is,” she mused. of concerns and pointed questions. We John S. Knight. I turn to the person “This paper made it through the De- sent Tony Ridder letters and a stack of sitting behind me. “Wow,” I say, with pression and World War II without clips of work done by our laid-off col- the proper degree of sarcasm. “Can’t laying anyone off. And now we can’t leagues. When Jay Harris resigned as remember the last time we had so survive a lousy recession.” the publisher of the San Jose Mercury many folks in this room without any- My colleagues spoke openly about News, our newsroom sent him flow- one luring us with free food.” seeing therapists and starting to take ers. But once it was clear that Knight My colleague’s eyes are steady and antidepressants. Editors told reporters Ridder would not even extend us the serious. “Take a good look around,” he they would help them find jobs if they courtesy of responding to our ques- says. “It’s probably the last time there wanted to leave, and reporters shared tions in a respectful way, our spirits will be so many people gathered in this information about available jobs. The sank again. room.” lines between “us” and “them” blurred Some of us told ourselves that the His words land like a punch to the and disappeared as senior management whole process was an invaluable politi- stomach. Now when I look around the walked around looking as ashen and cal education—an insider’s look at the room, I see it with new eyes. I hear the shell-shocked as the rest of us felt; like workings of a system based on pleasing bitterness behind the jokes, see that us, they admitted to anger, disillusion- the masters of Wall Street. After all, what I thought was hilarity is actually a ment and powerlessness. what was happening was being repli- kind of desperate fatalism. The truth is There was a feeling of having been cated throughout the industry. Read- this: By the end of July, our newsroom set adrift, as if some invisible hand had ing Kamala Markandaya’s “Nectar in will lose 14 more people. This, in addi- cut loose our belief in the invincibility the Sieve” I was struck at the parallel tion to the eight laid off in April and the of the press. Our shoulders sagged and between the feudal system that allowed nine others who took voluntary resig- that defiant, optimistic spirit that had Indian landowners to take the same nations. Since the buyout rewards se- always made the Beacon Journal “The percentage of the sharecroppers’ yield, niority, we will lose the kind of experi- Little Paper That Could” seemed to regardless of famine or flood, and the ence, wisdom and institutional memory disappear. With apprehension, we capitalist system that allows Wall Street that make newspapers great. The watched our shrinking newshole—we to expect the same percentage of prof-

66 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Newspaper Cutbacks its through good times and bad. us “Best Newspaper in Ohio.” Even as the deadline for the buyouts looms. But cynicism and disillusionment is while we celebrate the honor, we real- But there’s an old rule in urban against the nature of most journalists ize that the award was based on last planning—when you can’t build out, because journalism is ultimately an year’s work. But we’re going to try to you build up. The Beacon Journal may idealistic profession. It is based on the bring home that prize next year, too, no longer be able to build out—the hopeful belief that if readers know the with or without corporate’s support. entire state may no longer be our tram- truth, they will make intelligent, in- After all, it is those of us who are in pling ground, as it once was. But no- formed decisions that will change Akron who have been charged to up- body can stop us from building up- things for the better. The power of the hold John S. Knight’s proud legacy. ward. And when you do that, the sky is pen, the freedom of the press, the First Yet there can be no question that the limit. ■ Amendment, are optimistic, even joy- our coverage has shrunk. Most of the ous, ideals. time, reporters don’t even bother to Thrity Umrigar, a 2000 Nieman And so it was that the winter of our ask if we can report on out-of-state Fellow, writes about medical issues discontent passed. No, that is too sim- events because the answer is inevitably for the Akron Beacon Journal. Her plistic a reading of our current situa- no. And there is a real fear that once the new novel, “Bombay Time,” was tion. Rather, our discontent has 14 people leave, we are going to have recently published by Picador USA/ changed to a different kind of defiance, to redefine who and what we are. In- St. Martin’s Press. a kind of self-reliance. The Society of deed, we are living in a state of suspen- Professional Journalists recently named sion, waiting for the other shoe to drop [email protected]

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Cuts Jeopardize Quality ‘One of journalism’s top destinations has become a departure lounge.’

By Jim Naughton

espite a reputation for puckish ents in journalism. An assignment at cent out of Philadelphia. There are behavior, the reason I wore a the Inquirer had become one of the three ways to get from eight to 20 in Dbrown dinosaur costume at The craft’s coveted jobs. A few people left five years: develop substantial new Philadelphia Inquirer in late 1995 had The New York Times or The Washing- sources of revenue, dramatically in- nothing to do with our newsroom an- ton Post for the Inquirer. Properly am- crease rates, or cut expenses, includ- tics. Nor did I intend to symbolize bitious editors like Bob Rosenthal and ing staff. There was no huge new rev- acceptance of the muddle-headed view Butch Ward deserved a chance to lead. enue source. Rates went up, but not that newspapers are becoming extinct. Another reason I gave but soft-ped- startlingly. That left cuts. I needed something in which I might aled was that it had become less fun When I contemplated leaving, we hide while announcing that I would being a journalist in Knight Ridder thought we were running out of places step down from a job I loved as an than it ought to have been. After de- to trim without doing lasting damage. editor, the hardest thing I’ve ever done. cades as the big newspaper company We were just cutting capillaries then; I didn’t want anyone to notice if I that cared about quality, Knight Ridder now they slash arteries. Foreign and started bawling. had become more avaricious, deter- national bureaus are dark. Suburban One of my stated reasons for resign- mined to rank toward the top rather zones tailored to communities of inter- ing was to get out of the way of younger than in the middle of the most profit- est across a tapestry of more than 500 leaders. The Inquirer was full of them: able public media companies. At Phila- municipalities have been supplanted brilliant editors who understood that delphia Newspapers Inc., it had be- by the cheaper, easier and less relevant it took time, resources and encourage- come commonplace to be ordered to countywide zones of the 1980’s. The ment to gather and tell the most impor- re-budget several times each year, and Sunday magazine, once a showcase for tant stories, the kind that Gene Roberts we were under pressure to ramp up international photojournalism, was used to say oozed rather than broke. the margin in 1996 from eight percent merged with the TV book into one The stories Roberts led and inspired to 12. publication whose attractive design had enabled the paper to attract more By the end of 2000, Knight Ridder cannot mask its vapid content. Circula- and more of the most remarkable tal- had figured out how to wring 20 per- tion plummets.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 67 Journalist’s Trade

And what of those talented editors? who’d spent a quarter-century nurtur- Every editor whose leadership had a Butch Ward, who rose to managing ing complex and important national direct effect on reporting that was hon- editor, just took the mid-2001 buyout. enterprise projects and their report- ored by a Pulitzer Prize is gone—ex- With family reasons to remain in Phila- ers. That same buyout sidelined cept two, Dorothy Brown, who directs delphia, that means he’s probably out Jonathan Neumann, who’d won a science and medical coverage, and Ex- of journalism, a tragedy. David Pulitzer as an investigative reporter and ecutive Editor Bob Rosenthal, whose Zucchino, who won a Pulitzer as a for two decades had coached other great instinct is for jumping on big foreign correspondent and later Inquirer writers through the intrica- stories. Rosey spends much of his time coached other talented writers through cies of investigative coverage. going to meetings. enterprise projects, took the buyout, Before that, the newspaper lost Steve There still are talented people in the too. So did Marc Duvoisin, one of the Lovelady, a gifted story editor whose white-spired building on North Broad smoothest deadline writers in the busi- lasting contribution to journalism will Street. Many are dispirited, some bro- ness and more recently assistant man- be his editing of groundbreaking in- ken. I once heard a senior vice presi- aging editor for enterprise. As did Gil vestigative reporting of Don Barlett dent of Knight Ridder say, without re- Gaul, whose analytical skills and single- and Jim Steele. Barlett and Steele, of alizing I was within his hearing, that minded purpose animated his own and course, also left the Inquirer. So did the company meant to “get control” of others’ ambitious accounts of systemic Steve Lopez, the best local columnist Gene Roberts’ newsroom. Roberts has problems in our society. And while he in America. So have fine young staffers been gone 11 years. Maybe, in the end, was no youngster, Don Drake at 66 was of promise, like graphic artist Archie the tribute is how long it took. ■ still the most energetic apostle of nar- Tse, or foreign correspondent Barbara rative journalism in the business, but Demick, or national correspondent Jim Naughton, president of The he took the buyout and went off to Richard Jones, or rising managers like Poynter Institute, spent 18 years as write stage plays. David Tucker and Fran Dauth. All gone national, metro, managing and If those had been the only depar- in the five years since I’d intended to executive editor of The Philadelphia tures in the only staff reduction at the get out of their way. One of journalism’s Inquirer after 15 years as a reporter Inquirer it would have been bad top destinations has become a depar- for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer enough. But there were previous ture lounge. and The New York Times. buyouts, including one earlier this year Here is one way to gauge what has that ended the career of Lois Wark, happened to The Philadelphia Inquirer: [email protected]

When the Cheering Stops and Anger Sets In At the St. Paul Pioneer Press, beats will disappear and photos won’t be taken.

By Chuck Laszewski

hen John Schueler resigned followed our lead or we were given a fee would be $40 a month, and the on May 22 as publisher of the slight reprieve. I was falling victim to farmer would keep the manure. Not- W(Minneapolis) Star Tribune, I some kind of business version of the ing the downward trend, he went an- cheered. At last, our competitor, 10 Stockholm Syndrome. I had been taken other mile to a ramshackle farmhouse, miles away, would begin cutting staff hostage and was now identifying with and the farmer there said the fee would and resources. Three weeks later, I my corporate captors. be five dollars. The wealthy man agreed applauded again when our editor an- The situation reminds me of the immediately, but before leaving, asked nounced we would have to cut only story former Arizona Congressman why the farmer hadn’t demanded to eight staffers from the newsroom, not Morris K. Udall used to tell about the keep the manure. “Well, mister, at five the 23 originally announced by Knight wealthy man who was getting ready to dollars a month, there ain’t going to be Ridder. leave for a month. He asked a neigh- much manure.” It took me a few days, but when I boring farmer how much he would The rush by the newspaper chains— finally snapped out of it, I couldn’t charge to board his horse. The farmer not just Knight Ridder—to reduce the believe what I was doing. Instead of said it would be $50 a month, and he size of the newshole, to cut sections, to being angry at the short-sightedness of would keep the manure. The rich man remove bodies in order to keep profit the Knight Ridder corporate bosses in thought that was too high, so he went margins astonishingly high, won’t leave San Jose, I was cheering when others to the next farm. There, he was told the much of a newspaper for our readers

68 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Newspaper Cutbacks to use. And make no mistake; the read- gin obscenely high, especially at a time Pioneer Press editor, has been candid ers are not fooled. when advertising was tumbling. Finally, about how the loss of eight bodies will In St. Paul, in Minneapolis, and in late April we were told there would affect our paper. While he hasn’t yet across the country, newspaper pub- be early retirement and buyout pack- determined exactly how the newsroom lishers are distraught over stagnant or ages. But if not enough took it, the will be reorganized, he said there will declining circulation. They look every- least senior people would be laid off. be beats we cover now that will disap- where for the scapegoat. They pear in the coming month or blame television, the Internet, two. There are photos that won’t the busy two-worker families. The mantra of newspaper be shot. Seems to me it’s readers saying It must stop. Newspapers are they will not be played for CEO’s that these latest cuts a different business than build- chumps. At the same time the will fatten profits while not ing computers, cars or refrig- St. Paul Pioneer Press cut back hurting our coverage is a lie. erators. We have an obligation, the newshole and reduced the protected by the First Amend- scope of our successful subur- You cannot cut newshole ment, to inform the public. ban zoning, we were also rais- without leaving out stories. Newspaper companies are ing home subscription prices. I handsomely rewarded while don’t have an MBA, but I’ve doing that. The mantra of news- lived in the capitalist culture my paper CEO’s that these latest entire life. I am sure very few compa- The newsroom essentially stopped cuts will fatten profits while not hurt- nies enlarge market share by giving the functioning for weeks. The younger, ing our coverage is a lie. You cannot customer less and charging more. least senior people couldn’t concen- cut newshole without leaving out sto- We’ve been locked in a classic wres- trate because they were hurt and wor- ries. Indeed, in order not to pay over- tling pose with the (Minneapolis) Star ried that they would soon be fired. The time, we missed a committee vote on a Tribune for years, hands on each other’s oldest hands had visions of jackpots volatile gun issue during the legislative arms, looking for a way to throw the dancing in their heads. There was low- session in March. The Star Tribune other to the mat. In 1987, the Star grade sniping between the generations. stayed and reported the vote. Our read- Tribune announced what they thought And everywhere was the question, why ers noticed the omission. would be a double-leg takedown. They doesn’t the Star Tribune seem to be Finally, we all know Wall Street is would pour money into St. Paul circu- cutting back? never satisfied. Give them 50 percent lation and open up a full-scale St. Paul When Schueler turned in his resig- profit margins and they will want 55. bureau. The advertising and journal- nation, the rumor spread rapidly that it It’s time for the people running the ism gurus in the Twin Cities soon pro- was because he was unwilling to make newspaper companies to tell the ana- nounced that there would only be one the cuts corporate owner McClatchy lysts and investors that they will get newspaper left in 10 years. The betting was seeking. The new guy undoubt- bushel baskets full of money during was heavily in favor of the Minneapolis edly would cut bodies and newshole. I, the good times, but only buckets full of paper surviving. and many of my colleagues, were now money during the down times. Whether Those bets didn’t pay off. At our cheering on a race to the bottom of the the times are good or bad, we will tend paper, editors and division heads came journalistic barrel. In early July, a new the franchise, putting money into it so up with innovative ways to make the publisher was named. A hiring freeze is it will be strong, vital and profitable for paper competitive and a must-buy for in effect and everyone is waiting to see years to come. If we don’t, there not advertisers and readers alike. Knight what else might happen. Meanwhile, at only won’t be any manure left, there Ridder allowed us to keep more of our our paper, when the early retirement will be darn few horses. ■ money for the improvements. Circula- package finally was announced in late tion held and even grew for a while. We May, it was generous, and the eight Chuck Laszewski is a projects re- won Pulitzer Prizes. The Star Tribune bodies that would be permanently cut porter at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. quietly retreated. The readers were well from the newsroom would be reached A reporter for 22 years, Laszewski served. They had a choice of which without layoffs. The younger staffers has spent the past 20 years at the paper to buy, based on anything from were spared. Pioneer Press where he has covered the comics to the editorial stances. We are wrong to applaud. We al- cops, courts, the environment and All of this began to change last fall. ready have lost too many newspapers city hall. First came the word that positions at and newspaper jobs during the past 20 our newspaper were being frozen. Then years. The loss of any more weakens [email protected] the news trickled down that Knight our craft and hurts the millions of read- Ridder corporate was requiring the ers who still look to us for information publisher to redo his budget with new and perspective on their towns and figures that would keep the profit mar- their world. Walker Lundy, the St. Paul

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 69 Journalist’s Trade Editors Need to Care About Words and Budgets Journalists rarely talk about the business, except when it’s bad.

By Deborah Howell

know exactly when it was that I except when business is bad. business together productively. And, realized I needed to be more savvy Business sucks this year, so we talk indeed, he is right. I’ve participated in Iabout the newspaper business. It about it a lot. several of them—dreaming up special was late one afternoon in the 1980’s, Lots of editors are having to do things sections with the advertising depart- and all the lights had gone out in a they don’t want to do. I am lucky. I ment, having the circulation folks in- power failure at The Miami Herald. haven’t had to do anything this year volved with news and deadline deci- And the teacher was getting totally ex- that I think is wrong or long-range sions. asperated with the few of us who still stupid and neither have other But editors are editors, and they’ll didn’t understand break-even analysis. Newhouse editors I talk with daily. We never be as good at business as busi- I was struggling through a Knight have the luxury of working for a private ness people. And I don’t expect busi- Ridder seminar called “Financial Man- company that doesn’t have to meet ness people to be good editors. After agement for Nonfinancial Managers.” Wall Street expectations. that long-ago seminar, I was proud that There were production and circula- I think the issue that most disheart- I learned how to do the newsroom tion and advertising people and a few ens editors under intense financial pres- budget on my own, but it never came editors—John Carroll, now editor of sure is this: When the pressures are too anywhere near the pride I felt in break- the Los Angeles Times; Jerry Ceppos, strong, it is hard to make decisions on ing good stories, investigations that now the vice president/News of Knight what is right or wrong journalistically. mattered and, frankly, in winning a Ridder, and Lou Boccardi, now the We make the decision on how much couple of Pulitzers. president of The Associated Press. something costs. We worry about hav- But then, at Newhouse, I was given We were separated into teams to do ing a big story break, because we know both the financial and journalistic over- simulated computer exercises on news- it will demand overtime and newshole sight over Religion News Service, a paper budgets. We had to come up that will break our budget. We are wonderful little band of journalists who with the right, profitable answers. I often caught between a newsroom that cover the world of faith and morals remember looking at my team member resents the cuts and a publisher or a better than anyone in the world. And I Boccardi as we realized our team had corporate manager who thinks the care deeply about it. I was and am in to cut newshole, and I knew this was newsroom is not doing its part. charge of making sure it is at least a going to be the hardest part of my new So when the crunch comes, editors break-even enterprise. I tell the editor job as executive editor of the St. Paul have to understand business or lose all when he is spending too much money. Pioneer Press. control over how the money is allo- I worry about new sources of revenue. I knew then and I know much more cated. We can’t slough off the pub- I don’t want to lose a customer. now that the newspaper business is a lisher or corporate management. Our It took a few years but, thank God, business. But it’s not the reason I got newsrooms expect us to do battle over we are mostly in the black. Break-even into it. It’s not the reason I stay in it. I budget cuts and might even blame us analysis, don’t fail me now. ■ care deeply about the business; all good for them, but we know there’s only so editors do. We care about our newspa- many battles we can wage. Deborah Howell is Washington pers being prosperous. We care about I do not know one editor who loves bureau chief for Newhouse Newspa- increasing circulation and advertising. budgeting. We do it because we have to pers and editor of Newhouse News We want to be team players, though we do it, and if we’re clever enough, we Service, which owns Religion News need to curb the arrogance that we can use it to help our journalistic pur- Service. She formerly was the editor could run all the business departments pose. I think my present employers are of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the better than the people in them. princes for knowing I’m an editor first. city editor of the late Minneapolis But, hey, admit it, business some- Besides my present employers, one Star. times bores our collective ass unless of my favorite people in the newspaper we’re writing about it. It will never business, Larry Jinks, talks about “uni- [email protected] thrill us like a great story. We say it fying the enterprise.” Jinks, a retired interests us when we’re around busi- Knight Ridder editor, publisher and ness-side folks, but it’s almost never corporate executive, is fond of saying what we talk about among ourselves there are ways to bring journalism and

70 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Newspaper Cutbacks Diversity Can Be Improved During This Economic Downturn For that to happen, a diverse newsroom must become a focus of corporate leaders.

By William W. Sutton, Jr.

he media industry should be As corporate leaders at media com- editor’s income to top quality cover- ashamed of itself. All of this talk panies consider what they can do to age? I don’t think so, but take a look at Tabout the economic downturn improve the bottom line, they should what I suggest and, if you see some has, once again, caused publishers, top also consider what they can do to im- merit in these suggestions, talk about editors, general managers and news prove the quality of employee rela- them with your publisher, editors and directors to review the options and tions and of the content they provide staff, particularly with staffers of color. implement buyouts, cost-cutting, hir- readers and viewers. At the heart of ing freezes and more as advertising has that consideration should be diversity. •During this economic downturn, fallen. It’s not a shame that people with It is not the answer to the economic every publisher and general man- the best interest of these enterprises in ager should require top editors to mind are focusing on such actions to have at least two out of three final- prevent a painful situation from be- …when we see a ists for every position be journalists coming even more painful. No, what’s of color. Normally I’d require one, a shame is that the potential impact on black person walk but with the few chances anyone has diversity is not receiving much atten- out the door, it has to be hired this year, two seems tion as all of this takes place. greater impact more realistic. Not enough diversity Ask black journalists how they per- in the pool? Sorry, no hire. Or a ceive their situation in the midst of because there are news outlet could link an exception these cutbacks—as we did in July on so few of us. for this hire to a commitment to hire the Web site of the National Associa- someone of color for the next open- tion of Black Journalists (NABJ)—and ing in that department. their dissatisfaction becomes quickly •Every publisher and general man- apparent. About 80 percent of those downturn. Nor is diversity the answer ager should require top editors to who responded to our unscientific poll to the future success of all media. But fill at least 50 percent of all vacan- felt black journalists are bearing the it surely is an important part of the cies with journalists of color. Why so brunt of the buyouts, hiring freezes, answer to both, and too many media many? Because we are so behind, and layoffs. There were no written re- leaders are either ignoring it or not and we can’t afford to fall farther sponses, but many black journalists understanding its significance. behind during these rough times. have expressed their view that the few This industry has done a woeful job • Publishers and general managers among us who have been affected by in newsroom diversity staffing during should tie more of an editor’s in- these cutbacks are being affected dis- economic good times. This leaves jour- come or a news director’s income to proportionately because of the size of nalists of color feeling distrustful: How diversity through management-by- our representation in the larger mix. can we expect good things to happen objective or bonus/incentive pro- I won’t pretend there is any hard during these more difficult times? But grams. Make it at least 15 to 40 data to back up this perception. But I it doesn’t have to be that way. Media points and there will be results. can confirm that when we see a black leaders can change that perception by •Don’t get rid of summer internships person walk out the door, it has greater creating a new reality. at newspapers and television sta- impact because there are so few of us. Some might think the suggestions I tions; enhance them. Newspapers And if that person covers an important am about to offer are outrageous. To should refocus their paid summer beat, or holds a critical production job, them, I ask whether they are any more internships on those newsroom ar- or has an important supervisory job, outrageous than linking editors’ com- eas where journalists of color are the impact is more dramatic. We feel as pensation to gains (or decreases) in needed most: copy editing, design, though we’re losing a game that was circulation and readership? Or more graphics and photography. Broad- stacked against us. outrageous than tying some of an casters should change their industry

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 71 Journalist’s Trade

culture and start paying for summer diversity happen and work in news- There are others of color in their news- internships, identifying the students rooms. It remains the job of individual rooms, and they helped get them there. of color they want in their shops, media outlets to make these critical Their newsrooms still need more di- and giving them a valuable, hands- hiring and promotion decisions one by versity and they know it. But what on experience in broadcast writing one, position by position. Of course, it about the rest of the newsrooms that and producing—the two areas in is important to assess the overall pic- remain much too lily-white? It is critical which journalists of color are needed ture as portrayed by newsroom census that efforts be made in those news- most. Make a commitment to having reports of such organizations as the rooms during these difficult times. at least 50 percent of all internships filled by students of color as a way of significantly improving the chances This industry has done a woeful job in that the industry will become more populated with journalists of color. newsroom diversity staffing during economic • Support journalists of color as they good times. This leaves journalists of color seek training and development op- feeling distrustful: How can we expect good portunities through various in-house programs and elsewhere. Support things to happen during these more difficult your staffers by supporting their at- times? tendance at conferences and con- ventions of the Asian American Jour- nalists Association (AAJA); the National Association of Black Jour- ASNE and the RTNDA. But that tells There were more than 1,700 daily nalists (NABJ); the National Associa- only part of the story, because some newspapers in 1950 and now there are tion of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ); publishers and editors and some gen- about 1,480. In 1950, there were 98 the Native American Journalists As- eral managers and news directors don’t television stations; now, there are sociation (NAJA), and the National participate in those surveys. And there 1,290. There were no cable systems in Lesbian and Gay Journalists Associa- will be other outlets that should have 1950; now, there are 10,481. These tion (NLGJA). If you can, offer them an even greater focus on diversity be- media outlets provide plenty of oppor- conference registration, time off, and cause of the market in which they oper- tunity for journalists, but as we emerge some travel money. If you have to do ate. Individual market leaders must be from this economic downturn, the true something less than that, give them held accountable for diversity, as must measure of success for journalists of time off and a stipend of enough the corporate executives who decide color will be whether and how well the dollars to cover a night or two of whether and how to make diversity a corporate leaders managed to turn hotel bills and/or the registration. primary focus of their organization, in things around with diversity as a cen- Don’t make the mistake of thinking both good times and bad. tral focus. That means having more of that because a lot of people “look There are too few black publishers us in positions of newsroom leader- like each other” or “act like each and top editors, too few black general ship and on staff than when the down- other” or “think like each other,” managers and news directors. The same turn began and with more accurate, that these are not professional de- is true when it comes to our colleagues balanced and fair coverage of our com- velopment opportunities. Like the of color who are Asian, Hispanic/Latino, munities. ■ American Society of Newspaper Edi- and Native American. We are, of course, tors (ASNE), the Radio-Television proud to see Paula Madison as an NBC William W. Sutton, Jr., a 1988 News Directors Association vice president and general manager of Nieman Fellow, is a deputy manag- (RTNDA), the Investigative Report- KNBC-TV in Los Angeles and Dean ing editor of The News & Observer in ers and Editors (IRE), and other Baquet as managing editor of the Los Raleigh, North Carolina, a media industry groups, there are Angeles Times. We’re proud to see Phil McClatchy newspaper, where he those conference-goers who go to Dixon as managing editor of The Phila- supervises the features design, news play and others who attend to learn. delphia Inquirer and Gerald Boyd as design, graphics, photography and Don’t assume the worst for your managing editor of The New York news copy desks. He was editor and own staffers. Ask them to bring some- Times. Each of these promotions sends managing editor at Knight Ridder’s thing back as you invest in their important signals to those of us who Post-Tribune in Gary, Indiana, professional development. If they aspire to do more to help our people before joining The N&O and spent 10 fail to do so, consider that the next and our industry at a higher level. But and one half years with The Phila- time they ask. still it is not enough. delphia Inquirer as a reporter and Some of these news organizations editor. Diversity is critically important. Non- are making great strides. Madison, profit media organizations can’t make Baquet, Dixon and Boyd are not alone. [email protected]

72 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Newspaper Cutbacks Ownership Guides a Newspaper’s Mission Responding to Wall Street’s demands can erode long-term quality.

By John Morton

he current fear about the impact different from conventional wisdom. revenue does not improve notably the on newspaper journalism of this While these corporate newspapers still rest of the year, comparisons with last Tyear’s wave of newsroom reduc- give a nod to the duty of informing the year’s revenue and earnings perfor- tions and other cost-cutting—in re- citizenry, they now also emphasize the mance will be significantly easier dur- sponse to lowered profits—is rooted need to satisfy shareholders. And if ing the rest of the year. The reason: partly in differing perceptions of own- satisfying shareholders in difficult times Last year brought booming perfor- ership responsibilities. means shorting the traditional notion mance, but most of it was concentrated Conventional wisdom, especially in of what newspapers should be, so be it. in the first half of the year. newsrooms, is that after making a profit This brings us to 2001, a year which The easier comparisons and the fact the primary function of a newspaper is corporate owners are decrying as the that newsprint prices have started to to be a guardian of democracy, with worst for the newspaper business in a decline should ensure that the news- protection under the First Amendment decade. Advertising revenues are down, paper industry in this year of down- to provide the citizenry with the infor- newsprint costs are up, profits are turn will perform much better than in mation it needs to make responsible plunging, and the prospects for recov- 1991, the core year of the worst reces- decisions. This traditional view of a ery are uncertain. These are the rea- sion for newspapers since World War newspaper’s role is perhaps best ex- sons given for buyouts, early retire- II. In that year, the average operating emplified by the policies of The Union ments, outright layoffs, cutting back profit for the publicly owned newspa- Leader and New Hampshire Sunday on news space, and other reductions. pers was 12 percent. That too was a News in Manchester. Especially aggressive in these actions year in which there were widespread The Union Leader persists in deliv- are most of the publicly owned news- hiring freezes and layoffs, increases in ering its daily editions throughout New paper companies, which account for circulation prices, and deliberate cut- Hampshire at great cost to its potential 50 percent of total national daily circu- backs in distant circulation to save news- profitability, since readers distant from lation. print. All these actions set up the news- Manchester do not attract much adver- How bad a year is this for the news- paper industry for a decade of declining tising. The Union Leader also prints paper business? It is true that lower circulation, but they also brought a every letter to the editor it receives— advertising and higher costs are pro- decade of steadily improving profit literally pages of them—so long as the ducing lowered earnings. In the first margins. writer does not libel another or criti- six months of this year, the publicly There was a time, before the 1990’s, cize another’s religious views. This too reporting companies suffered a 21 per- when it was almost unheard-of for news- is costly, in newsprint and editing time. cent decline in operating earnings at papers to impose layoffs or reduce These policies are followed because their newspaper operations. And, in- news space for economic reasons. the paper’s publisher, Joseph W. deed, operating profit margins (the There might have been some slowness McQuaid (and his predecessors), be- percent operating earnings are of rev- in filling vacancies and other modest lieves it is the newspaper’s duty to enues) have dropped as well—by five steps to reduce costs, but generally provide its journalism to as many citi- percentage points on average, down to newspapers just carried on and waited zens as possible and to allow every 19 percent. One wonders if Ford Mo- for an improvement in local econo- citizen the chance to speak out. It is tor Company or General Motors or any mies. That there is such a marked worth pointing out that the Union number of other nonmedia companies change in how the large newspaper Leader is not owned by a large media would be happy with that. They would. corporations react to economic slow- corporation; its ownership is vested in In a good year, which this one is not, downs speaks to great changes in the a family trust designed to keep the U.S. companies on average achieve an nature of newspaper ownership and newspaper forever independent. operating profit margin of about eight an increased sensitivity to the short- Most daily newspapers today, percent. term orientation of Wall Street inves- though, are owned by a large corpora- Thus the financial fortunes of the tors. Newspapers now are more fo- tion; fewer than 300 of the nation’s newspaper industry have not collapsed cused on the bottom line than ever 1,480 dailies are locally owned. For this year. They just are not so strong as before—at the publicly owned compa- these corporately owned papers, the Wall Street would like. Of course, the nies because of the need to please Wall notion of a newspaper’s duty is vastly year is not over, but even if advertising Street, and at almost all companies

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 73 Journalist’s Trade

because of the need to pay for the high tion, with newspaper readers dying off alarmed Wall Street investors by telling number of acquisitions of recent years. faster than they are being added to, them she would rather the company Newspaper ownership has been con- investing less rather than more in jour- reached a higher value of its assets in solidating into larger and fewer com- nalistic quality is not a smart strategy zigs and zags than reaching a lower panies, a process cheered by some ex- for the long run. But it is a strategy that level in a steady progression. This so ecutives as long overdue in an industry most of the industry is stuck with. upset some institutions, devoted as with a long tradition of fragmented One can hope that once the economy they were to steadily rising profits, that ownership. Managements of the large improves newspaper companies will they immediately unloaded their hold- newspaper companies, for example, shift their emphasis more toward the ings. This turned out to be a big mis- recognize the economic and market- traditional notion of serving the public take: When she spoke, the company’s ing efficiencies in clustering of owner- weal and less toward pleasing share- stock sold for $19; recently it was $576. ships in specific geographic regions holders. Indeed, even some of the pub- When it comes to ownership, per- and do not hesitate to buy and swap licly owned companies have not taken haps Ben Bradlee, retired editor of The properties toward that end as if they their eyes off this central reason for the Washington Post, said it best when he were so many pork bellies. And there existence of newspapers. McClatchy eulogized Graham at her funeral last are undeniable benefits from econo- Newspapers, while tightening in some July: “Maybe not all of you understand mies of scale as companies get larger. areas, has eschewed taking steps this what it takes to make a great newspa- Gannett can buy everything that a news- year that would undermine journalis- per. It takes a great owner. Period.” ■ paper needs, from paper clips to presses tic quality in the conviction that in the to newsprint, at prices far lower than long run good journalism is good for John Morton is a former newspaper paid by smaller companies. Bigness by business. reporter and president of Morton itself has significant economic rewards. The Washington Post Co. likewise Research Company, Inc., a consult- Many newspaper companies, of has refrained from reacting strongly to ing firm that analyzes newspapers whatever size, still produce good jour- the ups and downs of the economy. and other media properties. nalism despite the current cost cut- Katharine Graham, in the early years of ting. But in this era of falling circula- her company’s public ownership, Newspaper Economics 2001: The McClatchy Way The company is weathering the financial storm with a different strategy.

By Gary Pruitt

he sudden reversal of fortunes across-the-board layoffs and to main- ciently in good times and bad. The that befell the newspaper indus- tain newshole space at 2000 levels. We payoffs of avoiding the boom-or-bust Ttry with the economic slowdown have chosen our strategy not because roller coaster ride show up in em- of 2001 appeared largely without warn- we are naturally contrary—though ployee morale, the newspapers’ mo- ing, turning boom into gloom for many there is some reason to believe we mentum, and corporate profits. companies within the span of a single are—but because we’re convinced that We’re fortunate to operate in a coun- quarter. It has since asserted itself with by doing what is best for readers and try in which economic expansions far unfamiliar ferocity: Thousands of jobs the communities we serve will prove, outdistance contractions, but experi- have been lost and hundreds of pages once again, to be best for McClatchy ence shows there are bound to be have disappeared from American news- shareholders. some of each. To safeguard and accom- papers. These layoffs and newshole While our reluctance to go the route plish newspapers’ essential First reductions are now commonplace an- of cutbacks remains a distinctly minor- Amendment mission requires indepen- nouncements and the frequent focus ity point of view in the industry, there’s dence, so it is imperative that we oper- of Web pages created with the exclu- ample evidence and solid theory to ate stable, profitable businesses. To do sive mission of chronicling this news- support it. Indeed, our behavior now is this requires continuous balancing of paper retrenchment. simply a continuation of the strategy support for quality journalism and Almost alone among our publicly we pursued when advertising dollars awareness of financial demands. traded peers, McClatchy has eschewed were flowing freely. At our strategy’s Commitment to quality journalism both of those management options for core is a belief that in an unavoidably comes easily at McClatchy; it’s been a handling the downturn. We’ve opted cyclical business, the best course is to prominent part of our corporate DNA to steer a course intended to avoid manage consistently and operate effi- for 144 years. Financial success can

74 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Newspaper Cutbacks sometimes seem a more elusive objec- Second, we seek to extend our mar- to generate revenue. tive, but our experience suggests that ket share during this period. Yes, the For example, we think resorting to the two reinforce one another over total advertising pie is shrinking, but buyouts and layoffs in response to cy- time. Fortunately, many investors seem by accomplishing goal number one, clical economic conditions is often a to recognize this, too. we can ensure that our share of the mistake. The Harvard Business Review But while such results can be con- smaller pie grows. Our newspapers are recently highlighted a study by Bain & gruent, they aren’t automatically so. the primary advertising buys in their Co. of how 377 Fortune 500 compa- Balancing these sometimes opposing local markets, and they should suffer nies navigated through economic demands has led us to design an opera- less than should the secondary provid- downturns during the past two de- tional structure we refer to as “ath- ers competing with them. cades. The authors questioned the fi- letic.” This means we strive to keep our We also believe we can extend our nancial sense of using layoffs to trim operations trim and fit overall, but Internet publishing leadership in our costs. They wrote: “Consider that vol- strengthen our muscles at the points local markets. We operate the leading untary employee turnover averages they’re needed most—in reporting and local Internet sites in all our regions, 15% to 20% per year in the United sales. When done right, we put sales which puts us in an especially strong States, that sales volume was depressed people on the streets and phones to position as online competitors either by less than 10% in 85% of all industry keep the revenue engine downturns from 1977 churning while support- to 1999, and that the ing the journalistic needs …we strive to keep our operations trim average recession dur- of reporters, photogra- and fit overall, but strengthen our ing that period lasted phers and copyeditors only 11 months. Given necessary to ensure high- muscles at the points they’re needed those facts, you have to quality newspapers. most—in reporting and sales. wonder why there was Financial discipline such a scramble to means that to some events fire—and then rehire we won’t send as many and retrain—so many reporters as we might have during more fold or retrench in tough times. employees.” prosperous times. And we won’t add The emergence of the Internet as an The roller coaster response usually pages as rapidly as we might have. But alternative publishing medium unde- proves costly in terms of money spent we haven’t pulled back from the public niably complicates economic life for on severance, and it also damages service journalism that defines newspapers; its presence represents morale within the company. And that McClatchy. This is evidenced in our the biggest single difference between can retard momentum needed to re- newspapers devoting time and space this economic contraction and some of spond when economic conditions im- to unraveling a complex subsidy ar- the tough times we’ve weathered in prove. rangement for a private developer in the past. But interactive media also Similar logic applies to the tactic of Minneapolis and the publishing of doz- present opportunities. Unlike earlier trimming the newshole to save money ens of stories to cover the world games recessions, this time newspaper com- in the short run. What is the long-term of the Special Olympics in Anchorage. panies must manage more than one rationale for cutting the quality of the Meeting reader needs for consistent, business and need to balance compet- product at a time when readers need quality information isn’t optional. ing demands. Failure to do so forfeits good journalism more than ever, forc- How have we gone about doing that important advantages that we will need ing them to turn elsewhere for infor- in the current economic climate? The later on. mation? As veteran newspaper execu- answer is in a five-part strategy we Our fourth imperative is a familiar tive David Laventhol argued recently, believe will see us through the down- one: to cut costs aggressively wherever “Cutting back [sends] the wrong mes- turn intact and position us to take possible, consistent with our continu- sage—not to journalists but to readers, quick advantage of the recovery when ing strategy. Like other media compa- who don’t need more reasons not to it arrives. In fact, we think there are nies, our profits are way down this buy a newspaper.” As lineage falls, we’ll opportunities that can leave McClatchy year. There is no responsible alterna- use less newsprint, and if the down- in stronger shape after the downturn tive to determined, line-by-line cost turn is prolonged, newsprint prices than we were heading into it. reductions to help make up the differ- will generally fall—just as they are do- First, we need to keep the muscle ence. All our businesses are avoiding ing today. needed for sales and service, focusing non-essential hires, allowing vacancies As the Bain study concluded, “Costs particularly on those revenue catego- to remain open, cutting capital spend- do have to be managed carefully, but ries over which we have greatest con- ing, limiting travel, and so forth. What the key is consistency. A company trol and influence, even in down times. we don’t intend to do is allow short- should not act one way in good times In current conditions, that means re- term savings to affect the quality of and another way in bad times.” tail and classified display advertising. what we offer customers or our ability Finally, we’re determined to find

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 75 Journalist’s Trade

ways to do more than preserve our The Readership Institute at Northwest- growth a central barometer of commu- products; we want to continue to im- ern University has turned insights from nity service and franchise health and, prove them wherever possible and to our industry’s best research into a blue- not incidentally, a key to maintaining grow circulation. Economic conditions print for increasing newspaper reader- flexibility of advertising rates. foreclose some costly investments in ship. The recommended focus includes While our response to this economic quality, but others remain available. specific improvements in content, pro- downturn is somewhat contrary, we For example, when we made the move motion, service, presentation, brand believe it is based on sound business to the narrower pages—now becom- and workplace culture. It offers us ideas strategy and provides the foundation ing an industry standard—we coupled about how to build circulation despite for McClatchy to be a stronger entity the change with redesigned newspa- economic constraints—especially if we once the economic recovery begins. ■ pers that improved readers’ navigation preserve vital, high quality operations through them and with added features. that continue to meet readers’ needs. Gary Pruitt is chairman, president Reader reaction was positive in all our We’re working hard to extend and CEO of The McClatchy Com- communities. McClatchy’s industry-leading record pany. We haven’t abandoned the quest for string of 16 consecutive years of daily continued circulation growth, either. circulation growth. We consider this [email protected]

Making Change Work Away From Public Pressures At Cox newspapers, economic hard times bring fresh approaches to news coverage.

By Jay Smith

ough economic times hit pri- part of a company with broadcast and performance. We were fighting a New vately owned newspapers, too. cable holdings and the world’s largest York Times-owned newspaper that in- THow they respond—especially auto auction company among its as- vested mightily and vowed to drive us when employment ad revenue falls 40 sets. When one part of our company out of Atlanta’s rich northern suburbs. percent, newsprint prices grow by suffers, there’s another one doing well Our owners’ instructions were clear: double digits, and there’s no elasticity enough to pick it up. Win the battle and weather the storm. left in circulation rates—explains why A long-term view and a diversified We accomplished both tasks by ask- I wouldn’t trade my job as president of portfolio may provide comfort, but they ing ourselves what we could live with- Cox Newspapers with any of my peers don’t ease the challenge of publishing out, and we controlled costs by elimi- in publicly owned companies. financially strong newspapers in a nating those things. For example, we We might not have to answer ana- downturn. If anything, sibling pres- saved five million annually by ending lysts’ questions or issue quarterly fi- sure can be as intense as anything Wall subsidies that supported distant circu- nancial reports, but we watch the bot- Street offers. Who wants to be the lag- lation. We cut some jobs because they tom line every bit as closely as they do gard at the next board meeting? were no longer needed to sustain cir- at the public companies. Our newspa- The pressure to perform is there, culation that neither Atlanta readers pers deserve nothing less. Poor news- but it is self-imposed. It is private, and nor advertisers valued. Our egos were papers whisper; healthy newspapers that makes all the difference. Not hav- bruised, but we used these savings to speak in a firm, clear voice. Put another ing to please an outsider every 13 weeks beat this competing newspaper while way, a financially healthy newspaper allows plans to develop into reality insuring a brighter, better future for can afford to take risks, to do the brave before they must be sacrificed on the the Journal-Constitution. things that great newspapers have al- altar of investor expectations. Fear, the Subsequent years of record-setting ways done. Neither public nor private greatest impediment to success, gets performances were reward aplenty. A newspapers are immune from this jour- replaced by careful risk-taking—some- lesson learned, it spread throughout nalistic fact of life. thing encouraged, not punished, by our newspaper group. The people who Our owners, enlightened by 103 wise owners like ours. run our newspapers today are the same years in the business, know good times Ten years ago, in the depths of the people who ran them 10 years ago. follow bad. That’s why they stress the worst advertising recession any of us That’s another feature of privately long term, doing what’s prudent to had known, I guided our flagship news- owned newspaper groups. They didn’t weather a recession until the economy paper, The Atlanta Journal-Constitu- wait until the first hint of economic clears. We’re equally fortunate to be tion, to its worst-ever year-over-year softening to prepare for this down-

76 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Newspaper Cutbacks turn. Their work began even as they newspaper, our Atlanta Journal-Con- that question of a recently laid-off per- were enjoying the boom years of the stitution could stake its own coverage son at another newspaper, and the 1990’s. Newspaper publishers and edi- claim. And, as events unfolded, our answer becomes obvious. tors learned from each others’ suc- Palm Beach Post found itself in the Again, there is nothing extraordi- cesses and failures. They identified best center of, perhaps, the greatest vote- nary about such cooperation. It’s just people and best practices and shared counting story ever. Perhaps in an- easier to achieve free of the distrac- them liberally. They built an Intranet other time, egos would have won out tions so many public companies face. that links our 18 daily and 30 non-daily and three or more Cox reporters would Smart newspaper people know what newspapers. Work that appears in At- have covered the same campaign trails. to do. And that is to remain an indis- lanta, Austin, Palm Beach or Dayton Not this time. pensable part of readers’ lives. The can run simultaneously in Waco, Texas, Because our large newspapers, in- best private and public newspaper com- Grand Junction, Colorado, or cluding the Dayton Daily News, agreed panies recognize this and provide the Greenville, North Carolina. It’s a way to an approach coordinated by our resources, latitude and protection to of sharing quality and spreading costs. Washington bureau, our journalists let it happen. Leaders at our newspapers spent seldom tripped over each other. Zone It’s never easy to stare down tough the past decade getting better and get- coverage of the candidates freed re- times. But it’s a lot less lonely when ting ready for the next slowdown. When porters to pursue other important elec- you are certain of what your ownership it became apparent as early as the late tion stories. Reporters like Austin’s Ken wants and can move with confidence. summer and early fall of 2000 that Herman, who covered Bush as gover- For me, that is the way it has been for tough times were ahead, they were nor, provided a talent that benefited all 30 years with Cox. It’s something I prepared. Without fanfare, they bat- of our newspapers. Never, our editors appreciate, but never take for granted— tened the hatches, yet continued to later agreed, had our election coverage especially in times like these. ■ publish newspapers every bit the equals been better. of those produced in good times. On a lesser scale, our newspapers’ Jay Smith is president of Cox News- Two examples illustrate how coop- sports editors met earlier this year and papers, a subsidiary of privately eration ensured quality and promoted made some unprecedented coverage held Cox Enterprises, Inc. in Atlanta, efficiency, even as belt-tightening had decisions. Atlanta’s sportswriters would Georgia. Cox publishes 18 daily and begun. cover the Masters Tournament on be- 30 non-daily newspapers. A newspa- Our Austin American-Statesman had half of our newspapers, while Palm perman since the age of 17, Smith more than a passing interest in last Beach would cover Wimbledon. No began his career with Cox 30 years year’s presidential election which, with doubt, some reporters and columnists ago as a reporter for the Dayton Texas Governor George W. Bush run- grumbled, but did coverage suffer? Daily News. ning, became as much a local as a Were the $40,000 saved in air fares and national story. As the south’s largest hotels on these events worth it? Ask [email protected]

Newspapers Confront a Barrage of Problems Societal trends make business decisions more difficult.

By Stephen Lacy

n the media maelstrom that fol- managers’ decisions and downplays • Public ownership: Led by Gannett lowed Jay Harris’s resignation as the impact of four important trends during the 1960’s, most large news- Ipublisher of the San Jose Mercury that are currently reshaping the news- paper corporations now trade their News, writers and critics most often paper industry. stock publicly. This has moved con- have framed the issue behind his leav- These four trends—two within the trol over a corporation’s goals from ing as a battle between profit and jour- newspaper industry and two outside a relatively few family members to nalism. They have expressed a concern of it—involve increased public owner- managers of large institutional in- that resources flowing to stockholders ship of newspapers, a decline in com- vestment funds and to stock ana- come from the newsrooms and reduce petition among newspapers, greater lysts who advise investors. As a re- the quality of journalism. Though this diversification in society, and the sult, publicly held newspaper is a legitimate way to define the debate, growth of electronic media. Let’s briefly corporations must produce consis- it concentrates attention on corporate examine each. tent, high profit margins. If expecta-

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 77 Journalist’s Trade

tions are not met, stock value de- tising dollar. And this intermedia ing. Businesses already have expressed clines. competition comes at a time when a reluctance to pay these aggressive ad •Decline of newspaper competition: newspaper managers felt they were prices as circulation declines. This re- Because of economic factors, com- gaining more market power because luctance will only increase. petition between dailies in the same of declining newspaper competition. Newspaper corporations face a town or city has practically disap- Understanding the nature of and choice. They can try to reduce profit peared, and competition across city responding to intermedia advertis- expectations to reflect the changing and county lines is declining be- ing competition remains difficult for nature of society. Or they can maintain cause of clustering. While this pro- newspaper managers. short-run profit margins at the risk of vides more profit for companies, it losing their readers and permanently reduces the perceived need to in- Industries constantly face change, damaging the value of their compa- vest in the newsroom and dimin- but the current newspaper situation is nies. Thomson chose the latter for its ishes competition among individual unusual because the two industry U.S. newspapers and ended up selling journalists who thrive on it. trends are pushing newspapers toward them when management could not •Diversification of society: During the higher profit margins, but the two soci- raise profit margins above 17 percent. last half of the 20th century dra- ety trends are working in the opposite The profit margin declined to 17 per- matic changes occurred in U.S. direction. At this point, it seems likely cent in the early 1990’s after more than women’s lives. Career options and that the two social trends will over- a decade of 30 percent or higher mar- lifestyles choices are much greater power the industry trends. gins. Thomson paid for its aggressive for them today. In addition to in- In such a time of fundamental mar- cost cutting to maintain high margins creased gender diversity in the work- ket and societal change, the critical with a significant decline in circulation place, a higher birth rate for minor- issue concerns whether the desire for and penetration during the 1980’s. ity groups and immigration have short-term profits will force some cur- Neither of these choices will be easy, created more racial diversification. rent companies out of the newspaper and it is impossible to predict accu- By midway through the 21st cen- business. The demand of institutional rately when a newspaper company has tury, no racial group will be a clear investors and stock analysts for consis- cut so deep into its newsroom that it majority of the U.S. population. This tent, high profit margins is well docu- permanently damages its franchise. diversification leads readers to de- mented. Newspapers initially were able However, research and experience sup- mand that newspapers offer a greater to meet these profit demands because port three propositions: variety of news and information, of increasing technological efficiency something more difficult and ex- and declining competition among •First, the smaller the newspaper pensive to do than when those needs newspapers. With declining competi- market, the more quickly perma- emanated from a relatively homoge- tion, newsholes and newsrooms shrank nent circulation damage will occur neous community. Increased cover- and newspapers became more aggres- from cost cutting. Losing 2,000 cir- age of a particular group of readers sive in hiking advertising prices. De- culation from a base of 14,000 will requires either more space to be clining cost and savings from technol- have a greater impact than losing added to the newspaper or space to ogy offset losses of circulation and the 2,000 from a base of 100,000. be taken from the interests of other decline in the percentage of all adver- • Second, the higher the profit expec- groups. The former is expensive; tising dollars spent on newspaper ad- tation, the greater will be the nega- the latter tends to lead to lower vertising. tive impact on the quality of the circulation. But the ability to cut costs and in- newspaper over time. It is true that •Growth of electronic media: People crease revenue will decline as the im- monetary investment in a newsroom have more ways of getting informa- pact of the social trends accelerates. If does not necessarily result in a pro- tion now than at any time in history. newspapers expect to attract advertis- portionate increase in quality. News- The boom in cable and the Internet ing dollars in increasingly fragmented rooms have waste and diminishing gives individuals the ability to focus and competitive markets, they must returns on investment after a point. on narrow topics of interest and maintain their circulation relative to But even if the outcome is not pro- avoid spending time sifting through the audience of other media outlets. In portionate, research supports that more generalized news presenta- a diverse society, this requires larger investment in content that meets tions, thus fragmenting the audi- newsholes, as well as larger and more the needs and wants of its commu- ence. Shrinking audiences and cir- representative newsrooms. People nity will increase circulation, all else culations cause businesses to buy seeking more narrowly focused news being equal. advertising from a larger number of and information will find little of inter- • Third, no one really knows how media outlets to reach the numbers est to them if newspapers cut space to much newsroom investment is of people they want as customers. save money. The loss of readers will needed to maintain and/or expand Newspapers increasingly must com- limit the ability of newspaper manag- circulation. If we did, it would be pete with other media for the adver- ers to be aggressive in advertising pric- easier to make a case to investors for

78 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Newspaper Cutbacks

some balance in the distribution of question will be whether management Stephen Lacy is a professor in the profit between making such invest- invests enough in the newsroom, and Michigan State University School of ments and returning money to own- does so in constructive and strategic Journalism, where he teaches media ership. It is this uncertainty that al- ways, to maintain a profit that will management and economics. He has lows Wall Street to press for the high sustain the newspaper across time, or cowritten or coedited four books margins it demands. whether high short-run profits result and more than 75 scholarly articles in the company being forced out of the and papers about media economics In the long run, newspapers will not newspaper business. and management. He worked at be able to sustain the current level of A strong point of the market system weekly and daily newspapers before profit margins. One economic rule re- is that demand will be served. The becoming a professor. mains clear across time and will affect public wants journalism that meets its newspapers—as intermedia competi- information needs and desires. In the [email protected] tion for advertising dollars increases, long run, companies will meet that newspaper profits will decline. The demand or they will falter. At issue is markets, driven by the two social trends which of today’s newspaper compa- discussed above, will force smaller mar- nies will continue to meet those needs gins on newspaper companies. The 30 or 40 years from now. ■

Working Together, Journalists Can Have a Say in Corporate Policy It is important to redefine what constitutes a ‘journalism issue.’

By Gilbert Cranberg

ay Harris brought editors to their it was then, went over like the prover- never think about stockholders: Their feet at the annual meeting of the bial lead balloon. Overholser, for per- constituents, first and foremost, are JAmerican Society of Newspaper Edi- sonal and professional reasons, left readers. Editors know the needs of tors in April with an on-target attack Gannett five years later. The company’s their papers and know how best to on the profit pressures that make so newspapers have pretty much shunned serve readers. Since knowledge is many of their professional lives miser- her nationally syndicated column. power, they are in key positions to able. The question now is whether Randall Bezanson, John Soloski and shape the future of newspapers. De- journalists will back the applause with I interviewed many newspaper editors spite obstacles to activism, there are action. for our recently published book, “Tak- effective ways for editors and other Harris quit as publisher of Knight ing Stock: Journalism and the Publicly journalists to work for change, indi- Ridder’s San Jose Mercury News to Traded Newspaper Company” (Iowa vidually and collectively, without put- protest company orders for bigger State University Press) and found them, ting their heads on a chopping block. margins. Geneva Overholser’s experi- by and large, not to be happy campers. The focus of “Taking Stock” is the ence as editor of The Des Moines Reg- “I have a fantasy,” one told us, “that I publicly traded segment of the news- ister a decade or so earlier illustrates win the lottery, buy the paper, and paper industry. By both reach and in- the limits (and perils) of plain talk to reduce the profit margin. I need a big- fluence, the companies are a major and influence policies that produce the ger newshole.” Another bridled at the important part of the journalism busi- orders. At a 1990 meeting of Gannett “micro-managing bunch” at headquar- ness, accounting for more than 40 per- bigwigs, who had just honored her as ters who put him through “agony.” It cent of daily and about half of Sunday Gannett’s Editor of the Year, Overholser would be surprising if very many of circulation. What sets the segment spoke boldly of her journalistic vision. these and other working journalists, apart, of course, is that stock in the [Please see her remarks on page 81.] who voiced their frustrations to us on companies is a market commodity, The Register recently had won for condition that they not be identified, traded mostly by large institutional in- Gannett an all-too-rare Pulitzer (for publicly bite the hands that feed them— vestors. Thus, this “different kind of public service). Nevertheless, at times very well. business” is evaluated and treated in Overholser’s plea, as pertinent now as Overwhelmingly, editors told us they the marketplace the same as any other

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 79 Journalist’s Trade

enterprise, and it behaves, for the most ganizations that represent journalists. be, but seldom is, for CEO’s and other part, accordingly. A number of our The American Society of Newspaper higher-ups. recommendations, therefore, are pe- Editors (ASNE), for one, founded “to About three-fourths of the editors culiar to publicly traded companies work collectively for the solution of we spoke with received stock options. but many are applicable to the press common problems,” has among its Editors who make their views known generally. missions “helping editors maintain the on compensation should say thanks, We found this “different business” highest standards of quality.” Few deci- but no thanks, to the options. Stock actually to be little different in the way sions have a more direct bearing on options are intended to align the inter- it is governed than other non-newspa- newspaper quality than the choice of ests of recipients with those of stock- per corporations. While journalism is policymakers for newspaper company holders, thereby to encourage mea- at the heart of the publicly traded news- boards of directors and the compensa- sures to boost profits, hence the stock paper enterprise, seldom do people tion policies they adopt. price. Editors have no or negligible with journalism backgrounds serve as ASNE and other journalism groups influence on stock prices, and if they corporate directors. Thus, rarely is any- that usually concern themselves with attempted to they could be brought one acquainted with newspapers a nuts and bolts journalism issues need into conflict with their obligations to member of the board’s compensation to act on a cardinal reality: What goes readers. For instance, ASNE’s State- committee, the panel with critically on in boardrooms directly impacts ment of Principles (“The primary pur- important responsibility for the incen- newsrooms. They should, therefore, pose of gathering and distributing news tives for management that denote the scrutinize the composition of the and opinion is to serve the general values of a company. And these values boards of newspaper companies and welfare by informing the people and are what drives corporate decision- campaign for journalists to be placed enabling them to make judgments on making. If quality of news presenta- on the boards as outside directors and the issues of the time. Newspapermen tion, for instance, is a goal, then sala- also as members of compensation com- and women who abuse the power of ries, bonuses and stock options should mittees. Similarly, compensation com- their professional role for selfish mo- be awarded in significant part on achiev- mittee reports, now buried in proxy tives or unworthy purposes are faith- ing certain measurable quality-related statements, should be publicized by less to that public trust.”) can be un- goals, such as non-advertorial newshole journalism organizations and by the derstood to frown on stock options; or training. Instead, we found that the trade press. ASNE and other journalism groups incentives in place are so top-heavy The incentives adopted for upper ought to object to them on principle as with rewards for achieving financial management too often are carried over inappropriate for news personnel. goals that “it is possible to study a For better or worse, editors [compensation] committee report nowadays do not just attend news of how top managers are rewarded What goes on in meetings. Often, as members of and not realize that the enterprise their paper’s operating commit- discussed is engaged in journal- boardrooms directly tee, they have a place at the table ism.” impacts newsrooms. that deals with company-wide is- A noteworthy exception is the sues. Therefore, they have a voice McClatchy Company, in which four that ought to be heard on the sub- of the company’s nine outside di- ject of audience segmentation. rectors have worked as journalists and to the newsroom. Almost all the edi- “Taking Stock” chronicles how the pres- one of them, veteran editor Larry Jinks, tors we interviewed receive bonuses, sure for profits has led newspapers to serves on the compensation commit- many of them sizable, and they often focus on the affluent readers most de- tee. At McClatchy, compensation re- are tied at least in part to financial sired by advertisers. The consequences wards individual achievement and com- yardsticks, such as meeting profit tar- are zoned editions—news coverage and pany performance, which is measured gets or staying under budget. The bo- marketing targeted at the well-heeled by financial results as well as other nuses of only a tiny minority of editors to the neglect of the inner city. criteria. These include “growth in cir- were geared to strictly editorial objec- Journalism groups have been ag- culation, product excellence and mar- tives. Many editors have a voice in gressive in urging employment by news- ket acceptance, sound strategic plan- shaping the criteria for their bonuses. papers of minorities, but entirely too ning, development of new products That gives them the opportunity to passive about the short-changing of and services, and community involve- make a strong pitch for bonuses re- the less affluent in coverage by refusals ment and good corporate citizenship.” lated to achieving journalistic goals. to deliver to public housing and by Even if they are inclined to speak Inasmuch as many editors told us that such marketing practices as denial of out like Harris and Overholser did, they regarded circulation to be an im- discounts in low-income areas. These individual editors can have little influ- portant measure of their paper’s qual- and similar strategies amount to a form ence on needed structural changes in ity, we concluded that circulation is of redlining. Journalism organizations, corporate governance. Not so with or- properly such a goal—as it also should not least those representing minority

80 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Newspaper Cutbacks journalists, ought to be critiquing news- paper circulation and readership prac- tices and encouraging editors to use Prescient Words Delivered a Decade Ago their clout to advocate for service to the whole community. “Taking Stock” makes a variety of On December 10, 1990, Geneva And we fret about our lack of connect- other recommendations, many of Overholser spoke to a gathering of edness with our communities and then which would be altogether appropri- Gannett executives. At this dinner, she cut the support that we once gave for ate for organizations of journalists to was presented with an award as cultural and social activities in them. advance. Some recommended steps, Gannett’s Editor of the Year. At the Our nation is crying out for leader- such as those concerned with corpo- time, she was editor of The Des Moines ship, our communities are crying out rate boards and compensation, would Register. Overholser now writes for for solutions, and newspapers can take old-line journalism groups into The Washington Post Writer’s Group. help—newspapers that are adequately non-traditional territory. But in a jour- Excerpts from her remarks follow. staffed, with adequate newsholes. But nalism world awash with stock analysts not newspapers where underpaid fixated on financials, incentive pack- …Gannett, I am proud to say, is a people work too hard and ad stacks ages, excessive profit goals, and pres- risk-taking, history-making company. squeeze out editorial copy. sure for short-term results, it would be When all other newspaper companies I’m blessed to be the editor of a myopic to remain mired in the status were solidly fitted with blinders that great newspaper, but too many people quo and not redefine what constitutes kept them from seeing anything but in my newsroom think the greatest a “journalism issue.” the old traditions, Gannett launched years are passed, and we’re just hang- The publicly traded newspaper, USA Today—and remade the face of ing on by our fingernails. Too often by which first came on the scene in 1963, American newspapers. far, being an editor in America today is a recent phenomenon to which jour- And, while everyone preached but feels like holding up an avalanche of nalists, individually and collectively, no one acted as to how white and male pressure to do away with this piece of are still learning to adapt. The decision our newspaper staffs were, Gannett excellence, that piece of quality, so as by ASNE to give Jay Harris a forum, and put its policies where its mouth was— to squeeze out just a little bit more the enthusiastic reception to his mes- and remade the shape and complexion money. sage, are signs of an evolution in think- of American newsrooms. Yet we work in a business in which ing about journalism. The are evidence Well, here’s my dream for the next hard times mean a 25 percent profit also of the relevance to editors of mea- risk-taking, history-making endeavor: margin cut to 18 percent. We need to sures to reform the way journalism Let Gannett show how corporate jour- be honest about the impact of this fact corporations perform. It remains now nalism can serve all its constituencies on our communities, our employees for groups like ASNE to update their well in hard times. As we sweat out the and our readers, as well as our advertis- agendas and take the next logical step end of the ever-increasing quarterly ers and our shareholders. by joining, if not leading, a reform earnings, as we necessarily attend to I want to see Gannett prove that movement. ■ the needs and wishes of our sharehold- corporate journalism can serve all these ers and our advertisers, are we worry- constituencies just as well as family- Gilbert Cranberg, former editor of ing enough about the other three? owned newspapers did. The Des Moines Register and The Des About our employees, our readers, and I say, who better than Gannett to Moines Tribune editorial pages, our communities? lead the way on reinvestment in an era retired in 1982 to teach journalism I’ll answer that: No way. And we’re when reinvestment seems crazy? Who at the University of Iowa. He is the not being honest about it. We fret over better than Gannett to prove that cor- George H. Gallup Professor Emeritus declining readership and then cut our porate journalism needn’t bring the at its School of Journalism and Mass newsholes so that we have insufficient ills its critics call inevitable? Communication. Coauthors with space to do the things we know readers I want Gannett to be the company Cranberg of “Taking Stock” are like. that shuns lip service, rewards brutal colleague Randall Bezanson, a We fret over a decline in service to honesty, and goes against the grain in professor at the College of Law, and our customers and then pay reporters hard times. Bold, risk-taking? Daring? John Soloski, former director of (and others throughout the company) Foolhardy? A hare-brained idea? Naive? Iowa’s journalism school and now wages that school districts would be From what I’ve heard, they said that dean of the University of Georgia’s ashamed of. (That’s one way to make and more about USA Today. And now, Henry W. Grady College of Journal- sure we’ll have fewer men and more most of its critics are copying it. ism and Mass Communication. women in the newsroom, I’ll tell you.) Thank you. ■

[email protected]

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 81 Journalist’s Trade News is Strategic in the Newspaper Business Newsroom cost cutting should not imperil its special strengths.

By Joseph Bower

he headlines sound grim. “U.S. lation is declining, readership is de- Graham’s autobiography. The mission newspaper groups cut costs as clining, and classified ads—the core of a newspaper goes beyond simply Tad revenues fall” in the Financial revenue source for the local newspa- making money and to earning credibil- Times. In the United States, the words per—are also declining. Young adults ity through its content. The Post is not were more precise: “Knight Ridder To do not get their news from newspa- People magazine precisely because of Cut 1700 Jobs; Cuts Follow Earlier pers, middle-aged adults have less time the dedicated readership of its front Losses of 400.” The stories reveal that to read, and the Internet has proved an sections. in response to drops in advertising important competitor for employment For local advertisers, retailers and revenue and increases in the cost of listings and person-to-person sale of purveyors of entertainment and sports, newsprint, papers are cutting staff in items. These trends suggest that pub- newspaper readers are their target order to reduce costs. The subplot is lishers should examine their long-term market, and papers provide a cost- that they might be cutting newsroom strategies as well as their income state- effective way of reaching them. If staff and thereby cutting quality. But a ments. The current downturn hurts, Internet sites become “friendlier” New York Times story on this topic by but a look into the future reveals fun- places to buy food, household goods, Felicity Barringer, appearing as a front- damental challenges to present-day and tickets, that relationship could page business story, concludes that revenue streams. change. Newspapers are also a natural papers—publicly or privately owned— Three questions appear central: Will place for classified ads—especially have displayed varying strategies as far people continue to buy newspapers? when it is easier to find what one is as commitment to quality news, and Will advertisers continue to believe that looking for. But Monster.com and eBay those differences continue to play out newspapers are a good place to reach pose real challenges. Their search en- over this business cycle as in the past. potential consumers? And how will gines are a competitive advantage over What is the appropriate investment news reporting at newspapers change the crowded small print of the in gathering and presenting news re- in response to these economic and classifieds. Papers might need to create mains a continuing question of impor- cultural pressures? friendlier formats. tance for newspapers. And the correct Why do people buy newspapers? To In this broader business context, answer is not independent of the eco- begin, they are a uniquely good place what is the role of news? Pretty funda- nomic equations that newspaper pub- to get easily accessible, timely informa- mental. Properly selected, edited and lishers must confront. If the dissemina- tion necessary for everyday life. Within presented, news differentiates the tion of news is not going to depend on their pages, most papers offer reason- newspaper from other sources of use- the philanthropic spirit of wealthy in- ably comprehensive local news, retail ful information. Comprehensive local dividuals, then the newspaper busi- and entertainment ads, radio, TV and news is what TV news doesn’t have. ness has to generate profit. Since 75 other schedules, interpretative sports Nor does television devote special cov- percent of newspaper revenue comes reporting, and the comics. The latter erage to sub-sections of a metropolitan from advertising, and staff at 16 per- two may not be necessities, but they area. And investigative reporting is not cent (of total cost) is the most impor- are a regular aspect of everyday life. the strength of either TV news or the tant cost after newsprint, it is not sur- Along with this package of information Internet. While some of the TV news prising that publishers resort to layoffs come investigative reporting and na- analysts provide useful analysis—CNN when advertising turns down. And since tional news. Former Washington Post carried a marvelous 15-minute inter- a large proportion of a newspaper’s publisher Katharine Graham captured view with Robert Zoellick on trade mat- staff is in the newsroom, it is also pos- the relationship between the two pack- ters the weekend that I am writing this sible that some of the cuts occur there. ages neatly when she explained to me article—it cannot compare with the The questions, of course, are how deep several years ago that it was the won- featured and in-depth analysis possible and where are the cuts, and whether derfully intrusive and gossipy Style sec- on a daily basis in a newspaper. The they are really necessary. tion of the Post that attracted the read- Internet has developed a reputation A look at the numbers suggests that ers who, in turn, attracted the for carrying anything, anywhere, which the industry is healthy but facing chal- advertisers that paid for the first sec- has made it difficult to establish cred- lenges. The balance sheets are strong tion of national and international news. ibility. With newspapers, credibility has when judged against history. But circu- But another point is clear from been established through decades of

82 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Newspaper Cutbacks reporting and editing. porting of the events in their territory, ment how the pressure for earnings Now, consider the budget for news. especially when it comes to helping penetrates the structural arrangements My conclusion would be that most of readers judge the quality of local gov- of certain publishing groups. But they the news gathering, writing and edit- ernance. offer no systematic assessment of the ing that does not contribute to a If the cuts in staff include cuts in the quality of the news. Nor is there any newspaper’s unique mission for its newsroom made in response to strate- empirical study of the size of the community of readership is strategi- gic conclusions of this sort, then newshole. The authors argue these cally vulnerable. For example, it is hard whether or not they work out, they can points without providing specific ex- for me to understand why any newspa- be judged sensible by intent. But if they amples or references to their data. This per other than those competing for the are simply cost cutting, and they actu- is a problem, since a strategic focusing national audiences would assign its ally reduce that paper’s ability to differ- of news resources and imaginative use own reporters to gather national or entiate itself as a source of informa- of technology could be associated with international news. This is particularly tion, then it will be the owners, the better news, lower costs, and variable true for those who belong to a large journalists whose jobs are impacted, compensation based on profit. group of papers, as well as for and citizens who are dependent on an Neighborhoods and communities do newsmagazines. As long as there are effective press who will pay the price. get involved in civic activities when three or four high quality international/ A recently published exploration of they are informed about forces affect- national news services, why create a this very question, “Taking Stock: Jour- ing their situation—a polluter, a new small reporting team of one’s own? It nalism and the Publicly Traded News- road, new opportunities to shop, and is, however, essential to have local fig- paper Company,” [See article on page the accomplishments of their neigh- ures—byline reporters or the equiva- 79 by one of its authors, Gilbert bors. In some localities, this need is lent—who can interpret these national Cranberg] provides no grounds for currently being met by local newspa- and international events in local terms. optimism. The authors1 conclude that pers or Web sites. It is not the fate of the But not reporters in the field. The in response to the pressures of public nation that is in the balance, but strong typical news conference in which hun- ownership, particularly by institutional local coverage might be a first step to dreds of reporters compete to ask ques- investors seeking short-term financial restoring public interest in politics. tions of the same celebrity, politician return, newspaper groups have tailored And if national and international news or entertainer is economic nonsense. their product and cut their expenses were assessed for local impact, rather Quality is not enhanced by these huge with revenue in mind, not focusing on than just packaged as small news blurbs, numbers of journalists assembled to their unique abilities to gather and that could also make a positive differ- hear and disseminate similar news. disseminate news. With reporters and ence. In business, we are entering an era editors motivated like business manag- Gathering and interpreting news is in which General Motors and Fiat will ers by incentive compensation struc- a distinctive competence of newspa- compete with each other by selling tures, owners have focused on the prof- pers. Intelligent business management cars that use identical engines and itability of the news business, increasing should not pose a threat to that activ- power trains made in jointly owned profit margins to new heights. ity, but that certainly doesn’t guaran- factories. A Gateway computer is an Like banks that do not provide loans tee that any particular newsroom as- Intel motherboard with Microsoft op- or automated teller machines for those signment is safe. Credible news erating systems and application soft- who live in poor neighborhoods, news- presented to attract readers is the ware, assembled in a third party’s fac- papers have adjusted their product and golden goose. For that reason it should tory. Compaq might or might not use circulation to address the needs of ad- be at the core of any sensible economic precisely the same components. In this vertisers. Where they have enjoyed a decision-making about the newspaper kind of an environment, companies local monopoly, it is the local news business. ■ have had to be very clear as to what that has borne the brunt of cost cut- activities they should conduct for them- ting. These authors argue that eco- Joseph Bower is Donald Kirk David selves; it is those activities, and only nomic incentives have led papers to professor of business administration those, that create value. seek a target audience of consumers at Harvard Business School. He Newspapers are no different. There rather than the “public audience” and researches, writes and consults is no reason for the fifth or the 35th that the news is chosen for these audi- extensively on top management report of a political crisis in Indonesia, ences based on their stated preferences. challenges and public policy. Since usually written by a journalist far less In places where audiences are not at- the 1970’s, he has worked with skilled and experienced than those tractive to advertisers, that segment of Nieman Fellows to understand writing for Reuters or the Far Eastern circulation is not sought. changes in the world economy. Economic Review. Newpapers can con- The logic of their analysis is pretty tribute unique value through their re- powerful, and they use cases to docu- [email protected]

1 The authors of “Taking Stock” are Gilbert Cranberg, Randall Bezanson and John Soloski.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 83 Words & Reflections

Washington Post editor and columnist Meg Greenfield put it this way in her posthumous autobiography: “Few journalists have much appreciation of the enormous impact we have on the lives of those we write about.” In a speech “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw gave earlier this year at Harvard University, he said: “If I could, I would take anyone who comes to power in American journalism and make them subject to a [front-page] news story. Then they would have a keen understanding of what so many interesting people go through.” In this issue of Nieman Reports, we feature the perspective of people who, because of extraordinary circumstances, found themselves in the glare of the national media. What happens, we wondered, when journalists arrive? We pair these stories with those of journalists who have explored this topic in their reporting. And we also examine what happens when information about an issue that is as sensitive and explosive as the effects child care has on children’s development erupts into the media’s spotlight.

On Saturday, January 27, Audrey McCollum’s life was transformed by the murders of her neighbors, Dartmouth College professors Half and Susanne Zantop. For the next few months, as she mourned the loss of her friends, she also became someone to whom journalists turned for information and comment. She recounts her experiences as she explores whether her attempt to “honor dear friends actually caused harm?” As Chandra Levy’s disappearance became the summer’s biggest story, Kim Petersen, executive director of the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, helped Chandra’s parents deal with the avalanche of media requests. She writes about this and about how the coverage affects the Levy family. Robert Salladay, a political reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle, observed coverage of the Santana High School shootings from a different perspective as he sat in the hospital room of his nephew, who was injured in the shootings, and fielded calls from the media. Barbara Schardt, the mother of a junior at Santana High School, writes about what it is like to watch her 17- year-old son, John-David, become a source on which many in the media relied. Barbara Willer, deputy executive director for the National Association for the Education of Young Children, writes about what happened when preliminary findings from a long-term child-care study erupted into misleading headlines and sounds bites. In his work as television writer and media critic for The (Baltimore) Sun, David Folkenflik realized that some of the toughest people to interview were TV reporters, who expected others to answer their questions, but were muzzled when it came to answering his. As he writes, “I am not suggesting that anyone should be required to speak. But for journalists, in particular, I think it can help restore trust with the public.” And Ike Seamans, a senior correspondent at WTVJ (NBC) News in Miami, reveals what he learned when he reported a story about what people don’t like about local news.

84 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 In our Books and Commentary section, journalists write about either a book they have written or a book they’ve read. Carol Polsgrove, a former Associated Press writer and now professor at Indiana University’s School of Journalism, borrows from research she used in writing her book, “Divided Minds: Intellectuals and the Civil Rights Movement,” to describe the ways in which editors at influential national publications all but silenced the voices calling for racial integration after the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. As she writes, “At a time when national magazines might well have been leading the way to change, they instead opened their pages to those who resisted it.”

William F. Woo, former editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who teaches journalism at Stanford University, writes about Jack Lule’s book, “Daily News, Eternal Stories: The Mythological Role of Journalism,” in which he examines how a lot of newspaper stories can be read as versions of our oldest myths. But Woo wonders (and worries) aloud about how these eternal stories are also journalism. “How will this theory be reflected in the news product?” he asks. “How will they play out in the day-to- day work of assigning, reporting, writing and editing stories?” Warren Watson, a newspaper reporter, editor and designer for 26 years, observes that Kevin G. Barnhurst and John Nerone’s book, “The Form of News: A History,” examines “how social, economic and cultural forces led to the development of the modern, professional product we call today’s newspaper.” Nancy Day, director of Advanced Journalism Studies at Boston University and a freelance editor and writer, describes what makes “Beyond Argument: A Handbook for Editorial Writers,” a worthy companion for “editorial writers [who] enter the craft suddenly and without formal preparation.” Dallas Morning News writer Dianne Solís, who reported from Mexico City from 1991 to 1997 for The Wall Street Journal, read “Looking for History: Dispatches From Latin America,” a compilation of essays by Mexican journalist Alma Guillermoprieto and reports that the author is at her best “in her psychological portraits of Latin America’s unconventional politicos.” Wilson Wanene, a Kenyan-born freelance journalist in Boston, introduces us to “This House Has Fallen: Midnight in Nigeria,” a book by Karl Maier, the Africa correspondent for The Independent of London from 1986 to 1996. “The reporting is a skillful mixture of recent Nigerian history, carefully selected interviews, and vibrant local color,” Wanene writes. John Herbers, who for 24 years was a reporter and editor at The New York Times, reveals what he learned about Daniel Schorr when he read his autobiography, “Staying Tuned: A Life in Journalism.” ■

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 85 Words & Reflections A Neighbor Wonders About Her Role as a Media Source ‘Had my attempt to honor dear friends actually caused harm?’

By Audrey McCollum

ears well up as I start writing We went through robotic motions thing about them, if you would,” said this—sadness and horror surge until the Valley News editor phoned to Jack Ford, the host. Tthrough a veil of persisting dis- ask if I would give an interview. With- “A few minutes ago, they were de- belief. out hesitation, I agreed. I wanted to scribed as active members of the On Saturday, January 27, my hus- shield Bob and Cindy, who could barely Dartmouth community,” I said. “They band, Bob, our daughter, Cindy, her speak. And I believe in the mission of were, in fact, active members of the husband, John, and I gathered around the press: to inquire, to inform, to world, and I think for that reason the a gently bubbling cheese fondue in foster understanding. loss is an international loss, a tragedy celebration of Bob’s 76th birthday. As In 1945, I was the editor in chief of for the world. What I mean by that is— we toasted his future, someone my college newspaper, aiming for a partly because of their background as pounded on our door. When Cindy career in journalism. But my mother’s Germans, their learning about the flung it open, a Dartmouth College puzzling psychiatric illness steered my Holocaust, their awareness of what can professor—almost incoherent— inquisitive mind toward psychology happen to a country if the citizenry are begged for help. She had gone to our instead. I practiced psychotherapy for complacent about what goes on—they nearest neighbors for dinner and found 50 years, but continued writing, too. were passionately involved in every them, Half and Susanne Zantop, col- My Valley News editor was a strict men- aspect of life. They were politically lapsed on a bloodied floor. tor, insisting on clarity and accuracy in extremely aware, astute; they were cata- Cindy and Bob, a physician, sped every phrase. His high standards, along lysts; they energized a wide circle of over while I called 911. Then I waited, with daily perusal of the Valley News colleagues and friends to learn about wondering what had befallen our cher- and The New York Times, shaped my the political process, to learn about the ished friends and whether my family confidence in the press. significant issues—to get out and vote. was in danger, too. I waited until my “I’m sorry to have to ask you about And they became citizens of the U.S. dread spurred me to phone the one this,” the reporter said when he ar- only three years ago after agonizing person who might tell me something— rived. over it because they were deeply rooted the Sunday editor of our regional news- “It’s really alright,” I reassured him. in Germany.” paper, the Valley News. Since I wrote Me, the mom, me, the therapist, me, Jack Ford broke in: “It sounds like occasional features for the paper, I the fellow writer. Me, still strangely it’s not an understatement to describe knew about scanners that monitor po- composed. them as beloved members of the lice communications. His story, published the next morn- Dartmouth community.” He didn’t get “Steve, something awful has hap- ing, was factual and dignified. That it. This intelligent, experienced news- pened next door; have you heard any- day, requests for interviews began com- man didn’t comprehend. I pounded thing on the scanner?” ing in by phone, e-mail, fax and by the sofa in frustration. “No,” he said. “Oh, wait a minute.” knocks on our door—we finally lost But when I viewed the tape as I Silence, then his somber voice. count at 47. prepared to write this article, I saw him “They are saying ‘two down at 115 “Mom, write a statement to hand glancing at his watch, perhaps scarcely Trescott.’” “Down” is police talk for out to the media,” Cindy advised be- hearing my words. Yet he had allowed dead, I think he added. fore she and John left for home, but me one minute, 16 seconds for my An eternity passed. I looked out the that sounded too mechanical. I wanted message. I thank him for that. door every few minutes, as though I to honor Half and Susanne with spon- In contrast, we worked with “Date- could will Bob and Cindy back. Then I taneous, heartfelt words. line” for five and a half hours, resulting saw them dragging along the driveway, At five a.m. on January 29, the tech- in a glimpse of my tearful face and very heads bowed, shoulders slumped. A nical crew for “Good Morning America” few words. Other interviews were policeman walked behind them, but began setting up satellite connections. scheduled, cancelled, rescheduled, when I rushed out calling, “Don’t tell At 8:15 that morning, Bob and I were then some shows were never aired. I me they’re dead,” he turned away. being interviewed live. didn’t see all the coverage, but in terms “Mom, come in the house,” Cindy “Ms. McCollum, you were friends of of my aim of portraying two remark- said, and she told me Half and Susanne the Zantops, you’ve been neighbors able people, our grueling TV time had been murdered. for a number of years. Tell us some- seemed mostly squandered.

86 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 When Journalists Arrive…

Much of the early print coverage the sessions, and at times he did. Still, peared on the front page of the Globe. that I saw was responsible and broadly he was bombarded by phone calls: But those words failed to assuage the accurate, although words I never used “Just one question, Doctor McCollum,” anguish stirred among the couples’ were attributed to me: “pool of blood,” a frenetic reporter would plead. friends and daughters. There was out- for example—the image revolts me. For me, the more thoughtful inter- rage, too, and some of that leaked on But a grievous miscommunication was views were therapeutic, allowing me to me. published in The (London) Times. go over and over the tragedy like a “Audrey, I think it is really best not Combining material from our 90- traumatized child after surgery. The to talk to the media at all. They sensa- minute interview with information from reiterations slowly anchored my sense tionalize absolutely everything and others, the reporter wrote a detailed of reality; I’d been sliding in and out of misquote everyone.” This e-mail mes- story that I read online. My gaze froze disbelief, as though this must be a film sage came from one of the Zantops’ on these words about Susanne: “This like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”—a film intimates, a brilliant scholar, a wise vigilance took the form of a lifelong that would end. and warm mentor to students, and a determination to dissociate friend of mine. “I do think herself from Germany and you should know that the its history.” ‘I find the media spins hurtful, response to your statements Wrong! Susanne dedi- painful and your participation has not been uniformly posi- cated her scholarly life to tive…. I find the media spins exploring German literature seems to me to feed the frenzy.’ hurtful, painful and your par- and the history that shaped ticipation seems to me to feed it; she took students to Ger- the frenzy,” she wrote a few many on terms abroad; she visited her Yet the intense discussions took their days later. “I don’t see what can come family. I was angry and embarrassed toll, and Bob worried as I developed out of telling the press and TV that that this misconception seemed to ema- what I called “mediatitis”: a hoarse Susanne and Half were wracked by nate from me. voice and dry cough. I kept misplacing professional anxieties—the Globe uses Worse, though, was my sense of things and, normally fleet of foot, I that to imply that Susanne’s work hab- betrayal in an interview with a Boston began staggering. One evening I slid its drove Half to affairs….” journalist. I told all reporters that the into a hot bath to soak the aches away, Reading her words, I felt drenched police had asked my husband not to and 90 minutes later Bob found me with shame. describe what he saw that dreadful slumbering in an empty tub. Fortu- I searched the Globe. For a back- night and most accepted that. This nately, the drain had slowly leaked. ground story, I had indeed mentioned writer guided me through a thoughtful “Why are you doing all this?” His the Zantops’ academic worries. But so discussion of the Zantops, her manner voice was harsh with irritation. had others. “The way [Susanne] pushed earnest and respectful. Then, after an “Because I need to,” I snapped. Since herself all the time was very hard on a hour, she suddenly blurted, “Is it true late childhood, when I tried to be the lot of us, including Half,” said a col- their throats were cut?” I almost threw linchpin holding together a severely league. I felt relieved that I wasn’t alone up. “For God’s sake! These were my troubled family, the capacity to meet in painting a realistic portrait of their dear friends!” I protested. challenges has been a foundation of lives. She flushed, apologized and de- my self-esteem. This seemed like an- Had I stoked the media frenzy? Had scribed the relentless pressure she and other traumatic time in which I could my attempt to honor dear friends actu- colleagues were under to supply every be useful, and I had received notes of ally caused harm? detail to their editors. Her newspaper appreciation, one from Dartmouth’s Frantic, I put these questions to a and others were competing intensely president and his wife. Newsweek correspondent who had to attract the most readers. Yet I couldn’t fully answer Bob’s interviewed me, then stayed in touch Relentless pressure for us all. question. I needed to sort through the by phone and e-mail. In his communi- Most mornings, my husband and I media experience, so I began working cations, I had sensed integrity. “Here went skiing, renewing our sense of life on an article that ran in The Dartmouth are my thoughts about whether your in the bracing air, enjoying our rhyth- on February 22. comments ‘feed’ the media frenzy,” he mic body movements, spotting tracks But on February 16, The Boston wrote in reply. “I don’t think they do. of tiny critters in the snow. But our 46- Globe published a story that sundered What they do is feed the frenzy sur- year marriage was strained by the me- the community. In part, it read, “Inves- rounding you specifically, because once dia demands. The interviews tortured tigators believe the killings…were reporters see you quoted, more will Bob, reviving the ghastly memory of crimes of passion, most likely resulting call…. But as to the story as a whole, the sight he had seen next door. They from an adulterous affair involving Half your participation…has no effect…on interfered with his style of coping: com- Zantop, according to authorities close the media’s appetite for reporting the partmentalizing his pain, not allowing to the case.” story. If you don’t talk, they move on to it to engulf him. I urged him to avoid On February 21, a retraction ap- the next potential source…. We’ve al-

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 87 Words & Reflections

ready seen the sorry effects of an infor- ence, hand out written statements, say For my part, in identifying with jour- mation vacuum…. Sadly, the lack of “no comment.” One group did hire a nalists and in using reporters as quasi- information fuels speculation and ru- security guard. therapists, I had been somewhat self- mor and, inevitably, error. That’s a For me, it was startling to discover serving. Yet I also did some damage problematic dynamic in the media, but that in speaking with one reporter I control, quashing at least one vicious one that persists independently of your might essentially be speaking to 20; rumor and diverting some pressure choice to take reporters’ questions…. that is, I was unaware of the transmis- from those unwilling to speak. And I No, you have not abetted the media’s sions of wire services and of affiliates did contribute to several richly tex- intrusions into the community.” I sent within TV. Each time my comments tured portraits of two remarkable him an e-mail hug. were relayed, changes of context or people. But after the Globe fiasco, I felt wary wording could occur. Quotation marks In crisis, I did the best I could. That of the press. And when two teenagers were excessively and carelessly used. realization brought peace. ■ were arrested as suspects in the mur- Most reprehensible, though, was the der, and media spotlights shifted to- Globe’s choice to publish a defamatory Audrey McCollum is a retired psy- ward them, I was relieved. Yet the self- story attributed to anonymous chotherapist and the author of five doubt stirred by my friend’s reproaches sources—an account of alleged adul- nonfiction books including “Smart lingered on and infiltrated my grief tery that some readers still believe. Moves: Your Guide Through the about Half and Susanne. Grief is com- True, I cite unidentified persons in this Emotional Maze of Relocation,” and posed of sadness and longing, and article. Yet their comments were pri- “Two Women, Two Worlds,” a mem- often anger, too. When guilt is stirred vate communications to me. Their view- oir of her 16-year friendship with a into the psychic stew, clinical depres- points and roles are important, but not mountain dweller in Papua New sion takes over. For two months, I their names. In contrast, the Globe’s Guinea struggling to lead women teetered at the edge, ruminating often. informants made statements for public into the modern world. This article I hadn’t experienced “the media” as consumption, but were unwilling to is an expanded and updated version a juggernaut: Nobody forced me to accept responsibility for them. Com- of “Mediatitis,” published in The speak. Others in the community did bined with market pressures to attract Dartmouth on February 22, 2001. feel harassed, especially when report- readers with sensational content, the ers began tracking rumors. I don’t know use of such sources leads to a serious [email protected] if those distressed people exercised blurring of fact and fiction—an abroga- their options—to hold a press confer- tion of responsibility to the public.

The Chandra Levy Story What does media coverage look and feel like from the other side?

By Kim Petersen

s executive director of the Carole Our work with the media encom- sence, and often someone who might Sund/Carrington Memorial Re- passes anything from providing a fam- hear or see a report might have heard A ward Foundation, I found my- ily spokesperson when the family is or seen something that could help lo- self in the midst of the top story in the unable to speak with members of the cate this person. Within hours of our nation—the missing Washington, D.C. media to assisting with fielding media foundation being contacted, local intern—when the family turned to us calls and scheduling interviews for the broadcast media began calling me on for help. Our organization was estab- family. Families who find themselves my cell phone to cover the story at the lished in memory of the three women in these circumstances have no idea request of their affiliates in D.C. murdered outside Yosemite National what to do or where to begin. So it was A press conference was quickly Park in February 1999 to assist families for the Levys when they contacted us scheduled in the Levy home that after- whose loved ones are missing or have only a few days after reporting their noon. Two days later Mrs. Levy was been murdered. While our primary daughter missing. sharing her daughter’s story with the function is to post reward money for Our experience with missing per- country on “Good Morning America.” families in these circumstances who sons’ cases has taught us the impor- Soon the case of the missing 24-year- don’t have the resources to do so, we tance of getting the media involved as old intern was being aired across the also act as a media liaison. quickly as possible. Time is of the es- nation as rumors of a potential roman-

88 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 When Journalists Arrive… tic relationship with a congressman provided a press room in which to shows. I understand how critical it is to surfaced. I’m not certain how the ru- conduct interviews. While we were be the “first” to air the story or to be the mors started, although many reporters there, media camped out at our hotel show that gets the “live” shot. Even called to ask me why Congressman and either preceded our arrival or fol- before this experience, I’d been in the Gary Condit posted a $10,000 reward. lowed us to every meeting and ap- middle of two of the morning shows As word traveled that a trip to Wash- pointment we had scheduled. Instantly haggling over which one gets the live ington, D.C. was scheduled for her the story of Chandra Levy, the missing shot and who has to pre-tape and which parents and myself, the story skyrock- intern, was the top story in the nation. gets the optimal location because of eted. We received a glimpse of what Nearly every show called requesting an having to share space. was to come when, just before our interview—“we need just a couple min- But this story was different. The departure from California, we were utes of the Levys’ time,” they’d say. My networks and crews seemed to truly paged and asked to deplane to take a cell phone rang nonstop at all hours. understand the pain this family was phone call. Airline agents in Baltimore When I would attempt to listen to my experiencing and worked together in stated that they were being besieged messages, both lines of my cell phone ways I’d never experienced. They un- with media calls and crews wanting to would ring nonstop, preventing me derstood the family’s desire to get their speak with the Levys upon daughter’s story out to their arrival at the airport. the public in every way Baltimore airport officials possible and were will- worked diligently during ing to do their part to our cross-country flight to help them accomplish prepare for this media on- that goal. They worked slaught and to have appro- together to minimize the priate security measures in stress on the family even place. to the extent of sharing Upon landing, we cameras for live shots so deplaned first and were Mrs. Levy wouldn’t have greeted at the gate by se- to move to a new loca- curity and airport person- tion or miss getting her nel who notified us that daughter’s story on an- the media were gathered other show due to time and anxiously awaiting our constraints on the part arrival. With security sur- of the networks. It was rounding us, we walked amazing to witness and through the airport to the a great example of how podium to make a few much can be accom- comments. After several Chandra Ann Levy, Congressman Gary Condit, and Jennifer Baker shown plished when people minutes of comments and in a November 2000 personal photo taken on a visit to Condit’s office work together toward a questions, we were on our before Jennifer Baker became an intern in his office. Photo courtesy of The positive goal. way to our waiting car with Modesto Bee. Not only did the security, camera crews, crews and reporters and reporters on all sides. work together and not One cameraman who was walking back- from clearing my messages to allow argue over who got the first shot or the wards in front of us fell over a large room for more. best location; they treated the Levys planter in his quest to videotape our These moments proved a good re- with great compassion both on and off walk to the car. While he fortunately minder of why our foundation pro- camera. It helped to make an incred- was not injured, it showed us just what vides media liaison services. A family in ibly difficult and painful circumstance lengths those in the media would go this situation could never handle the just a little easier for the family to through to cover this story. media requests while they tried to get endure. Many people, including some Being surrounded by media and through each day. As it was, I was in the media, don’t realize that as fami- security in the airport was a new and having a very difficult time and getting lies in difficult circumstances, such as overwhelming experience for these by on about three hours of sleep each the Levys, tell their story over and over, parents in the midst of such difficult night: Interviews began in early morn- it’s like reopening a very painful wound. circumstances. They were both emo- ing and continued late into the evening. It’s extremely difficult, but they do it tionally and physically exhausted, yet Having worked with media on sev- because they recognize its importance they knew it was critical to get the word eral occasions in the past, I am fully and are therefore willing to endure the out about their missing daughter. aware of the competitiveness between pain. Understanding this emotional During our stay in D.C., our hotel the networks, particularly the morning trade-off that families go through can

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 89 Words & Reflections

help journalists be more effective when me. Though I am well aware that a read and heard reports in which they’ve working with people who are in such large and very critical component of stated that a picture of the congress- difficult and painful situations. her job is to establish a positive work- man and Chandra was found in her While the majority of the bookers, ing relationship with me so as to ac- apartment. Actually, this picture was producers, crews and reporters have quire interviews for her network, our taken of Chandra, the congressman, been a pleasure to work with and very relationship and the trust level I had and a friend of hers, but some news understanding of the emotional strain with her were greatly compromised organizations cropped it to show only Chandra’s parents have been under, after this incident. Chandra and the congressman. This unfortunately there have been a few There have also been several occa- type of reporting is very misleading to who went too far. There were the me- sions when reports have been made the public; it deceives the viewer by dia “stalkers,” reporters who followed that human remains were located or telling the part of the story the media the family or myself wherever we went that they had credible information as want to emphasize. Displaying the real and yet claimed to have arrived at the to where Chandra’s body was buried. photograph with the three of them particular location by chance. There These reports turned out to be incor- presents a very different scenario than was also a crew that followed the Levys rect but, understandably, have been showing Chandra and the congress- on a weekend getaway when it had very painful for the family. It’s so diffi- man alone. been agreed upon that they would be cult in high-profile cases to take the In looking back over the past three left alone for the weekend. The pool time to adequately research these tips months, working with the media in camera stayed, yet some individual net- before reporting them due to the pres- covering this case has been both a works followed them on their own. sure to be first to report new informa- pleasure as well as an exhausting ad- At times, the media cooperated with tion. But practicing this type of unsub- venture. Being in the midst of a case of each other while they camped out in stantiated reporting is not only very this magnitude is quite an experience. front of the Levy home. The networks stressful for the family involved but I’ve learned a lot and believe that many had agreed to use a pool camera out- can, over time, erode public confidence in the press have learned as well. My side the home to help alleviate the in the news journalists convey. hope is that the compassion and caring additional stress and strain of having The cable news channels have cov- attitude shown to Dr. and Mrs. Levy multiple cameras, crews and reporters ered the story nonstop from the begin- during this very difficult time could there and minimize subjecting the par- ning. They cover it on several of their carry over and be offered to anyone ents to the same questions over and shows and often break into their shows being interviewed at tough times in over again. That was a tremendous to bring something live whenever they their lives. help. At other times, relations were feel it could be of value. Often when This experience also demonstrates less than friendly. Occasionally, one they break into coverage with impor- again the immense power of the media network would complain to me about tant news, they do so prematurely and to inform the entire nation, not to the behavior of another network— end up having to explain that the tip or mention much of the world, and to do never anything major, but just enough information was a hoax or turned out so at a speed that can be breathtak- that I would hear about it. not to be related to the case. This ing—with positive or negative impacts. With the barrage of media calls a coverage has been painful for the Levys; Solving a missing person’s case requires case like this elicits, it’s impossible to friends or family members see it air and teamwork among law enforcement, cooperate with each broadcast or print call the family to tell them to turn it on. families, the media, and the public. request. Rumors also abound as each Watching these breaking news details When media do their job responsibly network attempts to provide the very on television, then having them turn and, as in this case, compassionately, latest in the story. On several occa- out to be nothing, further jolts their the extraordinary strain on families such sions, media outlets broadcast stories emotions. as the Levys will be eased. ■ in which reporters cited another me- Many of the cable talk show hosts dia organization as the source before have been discussing the case with Kim Petersen is the executive direc- looking into it themselves. panels of experts with varying degrees tor of the Carole Sund/Carrington This kind of shoot-from-the-hip jour- of expertise. While their ongoing dis- Memorial Reward Foundation nalism occurred all too frequently. One cussions about the case have kept (www.carolesundfoundation.com) producer with whom I had been work- Chandra’s story in front of the public, which works with families whose ing called and yelled at me, accusing these often turn into battles and argu- loved ones are missing or have been me of lying to her because she saw a ments in which no one’s point is heard murdered. She serves as an advocate show announcing that they had an as they are all talking over each other and a liaison to law enforcement “exclusive” that I knew nothing about. and so emotional, with little control on agencies for victims and their fami- She hadn’t taken time to find out the the part of the host. lies. authenticity of the report or assess my Both print and broadcast media have possible knowledge of the situation. shown a photograph of Chandra and [email protected] Instead, she called to yell and swear at Congressman Gary Condit. I’ve even

90 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 When Journalists Arrive… A Bullet, a Boy, a Story, and a Reporter’s Observations A journalist with an injured family member witnesses the press in action.

By Robert Salladay

bullet went through my Many of the messages offered prayers lence in our circle. We hadn’t seen nephew’s chest and out his side for Triston, or personal stories of being each other in years. I barely recognized A without much medical fuss. Two subject to media scrutiny. In nearly many of them. stitches on either end and he left the every instance, family members and A local TV cameraman quickly hospital with a bottle of Vicodin. His victims said they felt betrayed and walked by with his gear. He didn’t stop, heart was just missed, and the family preyed upon, particularly by TV re- but blurted out: “You guys family?” was thankful for the randomness of porters, who promised them insight- Triston’s 24-year-old half brother certain trajectories. ful, compassionate coverage and then soundly said, “No,” even before the Triston Salladay, the 14-year-old son produced cliché-ridden stories. Former man was finished speaking. of my brother, was injured at Santana reporters wrote to say they left the The cameraman whirled around and High School in San Diego County last business because they felt guilty for said, “Hey, we’re not the enemy. We’re March. In a country of 281 million embracing these victims for a single not the enemy, man.” He’s upset at us. people, our family was chosen to take day, then moving on to another story. It’s a nice little package, effortless in a hit for the strange subculture of I told a friend, an editor for the San its efficiency. Roles are taken. Defenses stressed-out teenagers, reporters, guns Jose Mercury News, about the response. are offered. and the reassuring narcotic of TV He replied in a half-joking way: “Con- Triston’s other half brother, who is sociobabble. gratulations. This shooting has been 19, received 41 phone calls from the Within minutes of the shooting, the really good for you.” He was right. I felt media on his answering machine the country moved into position. It had guilty for so publicly revealing the in- day of the shooting. A producer from been practiced, done before. I took my ner workings of our family at the same one national morning show said he place as well, as a reporter, family mem- time I contemplated the intrusiveness must call them back or they will show ber, and media confessor for a day. of the media. Had I been using Triston’s up at his doorstep and stick a camera in At about noon on March 5, my step- shooting to advance my career, to make his face. mother phoned the Sacramento bu- a point at his expense? I wrote the story Even the threats seemed clichéd. reau of The San Francisco Chronicle. for several reasons. I wanted to make a The New York Times called my brother She informed me that what I’d in the hospital. He handed the been watching on CNN all phone to me, the media expert. morning had meaning. Triston Embarrassed that other family had been shot and might be Deadlines force trivialization members might hear me, I nev- dead. I went to San Diego and and inexactitude. Perhaps ertheless told some of the story spent the next day with Triston. people should look elsewhere as Triston had related it to me. When I returned that night, A student had comforted my editor gingerly asked me to for their meaning. Triston while he pressed a write about the experience. sweater down on his chest to Nothing I have ever written hold the wound closed. has produced as much response from point about the media and had the That’s what she probably wanted, readers, in part because the Chronicle opportunity to get very close to a na- stories like that. But somehow only took the unusual step of printing a tional story. I knew that I could get platitudes and story fragments came critique of itself and other newspapers details nobody else could get. But the out of my mouth. I even knew that a on the front page. The headline read, decision to write the story came after I teacher or some school employee had “A Reporter Sees Tragedy From the returned from San Diego, after it was brusquely discounted Triston’s claim Other Side.” Any given story will prompt clear Triston would be okay. that he had been shot after he ran up five or six e-mails. My first-person ar- I found it easy to stop being a jour- screaming amid the chaos. She re- ticle for the Chronicle, which was re- nalist during the week after the shoot- treated into a classroom, leaving Triston printed in several newspapers and ing. On the day after the shooting, the outside. I didn’t say anything about it, online news sites, produced 250 re- four or five smokers in Triston’s thor- nor my brother’s seemingly natural sponses. I’ve saved most of them on a oughly disjointed family gathered out- wish that the shooter should be killed. computer disk for Triston. side the hospital. There was some si- Newspapers rarely get it exactly right,

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 91 Words & Reflections

because people act like I did that day. ard. The Chronicle conducts an online Triston is bold with his affection de- The reporter asked three times for the poll asking people if the shooter should spite erratic and occasionally distant name of this Good Samaritan who held be executed. relatives. His family tree looks some- down Triston’s wound. She explained It’s all placed into position, devoid thing like a cross section of a lung. His how Triston might want to get some of real feeling and emotion. It takes on father married a woman with six chil- recognition for this young man who a shiny professionalism. I found that dren, and he already had three half might have saved his life. what I wrote for the Chronicle, much brothers. Triston has a remarkable, All I could think was: “You’re trying of which is reprinted here, took on charismatic way of silently piercing you that ploy on me? I know that tactic. I’ve sheen as well. It made me uncomfort- with his gaze after telling you some- used it. Think of some benevolent rea- able. I later wished it had been hidden thing mundane. son for this person to give up the name. somewhere inside the paper; I felt un- “He has a writer’s way of finding Then move on to another person’s comfortable telling my brother that I ironies, such as the teachers who privacy, another anecdote.” had written about his son. Triston and banned Harry Potter books, calling The day reminded me of the final I have never talked about the piece. them too childish, but read the books scene in “Six Degrees of Separation,” I don’t know what could have been themselves. Or the high school associ- the play about a wealthy New York art done differently by the newspapers ate who constantly teased and harassed dealer and his wife who shelter a young and TV stations that covered the shoot- him, but called almost in tears after the man found bloody at their door. As ing. Deadlines force trivialization and shooting to say how worried he was. every East Side matron hungrily de- inexactitude. Perhaps people should Triston has four major scars from skate- mands details from their incredible look elsewhere for their meaning. boarding and other outside activities. tale, Ouisa Kittredge, the wife, stands Triston’s mother found the descrip- Now he has two scars from a bullet up at a dinner party to say: “This was tion of her son in the San Diego news- wound and his own story to tell.” ■ not an anecdote! It was an experience.” paper to be a little cold. The reporter If we’re looking for an explanation had found a single friend who described Robert Salladay covers state govern- for the Santana shooting, let’s start him as “funny.” The story about Triston, ment and politics for The San Fran- with a culture that strips away mean- the drama, centered on getting his fa- cisco Chronicle. This article updates ing. Everything must be talked about. ther, Greg, back to California through and expands his original Chronicle Risk factors must be examined. Pat- an East Coast storm. article. He has worked for The (San terns must be found. The day after the The little paragraph about the Francisco) Examiner and The Oak- shooting “TalkBack Live” did “When wounded should have, perhaps, read land Tribune. Kids Kill: Who’s to Blame?” Governors something like this: “Triston Salladay, and presidents are shocked and sad- 14, shot in the chest. Good condition [email protected] dened. The shooter is labeled a cow- UCSD hospital. Friends and family said

My Son Became a Voice the Media Relied on For mother and son, ‘the tug-and-pull of the media was unnerving.’

By Barbara Schardt

arch 5 began like every other what concert might be in town to ing in the background, then deadly Monday morning, except I was whether John-David had lunch money silence. He was no longer on the phone. Mon call. If I didn’t receive a or the books he needed. Invariably, he My heart stopped beating. I had to phone call by seven a.m., I’d have the had forgotten either a book or, more catch my breath. I hung up the phone, day off. That hour came and went with- recently, his camera, since he was now told myself to remain calm and not to out a call, so my mind turned to think- passionate about photography. We said panic. ing about all I could get done that day our good-byes, and I watched him hurry Turn the TV on, I told myself. A local as I went to get my 17-year-old son, off to class. station was doing a live news feed. John-David, out of bed. “You have 20 Later that morning, John-David There had been a shooting at Santana minutes to get to school,” I told him. called me at home. Before the phone High: Two students were dead, others Our drive to school went as it usu- was to my ear, I heard him say, injured. Students were being evacu- ally did, with about eight minutes of “Mom…there’s been a shooting at the ated to a staging area across the street. conversation with topics ranging from school….” I heard yelling and scream- I heard the words without quite believ-

92 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 When Journalists Arrive… ing what I was hearing. I tried calling At times, the tug-and-pull of the do these particular interviews because the school, knowing I wouldn’t get media was unnerving: It seemed every of how we were approached; I did not through. I didn’t, and decided to call reporter wanted a piece of John-David, feel threatened by the people who the sheriff’s department, where they and they wouldn’t leave him alone. spoke with us from these programs confirmed the news. I made one more Our phone rang at all hours of the day and appreciated the ways in which they call to my former husband in San Fran- and night, and everyone expected him went about gaining our confidence and cisco, who is a police lieutenant with to respond to them immediately. There their willingness to tell the story cor- the San Francisco Police Department. I were times when all of this became rectly. In fact, after we had agreed to do certainly did not want him hearing frightening for me and for John-David. the ABC morning show, they provided about this second hand. He asked me He handled it well and remained re- us with a person who “ran defense” for to contact him as soon as I made con- spectful to all, but at times I was wor- us; if someone from another network tact with John-David. ried that the media had taken control. approached, our “defense person” told Santana High is only a few minutes Or so it seemed. them we were doing their show and from our home. I drove there having Upon returning home from school that was that. Having this person to no idea what happened to my son. He that day, we were confronted at our help us was a big relief. With managed to call me within minutes of front door by a newspaper reporter. I “Nightline,” the producer kept his dis- the shooting, but I knew nothing more. found that extremely scary, and I be- tance, provided us time to think about Was he hiding? Was he in danger? A gan to understand how relentless mem- what we wanted to do, and didn’t fol- million scenarios ran through my mind. bers of the media were going to be in low us around all day. Those personal All I could think about was qualities were what convinced Columbine and the students John-David to go on that who hid out and made phone show. calls to their parents. John-David also did sev- Tears were flowing as I ap- eral local broadcasts on TV proached the intersection at and radio and also on radio Mast and Magnolia where stations in San Francisco and emergency vehicles were ev- Los Angeles. We received nu- erywhere. Many parents were merous calls from news me- on foot, charging toward the dia outside of California. Our school. All of this was becom- voice mail stopped taking new ing all too real to me, despite messages on that first day the surreal environment. once it reached 35 messages. In this sea of people, all They were all calls from mem- looking for someone, I bers of the media. John-David searched for John-David. After received requests to be inter- about 20 minutes I found him. Barbara Schardt’s son, John-David, being interviewed by the viewed for several articles: As I walked towards him, I al- media in March 2001. After many days of being interviewed, he The New York Times, USA most laughed inside. This was, told a reporter, “I’m sick of myself.” Photo by Monica Almeida/ Weekend magazine, and in part, a sign of my relief at NYT Pictures. Upfront (a magazine geared finding him alive and unhurt, for teens). He was invited to but also because members of appear on “Politically Incor- the media were encircling him, leaving getting their story. I remember this rect” with Bill Maher. his face all but hidden by a sea of woman from CBS’s morning show. She To be caught in this media frenzy microphones. He was telling stories followed us—literally stalked us— could be overwhelming for anyone. I that he’d tell again and again, as the throughout the entire day while John- knew my son had reached a burnout media remained fixated on telling the David did interviews. She wanted an point when he began declining inter- Santana story. “exclusive,” she said, and was rude and views. At one point, in fact in an inter- Little did John-David or I know that pushy in her approach. Another woman view he did with The New York Times, his life was about to change in ways we with CNN’s “Larry King Live” tried to John-David said, “I’m sick of myself.” couldn’t have imagined. But during entice us with an offer of another ex- To me, he confided, “I just don’t want the next week, it felt as though we were clusive. She went as far as getting Larry to give another interview. I’m done for riding a roller coaster as John-David King on the phone to talk with us. a while.” became a voice to which many in the It became apparent to me I had to At that point, members of the me- media turned for storytelling and com- regain as much control as I could. An dia, for the most part, respected his ment. As his parent, I wanted to let him exclusive was given to “Good Morning wishes and left him alone. The respect handle this situation in ways that felt America,” and John-David agreed to shown by most in the media to this right to him, but I also felt protective. appear on “Nightline.” We decided to decision sent an important signal to

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 93 Words & Reflections

us; having already discovered the some- understand that some did not want to tive emerged from the tragedy at his times heartless nature of the beast, get involved in telling and retelling school. His experience in coping with John-David now had a chance to see what had happened. what happened, and in working with another side, a more compassionate I remember thinking that morning the media, has made him grow in many one. This is perhaps one reason that when I arrived at the school that every- ways. He is still taking pictures, the experience, in the end, served to one standing there was fair game for freelancing for a newspaper, and will interest John-David in possibly work- the media. Every time I looked up, I begin an internship with a local TV ing in the media one day. saw reporters talking with students or station in San Diego. He graduates Many students and parents success- parents or bystanders, then moving on from high school next year and begins fully avoided the blitz of the media. as they “targeted” the next person to another journey in his life. But I know Some parents chose to keep their chil- talk with. As they approached, that he will carry with him forever that dren totally away from contact with the person had the right to talk or not talk, March morning and how it changed his media, but this was not possible for us but not talking to the media got harder life. I know I will. ■ after John-David did the initial inter- and harder to do as more reporters views at the school. It had been his arrived, each seeking sources of infor- Barbara Schardt works in hospital decision in those early moments to mation. My sense at the time was that if administration for a major HMO speak with the press, and he was, in my people remained at the scene, they and is the mother of John-David, view, doing a good job in trying to were fair game for the media. If they who attends Santana High, where he respond to their questions. Every stu- didn’t want to be hounded by the me- will be a senior this fall. dent on campus that day had a story to dia, then my feeling was they should go tell, as did every parent. Each story home and stay away from the school. [email protected] offered a unique perspective, but I For John-David, much that is posi- With Child-Care Stories, It Still Comes Down to Mothers Negative findings grab the headlines.

By Barbara A. Willer

he number of mothers working more likely to show signs of aggressive ence call. Then, there were deadline outside the home has grown dra- or assertive behavior than comparable pressures to conend with to get a story Tmatically in recent decades. To- children not in child care. into the paper, on TV or the radio. day, nearly two-thirds of mothers of For a number of reasons, it is not a What is more surprising, and disap- children under age six are in the labor surprise that this negative news—un- pointing, was the underlying theme of force. With more than 13 million pre- like other more positive findings about much of the news coverage. It effec- school-age children in some form of enhanced language skills announced tively blamed parents—and more spe- non-parental care, the need for child in the same study—quickly filled news- cifically mothers—of young children care is clear. But one wouldn’t know paper headlines. “Child Care Breeds for needing child care in the first place. this from observing recent news cover- Aggression,” “Child Care Leads to Bul- Not long after the inflammatory head- age of a child-care study in which some lying,” and “Day Care Linked to Aggres- lines, many reports—especially on tele- in the news media seemed willing to sion” were typical examples. It is cer- vision—featured interviews with guilt- use selective findings to bolster unreal- tainly true that the media have a well ridden working moms confessing how istic and outdated notions about work established tendency to focus on the badly they felt for leaving their chil- and family. negative and to oversimplify the often dren in these horrible situations. Some In April, the National Institute for complex details of scientific studies. described how the study’s reported Child Health and Human Also, in this instance, reporters who findings confirmed their worst fears or Development’s (NICHD) “Study of filed the initial stories had no pub- touched too closely their ambivalence Early Child Care” released preliminary lished report to help them put this about such parenting decisions. findings from one phase of its long- study’s array of preliminary findings The days and weeks after the release term investigation. Among them was a into a broader context. Instead, the of the study brought more balanced finding that young children who spent findings were presented by several of coverage. (The Dallas Morning News more time in child care were slightly the researchers in a telephone confer- was one of the few newspapers that

94 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 When Journalists Arrive… brought commendable balance to its child care today are from two-parent strong foundation for learning. initial coverage with a headline that families in which both parents are strug- When a study reveals potential prob- read, “‘Smart and Nasty’ Study; Child gling to meet the family budget. Others lems with child care, it seems strange— Care Breeds Aggression, Enhances have single parents facing even tougher given our nation’s social and economic Abilities.”) Reporters talked with re- situations. And many are headed by circumstances—that the initial round searchers who noted that the 17 per- single parents who were recently told of headlines and stories should point cent of children in child care who that welfare reform meant they had to toward the unrealistic conclusion that showed signs of aggression is the same find child-care arrangements and go to mothers should stay home. Instead, percent one would find in the overall work. Yet a consistent theme of this reporters should try to assess the ample child population. Others figured out media coverage was that if child care evidence that exists about child care that 83 percent of children in child care leads to behavior problems, parents and inform people about the challenges didn’t show signs of aggression. And should take their children out of child the field faces in offering high-quality some follow-up stories included other care. Often the stories seemed to ig- care for more children as well as the findings, for example that children who nore the fact that for millions of fami- benefits to children and families that spent more time in child-care centers lies that “solution” is not an option. this kind of care can provide. were more likely to display better lan- Part of this theme stems from the The easy story for a reporter is one guage skills and have better short-term propensity of journalists to cover child- telling us that negative findings about memory, or that children in higher- care issues anecdotally. There is logic child care have mothers concerned. quality programs were less likely to to this approach, because it helps con- The tougher, and more important story, show signs of aggressive behavior. nect the audience with the topic, and is one that explains why that report While reporting of these smaller child care is a crucial issue for parents should concern all of us and how con- details improved, the larger theme— and families. But the debate about child structive changes might occur. ■ pointing to working mothers as the care is never just personal; it’s also a core of the “child-care dilemma”—re- critical public policy issue with impor- Barbara A. Willer is the deputy mained in place. This is hard to excuse. tant ramifications for children’s educa- executive director for the National Reporters might not be experts in the tion and well-being and for the ability Association for the Education of nuances of early childhood develop- of employers to find and retain quali- Young Children (NAEYC), the ment, but they should be able to con- fied workers. In fact, the NICHD study nation’s largest organization of vey a basic understanding of the social is part of a growing body of research early childhood professionals. and economic realities confronted by showing how high-quality child care many families with young children. and other early education programs [email protected] Many of the millions of children in help provide young children with a

Journalists Ask Questions, Then Refuse to Answer Them ‘How can we have the guts to run a controversial story and then put a muzzle on staffers to comment?’

By David Folkenflik

spokeswoman for a small but She works for Baltimore’s CBS televi- a parent’s whipped-up worries, a influential local branch of a ma- sion station, historically the city’s lead- ballplayer’s lament. Each of these sto- A jor American corporation was ing news channel. And the folks from ries share a single ingredient: They helpfully trying to explain why all my whom she is deflecting my questions involve interviews. Once the tape is calls to employees are deflected to her. are journalists who spend most of their rolling, most reporters and producers “If we get a call, it’s routed through PR, day asking questions of others—and display little compunction about ask- and we assess who the best person to expecting to receive answers. ing questions that delve into the most respond is,” she told me. “If you called Turn on the news on that station or private, painful reaches of people’s every company around the city, you’d any of its competitors and you’ll likely lives. It makes for what’s considered find that, normally, those calls go find one of the following: a victim’s sob good television. Every now and then, it through PR.” story, an apparent wrongdoer’s indig- even makes news. But hers is not just any company. nant denial, a public official’s crusade, During the past year, I’ve covered

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 95 Words & Reflections

the television news business as a re- that undermine the credibility of news- to talk about general journalism is- porter and media critic. When I call casts—the “product” these companies sues. The other almost invariably reporters and producers, they routinely are hawking? doesn’t. tell me they’re not allowed to com- It would seem that over time bad The story generated strong response. ment. For some, just the suggestion of ethical positions prove bad for busi- The readers were, understandably, a conversation over coffee stirs fear for ness. Such aloofness (from the public) outraged. The professional journalists, their jobs. The culture of TV news is so and distrust (of their own staffs) does equally angered, were pleased to see firmly tethered to whim and pique, not explain the erosion of ratings on this usually ignored topic receive pub- they say, that they could be fired if their broadcast television. Cable stations and lic exposure. From a newspaper’s TV names were to appear in print. The VCRs probably have much more to do critic: “It’s bad here in Philly—and get- subject of the story almost doesn’t with it. But it doesn’t seem as though ting worse.” From a magazine editor matter. Sounds like the caprice found the networks and local stations are who is a former big-city newspaper in a movie studio—or the CIA. doing themselves any favors by impos- reporter: “How can we have the guts to The CBS station’s spokeswomen ing this kind of silence at a time of run a controversial story and then put inadvertently led me to two extraordi- industry-wide anxiety. a muzzle on staffers to comment?” From nary insights into the thinking of many The networks were probably pretty a network producer: “Even in the places people who are in charge at the nation’s controlling back in the day of Edward where there is no set policy against news outlets. R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, too. speaking to the press, one is still very First, the news business, to them, is CBS broadcaster William Shirer (au- cautious. It’s not merely hypocrisy, it’s a business whose product happens to thor of “Reich: A History of Nazi Ger- also a) cowardice and b) hyper-aware- be news. If that means they’re seen as many”) left the network because of his ness of how reporting works.” providing a public service, so much the tangle with disapproving bosses. But In the column, I quoted an MSNBC better. But it’s not required. That’s the recent absorption of so many me- spokesman who jokingly said the cable why many local stations have standing dia outlets by major corporations can’t news channel put no locks on the orders for all inquiries to be referred to help this situation. The entertainment phones. Keith Olbermann, once an public relations departments. National mega-companies Viacom and Disney, anchor there, suggested otherwise. In networks, too, try to exercise tight con- respectively, own CBS and ABC. The 1998, Olbermann delivered the convo- trol over which employees comment manufacturer and defense contractor cation address at Cornell, his alma about what topic and when they do so General Electric owns NBC, which mater. He gave a talk excoriating his until they get too big to corral. (Those teamed with Microsoft to create industry, his station and himself for prominent journalists who are willing MSNBC. Rupert Murdoch’s News Cor- coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky scan- to criticize themselves, or their peers, poration holds the Fox network and dal, intending to deliver a message of often get tagged as troublemakers.) In the Fox News Channel along with a personal responsibility. doing so, these companies are follow- movie studio, a satellite TV venture, After his remarks received criticism ing the pattern set by General Motors and other interests. The online, enter- from others in the media, the cable or General Electric in hyper-managing tainment and publishing behemoth network forbade Olbermann from com- the company’s image. AOL/Time Warner owns CNN. menting publicly. By Olbermann’s ac- Second, there’s a fundamental lack None of these parent companies count, he wasn’t allowed to return a of trust. These networks and stations display particularly journalistic im- call from a newspaper reporter whom pay their staffs to sort through com- pulses of the kind that might recognize he had known for years. He was even plex stories, often turning their sub- the value of allowing those whose job rebuffed after offering to allow a public jects’ lives upside down in the process. it is to ask questions to answer them as relations staffer to listen in on a differ- But they don’t trust those same news well. ent extension. Olbermann was not long professionals to act competently—to A few months ago, prompted by the for MSNBC. behave themselves, really—when they situation in Baltimore, where I live and At The Sun, our public relations themselves are questioned. If there’s work, I wrote about this phenomenon. director likes to know who gets inter- more tangible evidence of the con- Two of the four local stations with viewed for what, although it appears to tempt with which some media compa- newscasts maintain not exactly a “no be more of an attempt to prove to our nies regard those who report and comment,” but a “don’t comment” new owners, the Tribune Co., that we’re present the nation’s news, I haven’t policy. The rule is that if an outsider part of the great multi-media band- come across it. calls to ask about a story on the air, the wagon than any effort to silence re- These attitudes prompt some im- new station jingle, the meatloaf at the porters. portant questions. If the companies do company cafeteria, or the cube root of I am not suggesting that anyone not trust their own reporters and pro- 27, that call should be bounced word- should be required to speak. But for ducers as professionals, why should lessly to the general manager or spokes- journalists, in particular, I think it can their viewers? And if those staffers are man. One of those two stations some- help restore trust with the public. When not ultimately worthy of trust, doesn’t times allows its reporters and staffers a writer for the Columbia Journalism

96 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 When Journalists Arrive…

Review requested an interview with its credibility by demonstrating to read- through a bit more thoroughly the next Jeff Gerth, the talented but controver- ers its fairness. time. sial investigative reporter for The New Policies intended to button report- All of this should go without saying. York Times, Gerth initially insisted that ers’ lips, whether explicit or not, serve But it shouldn’t pass without com- he speak only off the record. When to keep the decision-making of news ment. ■ challenged, he relented. Yet Gerth’s organizations mysterious and obscure. partner on stories about the Wen Ho Such a policy further distances the David Folkenflik is the television Lee spy charges, James Risen, declined media from the viewers and readers. writer and media critic for The to comment for that piece, even though Journalists should not be forced to (Baltimore) Sun. serious questions had been raised about respond to requests for interviews. But the fairness of their coverage. The Times they might win some converts if they [email protected] felt compelled to publish a story dis- were to offer some insight into how secting the implications of its own ar- they make decisions about their cover- ticles. In doing so, it sought to redeem age. At worst, they might think things

Viewer Dissatisfaction Understates the Anger at Local TV News A journalist reports on audience concerns, but is anyone else paying attention?

By Ike Seamans

n ancient Greece, and later in Rome, versity argues that local TV news is TV critic. “The Firestone tire story was messengers carried news through- “deliberately shortsighted, is rooted in broken by a Houston TV station. How- Iout the empire. If recipients didn’t novelty rather than precision, and fo- ever, they get sidetracked in this rush like it, they’d kill the messenger. We, in cuses on fast breaking events rather to be immediate, to beat or to match the media, are descendants of those than enduring issues.” the competition. That’s where local messengers and now many viewers and At many stations, according to the news falls down.” readers want to kill us. Project for Excellence study, news has I’ve been hearing harsh criticism What they don’t like is that we pro- degenerated into simplistic, sensation- about how local TV does its job from vide information they don’t want and, alized coverage of “eye candy, stunts, viewers since I returned to Miami from worse, we fail to deliver news they do and hype.” A lot of newscasts present NBC eight years ago. It’s getting more want. This might be the main reason important stories by accomplished jour- intense. After writing an op-ed piece why newspapers and TV news—net- nalists, but they’re often buried under for The Miami Herald about what local work and local—have been for years an avalanche of irrelevant and insig- TV is doing wrong, my station asked losing audiences at an alarming pace nificant minutia—usually crimes, acci- me to do a similar investigation for our with no end in sight. dents and fires—because consultants newscast. This assignment was unprec- Local television news is by far the and managers are convinced this so- edented in an industry not known for favorite whipping boy. According to a called “breaking news” is the best way self-criticism. Usually what we do is fall 1999 study by the Project for Excel- to “grab” viewers despite ratings that back on well-worn rationalizations to lence in Journalism, affiliated with the continue to spiral downward, proving explain why audiences are disappear- Graduate School of Journalism at Co- people aren’t buying it. ing, even though several recent presti- lumbia University, “Survey after survey As if to prove the critics correct, a gious studies have identified the real reveals it [local TV news] to be the Miami news director boasts of doing all culprit: It’s us. Plain and simple, view- most trusted source of news in this in abundance, cynically saying the ers don’t like what local TV news is and America…. Yet many critics deride it as audience is afflicted with ADD (Atten- does. the worst of the American news busi- tion Deficient Disorder), their atten- I talked with people of all ages in ness.” In a more recent, scathing re- tion spans so short they can usually most socioeconomic groups. To a per- port, Thomas Patterson of the only handle easy to grasp stories. son, but from their particular vantage Shorenstein Center on the Press, Poli- “A lot of good journalism is going points, people described local TV news tics and Public Policy at Harvard Uni- on,” says Terry Jackson, Miami Herald as being distorted and poorly reported.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 97 Words & Reflections

A rabbi said there’s not enough Jewish “Have they no decency? The questions told me, but keep it in perspective and, news. An African American charged that weren’t even good. ‘Did you know the above all, stop blowing routine news only bad events are covered in his victim?’ ‘How does it feel to live nearby?’ out of proportion just because there is neighborhood. A Colombian woman When they went ‘live,’ the reporters “great picture.” observed that newscasts lump Hispan- were superficial, relying on a police All of this advice is easier said than ics together. A man who is gay re- spokesman. I like breaking news, I acted upon, particularly when many in counted how “stupid” TV reporters want to know what’s going on, but local stations are convinced that view- call his orientation a “lifestyle.” And a local news is extreme and tacky,” this ers such as these aren’t telling the truth. teacher who believes TV news is irrel- college professor said. “This wasn’t “People say they don’t like what we do, evant urged her students not to watch. something that affected the entire com- but secretly they love mayhem and What I found were not people dis- munity, anyway.” fluff,” is the mantra heard constantly in connecting from local TV news; for Again and again, viewers recounted newsrooms. many, a connection to their lives and examples of isolated stories impacting In other businesses, a long-term fail- concerns had never been made. Not few people that wound up leading the ure to increase customers because ex- unrelated was the realization that de- show for no other reason than to titil- ecutives ignore mounting evidence of spite a plethora of TV news outlets, it late the audience for a moment. Before what people say they don’t like about turned out that I was the first television some of the better reported stories the product would result in dismissals journalist most of the people in my appeared, these viewers had already or demotions. But this doesn’t happen story had met. surfed to a different station, conclud- in local news, where tired excuses for I visited kids at a high-school news- ing “Local news is no good.” dwindling audiences seem to thrive on paper. In love with journalism, they “It’s sensationalism that appeals to repetition. “There are too many de- were confused by local TV news. Stu- the lowest common denominator,” mands on viewers’ time,” some con- dent editor Geraldine Rozenman contractor Michael Jordan told me. clude. “They get home too late for the learned one thing from textbooks about “How about some substantial issues early news and can’t stay awake for the news coverage, then saw another on that don’t involve murder and may- late news,” others say. And, more re- TV. “So much sensationalism,” she said. hem, most of which should be put in a cently, we’ve heard a lot about “the “Helicopters swooping in, breathless 30-second segment at the end of the cable option.” reporters on the ground, and for what? show?” If newscasts offered solid content, An accident on I-95? Please. They could “Is posing a reporter outside a hos- perhaps more viewers would tune in devote those resources to something pital or government building hours instead of turning off or seeking alter- important.” after the news is over supposed to natives. But if the audience continues Pericles Jude, born in Haiti, raised make us think something’s still going to shrink, concerns like the ones people in Miami’s predominantly black Lib- on?” asked retiree David Thornburgh. expressed to me won’t matter because, erty City, was disillusioned. “They’re He’s exactly right. Producers have been eventually, nobody will be watching. always covering a drug bust, crime or a taught that “live shots” project imme- But I hope it doesn’t have to go that far robbery, especially where I live. I’ve diacy and excitement, providing a sense before local news responds to what seen the TV guys. They can’t wait to that a story could “break” again at any viewers tell us they want, and we im- leave.” Romina Garber was livid. Last moment, even though their news judg- prove how our reporters treat people year, she covered a huge gay rights rally ment tells them it won’t. in gathering news and how the news before a crucial county commission There’s always been a fine line be- we do report gets conveyed to our vote on a human rights ordinance. tween TV news and entertainment. That viewers. ■ Thrilled, she immediately started look- line’s been wiped out on some local ing for local news reporters. “Nothing, newscasts. “Don’t dumb down your Ike Seamans is senior correspondent nobody, and the organizers were hop- audience,” said Karelia Carbonell, a for WTVJ (NBC) News in Miami. A ing some local TV station would come,” private school counselor. “Intellectu- journalist for 35 years and a former she remembered. “It was so relevant. ally, we want more.” When she occa- NBC News correspondent and bu- An attack against one group is an attack sionally watches TV news, “all stations reau chief in Tel Aviv and Moscow, against everybody. No TV. I guess they look the same.” After I let her know his reporting appears on NBC and were covering something violent.” that some stations do it right, she’s MSNBC. He also writes op-eds and David Burkhard hoped violence tuning in again, but cautiously. A small book reviews for The Miami Herald, wouldn’t visit his neighborhood. But a victory. is a columnist for several commu- couple of years ago, a violent murder No one I spoke with wants “happy nity newspapers in South Florida, did happen to a family across the street. talk” or “family-friendly news.” Few see and writes a weekly commentary for TV trucks and reporters descended, anything offensive about a car chase or his station’s Web site. badgering the victim’s family. They a murder scene, if the story is reported pounded next on Burkhard’s door. intelligently. Cover everything, they Ike.seamans@nbc.com

98 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Books and Commentary Silencing Voices for Racial Change During the 1950’s National magazine editors published those urging moderation and the status quo.

By Carol Polsgrove

ot long after the 1954 Brown v. would not necessarily lead to it. on the half-truths and innuendo with Board of Education decision In January 1956, Harper’s, generally which these articles are often crowded.” Nopened the door to racial a liberal magazine, ran an article in At a time when national magazines change in America, Georgia author which a South Carolina newspaper might well have been leading the way Lillian Smith received what seemed to editor, Thomas R. Waring, attributed to change, they instead opened their her a peculiar request. The Antioch an array of faults to African Ameri- pages to those who resisted it. When Review, a little literary magazine, had cans—venereal disease, illegitimacy, southern white novelist William sent along to her a piece the editor crime, intellectual backwardness. Faulkner wanted to ask the North to proposed to run and asked if she would Harper’s prefaced the article with a “go slow” in pressing desegregation on respond to it. The article, by a New disclaimer: The editors did not agree the South, he turned to Life, and Life York-born, white Alabama professor, with Waring, but published the essay in ran his plea in the spring of 1956. But was little more than an exercise in the interest of “dialogue.” when Lillian Smith cabled Life and contempt. asked for space to respond, the maga- “[M]ost Alabama Negroes,” Norman zine turned her down. A. Brittin wrote, “live in crowded huts It is not hard to see why Life put its and shanties, they are ignorant, they pages at Faulkner’s disposal. He was, are dirty, they are frequently drunken after all, a Nobel Prize winner, highly and immoral, their reading matter is respected by the literary establishment. trashy or nonexistent, their speech is At the same time, Lillian Smith, too, an ungrammatical patois.” The article had a right to be heard. Not as gifted a then went downhill: “By and large, novelist as Faulkner, she had neverthe- Alabama Negroes are still primitives.” less written two bestselling books about Smith, one of several white race in the South, “Strange Fruit” and southerners invited to respond to these “Killers of the Dream.” Both books had views in the same issue, was appalled. reached a wide audience. This was the stuff of demagoguery. Yet Smith, clear about her own sup- Publishing it only encouraged it. Re- port for desegregation, watched while fusing the invitation, she asked the Faulkner and southern newspaper edi- editors, “What has happened to the tors Ralph McGill and Hodding Carter, intellectual life of Antioch?” Jr., published their cautious views in Whatever had happened at the magazines with circulations in the mil- Antioch Review had happened at other lions. Before the Brown decision, nei- magazines. In a November 1956 Atlan- ther McGill, editor of the Atlanta Con- tic Monthly article (identified by an stitution, nor Carter, editor of a smaller editorial note as “the fundamental case paper in Greenville, Mississippi, had for the white South”), Herbert Ravenel In a book titled “The Cold Rebel- favored desegregation outright. Al- Sass maintained that the United States lion: The South’s Oligarchy in Revolt,” though they had spoken against was “overwhelmingly a pure white na- published just a few years later in 1962, segregation’s worst abuses, they had tion” and ought to stay that way. De- African-American journalist Lewis W. not spoken against segregation itself. segregation of the schools would inevi- Jones would offer Waring’s words as Now, since change must come, they tably lead to “widespread racial an example of the many such articles spoke for change, but in good time. amalgamation.” To balance the article, that placed African Americans “in an They, cautious and cautioning, and not the Atlantic published the words of unfavorable light” at this bend of the Lillian Smith, were speaking for the white historian Oscar Handlin who, road. At least, he said, Harper’s editors white South in the big magazines. curiously, accepted Sass’s premise— “had taken pains to point out the Novelist Robert Penn Warren joined the undesirability of social mixing. But author’s errors of fact and logic. Most their moderate voices in a 1956 Life he argued that school desegregation editors do not undertake to comment article that then appeared as a book,

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 99 Words & Reflections

“Segregation.” Reviewing it, Lawrence involved in the NAACP and other politi- Why, at this important time, were Reddick, an African-American history cal organizations. But the most power- the nation’s magazines—still the pri- professor at Alabama State College, ful voices in the big circulation maga- mary vehicle for serious national po- wrote in The New Republic that War- zines were, as Lillian Smith observed, litical discussion—so much more in- ren offered up no more than a polite southern white gradualists. terested in southern whites’ discomfort version of the southern picture painted When The New Republic finally let than in the longstanding injustice suf- “in cruder colors in the extremist press Smith have her say in 1957, she spoke fered by African Americans? Why were of the Deep South: The mistakes of the of the “magnolia curtain” that had they so little interested in what African North are emphasized; the weaknesses dropped down between the South and Americans themselves had to say about of the Negro are underscored; and, the North. She mocked the magazines’ what was happening? above all, there is the determination of approach to racial change: “[D]on’t let Editors were, of course, journalists Southern white folk, they say, that one intelligent white Southerner who with their ears pricked for conflict, and ‘nobody’s a gonna make us.’” opposes segregation speak. Keep them whites were the ones providing con- That, he said, was the substance of smothered….” As one who felt shunted flict by resisting the Supreme Court. Warren’s closing remarks: that deseg- aside, Smith fixed on the exclusion of Nevertheless, there was something regation would only come when the desegregationists like herself, but the askew in the national media’s fixation white people themselves decided they exclusion of African Americans consti- on the white South’s response to Brown—and something more than askew in magazines’ publication of ar- For two years after the Brown decision, as the ticles portraying African Americans as white resistance gained strength, white degraded and unworthy. It is hard to escape the predictable, dreary fact that southern men, ambivalent or worse, had led white editors, in this challenging hour, the commentary on race in the national were unable to think outside the terms magazines. of their own race. Enclosed in their white worlds, instead of leading the way to change, they settled in behind the lines. ■ couldn’t go on living with their divided tuted no less a political act. As “Invis- minds. “This is the way it goes,” Reddick ible Man” author Ralph Ellison under- Carol Polsgrove is the author of remarked with palpable bitterness. stood, rendering African Americans “Divided Minds: Intellectuals and “Countless editors, scholars and men invisible was one way of disempowering the Civil Rights Movement,” pub- of letters, in and out of the South, who them. lished in May by W.W. Norton. A personally might shrink from killing an If whites did not notice the one- former Associated Press writer, she insect, give their sanction to the intran- sided nature of the dialogue, African has been an editor at Mother Jones sigence of the racists. Is it too much to Americans certainly did. In “Cold Re- and The Progressive and has con- say that there is a connection between bellion,” published in England just a tributed to other national maga- the essays, editorials and novels of the few years later, Lewis W. Jones ob- zines. She is on the School of Jour- literary neo-Confederates and the howl- served that “Negroes are frequently nalism faculty at Indiana ing mob that blocks the path of little unhappy in having their case presented University, Bloomington. Negro children on the way to school by ‘moderates’ or ‘liberals’ whom they integration?” surely would not identify as being ei- [email protected] Reddick had put his finger on a ther moderate or liberal.” shameful truth. For two years after the Kenneth B. Clark, the social psy- Brown decision, as the white resis- chologist who had helped the NAACP tance gained strength, white southern Legal Defense Fund make its case for men, ambivalent or worse, had led the Brown, protested a 1954 Reader’s Di- commentary on race in the national gest article by Hodding Carter, ques- magazines. True, The New Republic let tioning the editors’ judgment in select- Reddick speak his piece and, before ing Carter as an authority. “While Mr. the Brown decision, Look magazine Carter might feel competent to speak did try to get United Nations official in the name of ‘moderate’ white Ralph Bunche, formerly a professor at southerners, it is presumptuous, pa- Howard University, to write on segre- tronizing, and not justified by recent gation in the schools. The Nation did events for him to attempt to speak for run commentary by African Americans Negroes.”

100 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Books and Commentary

Journalism and Myth Do They Create a Cautionary Tale?

Daily News, Eternal Stories: The Mythological Role of Journalism Jack Lule The Guilford Press. 244 Pages. $17.95.

By William F. Woo

Jack Lule has written a very good and tempt to address the crisis [in journal- engaging book about journalism and ism] that does not recognize the mytho- myth, and because of all the things to logical role of journalism is destined to admire—the clarity, originality, schol- fail.” The information model of jour- arship and becomMing intellectual nalism is bankrupt, he suggests. modesty of the author—I put it down “Newspeople think they are in the in- with a sense of foreboding. Even now, formation business…. But newspeople journalists somewhere must be endur- primarily are in the story business. And ing a PowerPoint presentation: “Myth: news will remain a subject of crisis as How to Write It and Why.” long as it strays from story.” In my imagination, I see a news- Myths, of courses, are the universal, room still aglow from the recent work- eternal stories. But how are they also shops to reconnect the paper with citi- journalism? Like this, Lule suggests: zens (readers or the public, in a simpler “Myths,” he writes, “draw upon arche- time). A new sense of purpose suffuses typal figures to offer exemplary models the place. Received truth once more that represent shared values, confirm has asserted itself. Nonetheless, some- core beliefs, deny other beliefs, and thing is amiss. The editor frowns as he help people engage with, appreciate, works over the Sunday take-out. The and understand the complex joys and copy is clean enough to eat from. The sorrows of human life.” So, of course, facts are in order. But what is this? Try do news stories, and in them, Lule says, though he may, the editor cannot find we can hear “the siren song of myth.” the myth. Seven case studies are provided from There is no Trickster, no Good The New York Times, which Lule calls Mother. He searches in vain for one of our State Scribe, “society’s privileged Helpless, is Recalled as a Strong, Happy the great Master Myths—the Victim, and preeminent storyteller.” Lule’s Man.”) The president calls to offer sym- the Hero, the Scapegoat, even the exhaustive work describes how the pathy and strength. The body is brought Flood, though this story happens to be details and themes of hundreds of sto- home, and the governor, the mayor about a fire in the projects. Finally, in ries coalesce into myth. Here’s an ex- and two U.S. senators are there. exasperation, he summons the reporter ample. In the coverage of the murder Klinghoffer has become “a symbol of in hopes of negotiating a rewrite. of Leon Klinghoffer, the elderly Ameri- righteousness in a world filled with evil Had this burlesque occurred, Jack can tourist killed in 1985 by Palestinian and cruelty.” Lule would be appalled. His book, terrorists, Lule found the recreation of We can now find meaning in seem- “Daily News, Eternal Stories,” is not a compelling myth, the sacrifice of the ingly senseless and random violence: meant as a guide to newsroom prac- Victim. The Victim’s life was sacrificed for oth- tice. A former journalist and now chair The story begins with Klinghoffer, ers. “In the face of chaos,” Lule writes, of the Department of Journalism and who was confined to a wheelchair, “order is established. In the face of Communication at Lehigh University, among the hostages aboard the cruise death, life is affirmed. In the face of Lule offers an interesting way of look- ship Achille Lauro. Then he is killed tragedy, news becomes myth.” ing at the news by demonstrating that and the tale focuses on the widow’s By examining with similar meticu- the stories we put in the paper can be agony. A more detailed portrait of the lousness the degrading stories about read as versions of our oldest myths. victim emerges, and he is transformed the death of Huey Newton, a founder Even so—and here my scalp begins from a most ordinary man into a hero. of the Black Panthers, Lule finds the to prickle—Lule asserts that “any at- (A headline: “Aged Victim, Portrayed as myth of the Scapegoat and its warning

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 101 Words & Reflections

to those who challenge social ortho- nonfiction prose narrative and of map- free and that the truth we journalists doxy. Mark McGwire and his “quest” ping are interesting. How will they play are after is what happened, not what for the home run record recall the out? A theory linking myth and journal- might have happened or what we would myth of the Hero from humble origins; ism is interesting. But how will it play like to have happened or what the well- Mother Teresa becomes the mytho- out in the day-to-day work of assigning, made story or recreated myth require logical Good Mother, “blessed among reporting, writing and editing stories? to have happened. The truth is the women;” the boxer and rapist Mike As an editor, too, I came to acquire information in the story; it is not the Tyson is seen as the Trickster, “the a wariness of theory in the hands of story. It is the content, not the carton. original savage/victim;” the coverage sudden true believers. Reporters and I also happen to believe, along with of Haiti evokes the myth of the strange editors would go to this or that work- Jack Lule, that myths are infinitely en- and frightening Other World; a hurri- shop on writing and return from the riching, arising as they have from thou- cane in Central America provides the mountain top with the dogma du jour, sands of years of a common human experience. Where we can easily go wrong Long before Lule wrote about myths and journalism, we had it as journalists is drummed into us that there were not many stories, only the by trying too merest handful: the love story, the death story, the betrayal hard to retell the myth—or the story, the redemption story, the triumph-over-adversity story. Ur-story, as edi- And which one, exactly, were you, the young reporter, trying to tors will soon be write just now? calling it— when we report on the city coun- cil or the homer myth of the Flood, the devastation set which in turn inspired the heretically in the ninth or the suicide of teenage loose upon a people by elemental forces inclined to nonconformity and rebel- lovers. Jack Lule surely would agree. beyond their control and because of lion. Pronunciamentos would be ut- The simplest obituary, the plainest their iniquity (in this case the corrupt tered at the ever more frequent story about the violent thunderstorm government and corporate policies that graveside services for the inverted tri- that walked across the town last night, allowed houses to be built in unsafe angle and other relics of tradition. And the most straightforward accounting areas). consultants would come through, and of the longtime iron-fisted mayor who Lule argues his cases skillfully and when they finally went their way again, was unexpectedly tossed out by a no- provocatively. But did the writers and we had more new theories to apply. To body—all these can touch the univer- editors of the Times set out to recreate make the newsroom “work,” we would sal subconscious if they are told with- these myths? It scarcely matters. News search for the “Identified Patient.” We out embellishment or pretense. stories almost always develop in ways had not known that the techniques of Read and enjoy this good book. But that are familiar, and what are myths, family therapy were to be used in jour- just write what happened. Scrupu- after all, but the most familiar, the most nalism. We were only editors and re- lously. The myths will take care of fundamental, of all stories? Yet, not all porters, but how earnestly we wished themselves without any help from us. stories are myths, as Lule acknowl- to learn enough to drive back the gath- They have for centuries. ■ edges by quoting an indelicate remark ering night. that Freud is supposed to have made— Long before Lule wrote about myths William Woo, a 1967 Nieman Fel- that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. and journalism, we had it drummed low, has taught journalism at Sometimes the news is just the news. into us that there were not many sto- Stanford University since 1996. He This is a book that will intellectually ries, only the merest handful: the love formerly was editor of the St. Louis engage any journalist. My concern story, the death story, the betrayal story, Post-Dispatch. comes from what reporters and editors the redemption story, the triumph- might do with it. The premonition I over-adversity story. And which one, [email protected] described earlier arises from that con- exactly, were you, the young reporter, cern. As an editor, and now as a teacher trying to write just now? of aspiring reporters, my question al- I think of myself as a fundamentalist ways is, how will this theory be re- who hears always the stern voice of his flected in the news product? Civic jour- first editor saying, “Just write what hap- nalism is an interesting theory. How pened,” a fundamentalist who still be- will it play out? The theories of the lieves in the power of truth to set us

102 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Books and Commentary

The Evolutionary Growth of Newspapers’ Look and Feel ‘Readers appreciate the design and feel of a publication before assessing its contents.’

The Form of News: A History Kevin G. Barnhurst and John Nerone The Guilford Press. 326 Pages. $35.

By Warren Watson

Oh, what a difference a century makes. a special institution. The book is an One hundred twenty-five years ago, academic, sometimes clinical and dis- crowds numbering in the tens of thou- passionate, examination about how sands were astonished by the speed, social, economic and cultural forces power and ingenuity of a working news- led to the development of the modern, paper printing press on display at the professional product we call today’s Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. newspaper. Visitors, standing in awe, witnessed The authors dispel popularly held this technological marvel, a manifesta- notions that technological advances tion of the might of a 100-year-old have driven change in the look and feel nation just moving into the world lime- of the newspaper. They claim that in- light. In less than a century, the news- ventions such as the telegraph (wire paper had a respected and feared mo- news) and the telephone (rewrite nopoly in the information business, an desks, different ways of writing) were institution like no other. factors but not shaping forces. Whether Kevin Barnhurst and John Nerone one agrees or not (the point may be recall this unique moment in “The Form best decided in bars frequented by of News,” their well-referenced new journalists), the authors put in com- book on the history of the American mendable research in the development newspaper from colonial times till the of the book, which delves into the present. relationship between democratic civic Of course, today, no one is in awe of culture and the look and feel of the the newspaper, not even an insider. newspaper. Competition is everywhere, and the By form, the authors mean “every- importance on underlying cultural newspaper suffers further from a lack thing a newspaper does to present the forces as the driver of change, and not of interest from a non-reading public. look of the news. …We mean the per- enough on the pioneer writers and The technology appears primitive by sisting visible structure of the newspa- editors who shaped the newspaper and micro-chip standards, and publishers per, the things that make The New its history. Surely, Hearst and Pulitzer, cannot seem to satisfy the profit expec- York Times, for example, recognizable and Greeley and Scripps, characters all tations of Wall Street as they cut staff as the same newspaper day after day but important figures to a one, deserve and content. As Barnhurst and Nerone although the content changes,” they some mention in the transformation of remind us, it wasn’t always that way. write. the newspaper as a mass medium. The press “was a source of peculiar So in many ways the book is a history Nevertheless, Barnhurst and Nerone energy of the newly imperial public,” of the layout and design of news, in- cover ground that has rarely been tread they write. cluding typography, habits of illustra- before. And they do it with a keen eye “The Form of News” is not your tion, and use of photography. But it on historical context. I’m a former usual newspaper history, often heavy also tracks genres of reportage and writer who calls himself a born-again on personality, family squabbling, and how newspapers compartmentalized newspaper designer. I came late to the politics. It is quite light on the colorful to meet the needs of a busy public. visual form, appreciating later than moments that make newspapers such At times, the text places too much most that readers appreciate the de-

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 103 Words & Reflections

sign and feel of a publication before the craft, who think the design move- dominant determining factors in U.S. assessing its contents. ment began with the introduction of culture. So I was intrigued in learning how USA Today in 1982. But that is the case today. Fewer illustration and photography devel- And I was impressed at how the family-owned enterprises remain, and oped in newspaper pages, that it took authors have skillfully broken down more and more dailies are part of pub- many years for objective photography the American newspaper development licly owned chains that are driven to supplant often-subjective drawings, into a series of stages—printerly news- largely by forces connected to the bot- long after the technology had been papers (“bookish and homemade”), tom line. We’re trying but, on the whole, mastered. How bylines developed. How Victorian newspapers (“crowded and it’s becoming more and more chal- headline styles evolved to the point busy”), and modern newspapers (“pur- lenging for anyone to practice effective whereby they capture the essence of poseful and organized”). Further, they journalism. Look what we’ve un- stories rather than provide an outline trace the type and style of the newspa- leashed. as they did in 1900. And I found it per from Industrial to Professional to Yes, the newspaper is not the guard- fascinating that most of the creative Corporate, with improvements along ian of civic culture as it once was. And leaps forward in the look of newspa- the way. it will be increasingly difficult to recap- pers found their way through advertis- The authors, in their forward, say ture that role if we continue to cut ing, not news. they have attempted to mirror the rise budgets and news staffs to maintain The authors contend that a design and decline of American civic culture the kind of profit margins that other revolution did not take place during in this work. I’m not sure they have industries crave. ■ the 1970’s and 1980’s, despite the fact succeeded here, but they have kicked that most newspapers made significant up loads of interesting facts along the Warren Watson is director of ex- (and sometimes overnight) strides in way. tended learning at the American creating a more organized, colorful We do know one thing. Today’s Press Institute. A newspaper re- and attractive look. They see those newspaper is a product of a develop- porter, editor and designer for 26 design forces gradually infiltrating cul- ing market revolution that started long years, he is the second vice president ture through the late 19th and early ago. The authors talk about how news- of the Society for News Design and part of the 20th century, only moving papers first wrote about market will be its president in 2003. at a faster pace when the modern art changes, then were cheerleaders for movement arrived with the Armory them—at least in terms of modern im- [email protected] Show of 1913, which showcased the provements in transportation and com- art and design ideas of Europe. This munication. Of course, those commer- would surprise some newcomers to cial forces took years to become the

Editorials: Pungent, Profound and Path Breaking A book offers practical pointers about how the best in journalism transmit ideas and opinion.

Beyond Argument: A Handbook for Editorial Writers Maura Casey and Michael Zuzel, Editors National Conference of Editorial Writers. 120 Pages. $24.95.

By Nancy Day

The pithier the better: “The basic idea (Newark) Star-Ledger, where he edits project in part because “a good many that all of us ought to have tattooed on the editorial page. He is one of 11 editorial writers enter the craft sud- some visible appendage is that the best editorial writers whose visions and prac- denly and without formal preparation,” editorials focus on a single idea. Just tical advice are collected in this valu- writes Francis L. Partsch, editorial page one. Not two,” writes Richard Aregood, able handbook, part of the Scripps editor of the Omaha World-Herald. who won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Howard Foundation’s “Role Model Writing with this audience in mind Editorial Writing at The Philadelphia Series.” explains why some of the advice sounds Daily News. After a 28-year career in The National Conference of Edito- basic. Other points, however, should Philadelphia, Aregood joined The rial Writers (NCEW) undertook this spark discussion among veteran edi-

104 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Books and Commentary tors, writers and managers, especially documents. Danny Glover (the manag- makes a difference. One clear editorial the passages addressing new ways of ing editor of National Journal’s Tech- point, surrounded by photos, can have doing business without sacrificing the nology Daily, not the actor) suggests dramatic impact. The Spokesman-Re- core of this oldest form of American ways to connect opinion pages to the view in Spokane, Washington ran bi- journalism, opinion writing. Internet. These include moderated fo- ographies and photos of 35 people Aregood says one of his all-time fa- rums, readers’ logs (such as links in Jim killed in 1999 on “The Highway of vorite editorials bore the headline: Romenesko’s daily media column at Heartache” to accompany an investiga- “Adios, Dictator.” Its full text read: www.poynter.org), and interactive edi- tive series on the deadly Idaho portion “They say only the good die young. torial boards. of U.S. Route 95. More radical are stand- Generalissimo Francisco Franco was Michael Zuzel, co-editor and edito- alone editorial graphics: The New York 82. Seems about right.” In retrospect, Times’s “Op Art” is sometimes a single Aregood writes, the last sentence is image, but on July 3, 2000, the editors superfluous. published 35 close-up photos of people Brevity has its advantages, but in holding American flags with the head- recent years editorial series, resulting line, “What is America?” from months of enterprise reporting, Though Howell Raines, the New have made significant and enduring York Times editorial page editor re- differences and gained the attention of cently named executive editor of the the Pulitzer board. John Bersia calls his newspaper, is quoted in several essays, Orlando Sentinel series, “Fleeced in smaller and mid-sized newspapers are Florida,” “the most intensive reporting abundantly featured. In fact, several project of my career.” And Maria writers argue persuasively that edito- Henson—who is now deputy editorial rial board meetings at some larger news page editor of the Austin American- organizations get in the way of doing a Statesman—worked on an editorial good job. series for 16 months, including the George B. Pyle, a columnist and year in which “To Have and To Harm: editorial writer for The Salina (Kansas) Kentucky’s Failure to Protect Women Journal, was a finalist for the 1998 From the Men Who Beat Them” ap- Pulitzer Prize. That year it was won by peared in the Lexington Herald-Leader. Bernard Stein, who writes for his Pungent, profound or path break- family’s weekly neighborhood news- ing, the editorials cited in this book, paper, The Riverdale Press, in New along with ways to achieve similar ex- York. The other finalist was Clint cellence, are important for all journal- rial writer and columnist for The Talbott of the Colorado Daily in Boul- ists to read. However, the book will be Columbian in Vancouver, Washington, der. Later that year, these three men most helpful to those who must pick calls the editorial page “the original appeared on a panel at the NCEW up the slack when talented editorial interactive mass medium.” Letters to convention. Pyle writes of their com- writers are off doing projects. Practical the Editor are still vital, he says, but he mon ground: “‘We noted that each of advice ranges from filling the page to recommends readers use the Web to us had the freedom to write what inter- keeping up morale. immediately access previous stories and ested and moved us, without the need Though some attention is devoted background on current topics, and he to first convince other members of an to electronic media, the emphasis is on suggests www.intellectualcapital.com, editorial board.’ Panel moderator Phil newspapers and their online counter- one of the book’s many tips and useful Haslanger, managing editor of The parts. This is, perhaps, because it is references. Susan Albright, editor of Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin, rare that local or network television the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune edito- instantly labeled this circumstance, has its own editorial board or director. rial pages, who is credited with con- ‘Room, but no board.’” One exception is WISC-TV in Madison, ceiving this book, offers down-to-earth Paul Greenberg, editorial page edi- Wisconsin, where Editorial Director management advice—from bringing tor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Neil Heinen says he hopes the station’s doughnuts occasionally to doing “those says columnists are better read than online site will help foster more dratted performance reviews on time. many of today’s editorials and claims interactivity with viewers. Your staff wants your feedback, and that it is the profession’s own fault: Several writers address the Internet, they deserve the raise now.” “Today’s editorial page oozes pru- both as a resource and as a way to get To this day, too many editorial pages dence, which is too often a euphe- communities of all sizes more engaged. remain a stodgy and serious gray, all mism for fear, especially the fear of As a reference source, the Internet al- type and no action. This is a serious ideas.” He advocates scrapping edito- lows editorial writers to more quickly mistake. Even something as simple as rial board meetings: “They’re boring and comprehensively examine primary running the editorial cartoon in color as hell and twice as long.”

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 105 Words & Reflections

The book is illustrated with black the editors give ways to solicit car- Nancy Day, a 1979 Nieman Fellow, and white cartoons by Jeff Danziger toons from the public—and sound is director of Advanced Journalism and Signe Wilkinson, and it is noted somewhat surprised that this has actu- Studies at Boston University and a that this sparest of forms is represented ally worked. freelance editor and writer. by staff cartoonists at fewer than one- “In the end, the secrets are simple tenth of U.S. daily newspapers. While and the rules are few,” Aregood con- [email protected] it won’t help the employment situa- cludes. “If you have something to say, tion of professional cartoonists in the spit it out. If you don’t, shut up. The current news economy, in this book rest is mere technique.” ■

Essays by a Mexican Journalist Explore the Americas Exposing the ‘nervous system of countries struggling with great change.’

Looking for History: Dispatches From Latin America Alma Guillermoprieto Pantheon. 303 Pages. $25.

By Dianne Solís

America and the Americas are often In this book, Guillermoprieto is at two concepts that those of us living in her best in her psychological portraits the United States have trouble grasp- of Latin America’s unconventional po- ing. We think of America as limited to liticos. Among them are Vargas Llosa, only the United States. Yet travel the the Peruvian writer who lost a presi- whole of the Americas and its citizens dential bid; Guevara, the icon by which will tell you that they, too, are Ameri- the Latin American left defined itself, cans with their own histories, their and Vicente Fox, the Mexican rancher own pursuits of liberty and justice. who dethroned a corrupt political And so Mexico-born writer Alma machine to take the presidency. Guillermoprieto tells us simply and Guillermoprieto makes it clear why bluntly that she wrote her new book, Vargas Llosa, an author of inspiring “Looking for History,” with the “con- prose, failed miserably in his presiden- viction that Latin America has its own tial bid. He wasn’t much of a patriot, independent life.” having written, “Although I was born in What emerges is a collection of 17 Peru, my vocation is that of a cosmo- essays that take readers through the politan and an expatriate who has al- sad psychological and political battles ways detested nationalism.” of Colombians, Cubans and Mexi- Her essay about Vargas Llosa also cans—all from countries that shape opens up a window into a cruel U.S. policy like no others in the West- theme—what Guillermoprieto calls a ern Hemisphere. Interspersed are pro- fundamental trait of Peruvians, but is files of the Argentineans Evita Perón very much a continuing problem of for the poor, was drawn to Che as a and Che Guevara and Peruvian Mario Latin America and those in the diaspora subject matter. Here she dissects three Vargas Llosa. to the United States. These nations and weighty tomes, published in 1997, on Nearly half of the book is devoted to their peoples are constantly immersed Che. And in doing so she quickly takes a series of scarcely believable tales in conflict over their mixed blood and the reader into her generation’s own from Mexico, where Guillermoprieto class. It’s “the deep-seated explanation psyche. “Guevara was born in Latin was born and returned to live in the for the conflicts and frustrations of America’s hour of the hero,” she writes. mid-1990’s. All of these essays ap- Peruvian life,” Guillermoprieto writes. “So many of our leaders have been so peared in The New Yorker and in The In her artfully handled essay on Che, corrupt, and the range of allowed and New York Review of Books between it’s easy to understand why possibly public activity has been so 1994 and 2000. Guillermoprieto, with her sympathies narrow, and injustice has cried out so

106 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Books and Commentary piercingly to the heavens, that only a who worked as sorcerers. The material sages with Aguayo, who as a young hero can answer the call, and only a is interwoven with a few topsy-turvy member of the feared Los Vikingos heroic mode of life could seem worthy. plot twists in which heroes frequently battled an opposing gang linked to the Guevara stood out against the inflamed became villains. ruling party in Guadalajara. Aguayo is horizon of his time, alone and unique.” The book’s “Losing the Future” is a now in his early 50’s. The night after She sees Che’s flaws, though. With small essay about a large tragedy. It the elections, the author calls Aguayo horizon inflamed, a generation of fol- deals with the assassination of Luis to see how he fared in his bid for a seat lowers were “incinerated” by their Che Donaldo Colosio, the virtual president in Congress. “Isn’t it wonderful?” he ideology. In a very personal passage, of Mexico, in a hilly slum named after asked. Assuming he’d won, she details how those “children of Che” bullfighting in Tijuana. On March 23, Guillermoprieto answered that she was delighted to congratulate him on his victory. “What, me?” he said. “Oh, no, I This book illustrates Guillermoprieto’s veteran lost. But the PRI lost, too, and that’s ability to rush into what sometimes seems just marvelous.” Finally, a Mexican sub- ject with the dignity of a patriot. madness and expose the nervous system of Guillermoprieto’s reputation was countries struggling with great change. honed in the wars of Central America. As a Washington Post reporter, she was one of only two journalists to travel to El Salvador and report on a horrific armed in radical revolution would die, 1994, the candidate was shot in the 1981 massacre at El Mozote conducted including a great friend of head at close range. A lynching mob by a U.S.-trained Salvadoran army. Guillermoprieto’s mother, a poet and surrounded the man believed to be the “Looking for History” illustrates feminist editor named Alaíde Foppa. assassin. The details of the hysteria and Guillermoprieto’s veteran ability to And by synthesizing details from a book the hugely disorganized investigation rush into what sometimes seems mad- by Jon Anderson, she shows how Che, that followed in Tijuana are left out of ness and expose the nervous system of this man of the people, was a machista the book. Instead, the author focuses countries struggling with great change. of an elitist background who would on Mexico City and the tremors in the While her previous book, “The Heart have his sexual way with the family seat of power. The discipline that had That Bleeds: Latin America Now,” dealt maids. She writes that Guevara’s slo- kept the Institutional Revolutionary with common experiences of Latin gans now sound foolish. And she high- Party together for an astonishing num- Americans in a set of chronicles from lights that with work from a book by ber of years after the Mexican Revolu- an earlier period, “Looking for His- Jorge Castaneda, a political scientist tion no longer exists, she wrote in a tory” deals largely with politics. Those who is now Mexico’s foreign minister. 1994 dispatch. But it would take an- looking for heart-that-bleeds chronicles Castaneda’s Che is a man who can- other six years to fully knock the cor- of windowpane fitters, garbage collec- not bear the natural ambivalence of the rupt ruling party from power in Los tors and ranchera singers will find few world, a world of gray where people Piños, the pine-studded presidential essays that are similar. One exception: have mixed allegiances. As the even- complex in the polluted capital. “The Children’s War,” a penetrating tual head of the Central Bank, for ex- And when the reader fast-forwards essay from Colombia on girl guerrillas, ample, Che was flummoxed by day-to- to July 2000, there is at last a sense of cocaine and U.S. military aid. day realities of running a government. optimism. It is in the portrait of Fox, But this book should more than “Why corrupt workers by offering them the rancher who took the Mexican presi- satisfy anyone looking for more money to work harder?” Given dency from the ruling party, and in a Guillermoprieto’s ear and eye for de- the region’s history of rickety econo- smaller snapshot of a political activist tail and her poetic metaphors. And mies, the reader wonders if a Latin named Sergio Aguayo, who built an those wanting to learn more about the American could be found today who organization called Alianza Cívica to region’s politics will be equally en- shares that view. insure clean, not just cleaner, elections riched. ■ The Mexican section is full of pain- in Mexico. ful reading. It’s devoted largely to the Guillermoprieto takes note of the Dianne Solís, a 1990 Nieman Fellow, opera buffa that Mexico became dur- “nutty extremes” to which Fox will take is a writer for The Dallas Morning ing the years that Carlos Salinas reigned his rhetoric: He is the man who, after News. She was formerly based in in the imperial presidency and the years all, first came to the Mexican public’s Mexico City for The Wall Street that followed when the sober econo- attention by looping a pair of paper Journal in 1991 through 1997. mist Ernesto Zedillo took over the voting ballots over his ears in an at- script. These are librettos of sex, drugs, tempt to make fun of the protruding [email protected] murder and guerrilla uprisings, un- ears of then-president Carlos Salinas. earthed skeletons, and paid informants The hope comes in her elegant pas-

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 107 Words & Reflections

A Journalist Allows This Story to Speak for Itself

This House Has Fallen: Midnight in Nigeria Karl Maier Public Affairs. 327 Pages. $26. By Wilson Wanene

Eight years ago a presidential elec-tion placed contact, he manages to track was held in an African coun-try that was down Ibrahim Babangida, the former remarkable, given the continent’s Nigerian strongman who canceled the gloomy record in holding trouble-free 1993 elections. Meeting him at his elections. The outcome surprised many. hometown mansion, Maier conducts As the results were being tallied, inter- an intriguing interview. For example, national monitors declared it the most regarding the annulled elections, the free election ever held in that country. author states: “Despite the fact that As if this wasn’t surprising enough, the [Moshood] Abiola broke the mold of candidate viewed to have the military presidential politics in Nigeria by win- government’s blessing appeared ning votes across regional and reli- headed for a major loss. And the voting gious barriers, Babangida attempted pattern defied the usual trend in Africa. to argue that his victory actually threat- The leading candidate was drawing ened Nigeria’s unity…. But Babangida’s support outside his ethnic group. version of events did not bear close But before everyone could really scrutiny.” savor the excitement, the junta leader, The book is a well-written, enlight- who was not in the running and had ening, though sad account of this com- promised to step aside once a civilian plex West African nation, which has was chosen, annulled the elections. been hemorrhaging from years of mis- The military effectively re-asserted its rule, repression and extreme corrup- control. The country was suddenly tion. The reporting is a skillful mixture plunged into a crisis from which it only of recent Nigerian history, carefully recently began to emerge. The reason selected interviews, and vibrant local million each year just to service it. why the whole affair was particularly color (“As one columnist put it, Nige- There’s an understandable tendency captivating, especially for Africans, was rian democracy had gone among American foreign correspon- that it took place in Nigeria, the most ‘democrazy.’”) The Africa correspon- dents in Africa to subtly point out—in populous nation on the continent. dent for The Independent of London articles or books—why their topics are Between the 1960’s, when most Afri- from 1986 to 1996, Maier—an Ameri- important. Implicit is the assumption can nations won independence, and can—has written two other books on that Africa is quite remote to the ordi- the end of the Cold War, most of them Africa, “Angola: Promises and Lies,” nary American. To help readers back were either run by autocrats or military and “Into the House of the Ancestors: home, pieces are peppered with com- men. Many scandals were reported by Inside the New Africa.” parative examples. One learns that Western correspondents who were not With 110 million people, one of Kenya is roughly the size of Texas; subject to the same repression as their every five black Africans is Nigerian. Democratic Republic of the Congo is African counterparts. But even a West- The nation is a seemingly unwieldy equal to the United States east of the ern journalist rarely could manage to collection of over 250 ethnic groups. Mississippi; Burundi is comparable to get a one-on-one interview with a leader Two of the world’s major religions— Connecticut, and so on. suspected of ordering an assassination, Christianity and Islam—are well repre- What’s interesting about Maier is pocketing a huge cache of public funds, sented in the country. For the United that save for the preface, he doesn’t or any other gross misdeed. The idea of States, it’s the fifth largest supplier of really waste time trying to justify glimpsing a political event, from the crude oil. Yet it’s one of the 20 poorest Nigeria’s significance. He just dives point of view of an out-of-power leader, countries in the world, according to into his story. Perhaps this is due to his is still rare in Africa. the World Bank. And, according to the having worked for a British paper, or This is one example why Karl Maier’s U.S. Energy Department, it suffers an he simply feels that the book will mostly “This House Has Fallen: Midnight in external debt of between $30 to $34 be read by those with a pre-existing Nigeria” is remarkable. Through a well- billion and has to pay out $400-$500 interest in Africa. Whatever the case,

108 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Books and Commentary the result is refreshing and proves that Olusegun Obasanjo, a retired general on the dire challenges presently con- there really isn’t a fixed way of report- who ruled Nigeria from 1976 to 1979, fronting what he terms “perhaps the ing on Africa. A good journalist will get was sworn in as a civilian president largest failed state in the Third World.” the story out, one way or another. And following an election that was sup- And it’s to his credit that he maintains the story will speak for itself. posed to put an end to military rule. this focus, for one is forced to wonder The Nigeria that emerges, as with But it’s too early to tell whether de- how a country can squander so much much of sub-Saharan Africa, is cause mocracy will take root. The country potential. And the urgency to find rem- for sobriety. Despite a bloody three- has been run by soldiers for all but 13 edies is keenly felt. He suggests that year civil war in the late 1960’s, which years since it won independence from only if the present government is dead left a million people dead, ethnic ten- Britain in 1960. serious about reforming the country, sions still simmer and claim lives. Com- Maier, at the beginning of his book, and allows for a wide-ranging national munities in the oil producing regions hints at Nigeria’s attractive side. It has dialogue, will disaster be averted. ■ of the country, such as the Ogonis, feel produced prized art works; acclaimed none of the benefits have come to writers like Chinua Achebe and the Wilson Wanene, a Kenyan-born them, and their poverty is shocking. A Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka; talented freelance journalist in Boston, breakup of the country cannot be ruled sports figures such as Hakeem writes on African media and politi- out. Abiola, the presumed winner of Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets, and cal issues. the 1993 presidential elections, died internationally recognized singers like three years ago while imprisoned by Sade, Seal and Fela Kuti, whose career [email protected] the authorities for declaring himself and life were cut short by AIDS in 1997. Nigeria’s legitimate leader. In 1999 However, the author chooses to focus

He Displeased His Bosses, Not to Mention Those He Covered Daniel Schorr writes about his tempestuous career as a reporter.

Staying Tuned: A Life in Journalism Daniel Schorr Pocket Books. 345 Pages. $26.95.

By John Herbers

Among the ever critical editors and wanted most of all to be a foreign he would most certainly have been an reporters who work for newspapers, correspondent for the Times, which outstanding correspondent and would Daniel Schorr may well be the most repeatedly turned him down. At one eventually made a top editor or colum- admired broadcast journalist of our point he was told that after lengthy nist. But he would not be recognized time. In a reporting career stretching consultations with the newspaper as a celebrity by leaders and others back to the 1940’s, he has been a Turner Catledge, then the executive around the world and, of course, he staunch defender of the First Amend- editor, had ordered a freeze on hiring would have had less material wealth. ment, a tireless searcher for the truth in additional Jews on the foreign staff for On the other hand, he would not have both domestic and foreign affairs, and fear it might hamper the paper’s cover- had to undergo the excruciating treat- a brilliant analyst of the increasing com- age of any mid-East war. The ban was ment he received from television ex- plexities confronting a domestic soci- soon canceled, and Schorr was the ecutives and owners. After establishing ety, the latter a role he continues only person affected by it. a distinguished record at CBS News, he through National Public Radio. On other occasions, any number of was fired for passing a secret CIA re- A reader of his memoir, “Staying reasons for his rejection might have port to The Village Voice after the net- Tuned: A Life in Journalism,” might been at play on a paper, then and now, work refused to let him broadcast it. wonder how his career would have constantly besieged by job seekers. The falling out, however, went much differed had he found his first major Certainly it was not lack of talent. Hav- deeper than that. CBS executives were job on The New York Times rather than ing later worked for the Times, I be- displeased that some of his reporting with CBS News. He writes that he lieve that had Schorr gone on the staff offended government officials who duly

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 109 Words & Reflections

complained to the network’s headquar- a letter from him requesting it. Also I our of the international arena he was ters. Schorr took that in stride, ac- would expect CNN to pay for reland- accustomed to following. I observed knowledging that because broadcast- scaping after it was dug up. And, since him at the 1972 Republican National ers are government regulated they do the dish had attracted local newspaper Convention covering the platform com- not have the freedom that newspapers attention when it was first installed, mittee with a vengeance, an assign- enjoy. Some of his difficulties, how- the removal probably would be noted ment most reporters shunned as irrel- ever, stemmed from standard network by the media.” evant to the process of nominating a practices. Reporters, given two min- A CNN manager called to say, “Keep president. utes to explain a complicated develop- the f— dish.” Schorr noted, “It still Years later, President Clinton put ment, were encouraged to end the stands there, a memento.” his hand on Schorr’s shoulder and said, segment with a statement of what it It is obvious throughout the book “Dan, marrying Li was the smartest means. Too frequently the reporter that Schorr has a very large ego, which thing you ever did.” Clinton had talked would state the facts, briefly, then sign he acknowledges. The book would have to her at length about a book she had off with a one-sentence editorial. written, “Within Our Reach: Breaking In reporting Nixon’s statement to a the Cycle of Disadvantage.” publisher’s convention in 1974 that Schorr dutifully reports this, but he “your president is not a crook,” Schorr stops short of saying—perhaps he does concluded in his broadcast, “The evi- not know—that her book is consid- dence indicates otherwise.” No print ered a signal achievement among her reporter could get away with that. He peers that could have a more lasting or she would be expected to write what legacy than anything her husband did. the evidence was and let the reader Toward the end of his book, Schorr decide. But not TV. observes that his view of his and his This and other broadcasts by the family’s accomplishments is shifting. network caused CBS Chairman Will- “In the twilight of a life and a career, I iam Paley to order the abolition of find new enjoyment in the way my “instant analysis” of Nixon appearances, wife, my son, my daughter have distin- but his order would have no effect on guished themselves by serving the pub- overall TV news practices. Schorr was lic weal,” he writes. too conscientious and prickly to thrive Schorr continues to make an im- in that culture. pressive contribution with his report- After leaving CBS at the age of 60, he ing and analysis on NPR, which reaches coasted “on the momentum of fame” an audience interested in advancing by lecturing, teaching at Berkeley, and humane and lasting values. “In the old writing a newspaper column. But none days,” Schorr concludes, “people would of these satisfied his appetite for re- recognize me and say, ‘I’ve seen you on porting. So when Ted Turner, who was television.’ In recent years it is more then in the process of creating an likely to be someone who swivels around-the-clock television news ser- been improved had it been shortened around in a restaurant and says, ‘I vice, came to him with a job offer, he by a third. Time after time Schorr re- would know that voice anywhere,’ and succumbed to the opportunity and was lates the details of assignments he car- then something like ‘Thank you for soon back on the television screen for ried out around the globe that add explaining things.’ I find that most sat- Cable News Network (CNN). little to his story. He is a consummate isfying.” ■ If there was ever an odd couple it name-dropper. The index reads like a was Turner and Schorr. Yet Schorr pros- listing of people of prominence in the John Herbers was for 24 years a pered and renewed his fame for a few latter half of the 20th century. reporter and editor at The New York years. But when CNN tried to eliminate But, unlike most self-absorbed ce- Times and covered civil rights, a clause from his contract that gave him lebrities, there is another side to him. urban affairs, congress, national the right to refuse an assignment, He has a deep concern about social politics, the White House, and demo- Schorr balked and CNN let him go. The justice. Perhaps that was due to the graphic trends. He is a 1961 Nieman network asked him to return the large influence of his wife, Lisbeth Bamberger Fellow. satellite receiver dish that Turner had Schorr. He was 50 years old when they given him six years earlier, before cable were married. He had worked mostly service was available. abroad and she, a social scientist, was Schorr replied, “I would be glad to employed in Lyndon Johnson’s War on return the dish, but since it had been a Poverty. He began to take on domestic personal gift from Turner, I would like assignments that had none of the glam-

110 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Nieman Notes Nieman Notes Compiled by Lois Fiore

Nieman Fellows Take to the Road in Korea ‘For 10 days we changed from being reporters to being diplomats of our profession.’

By Stefanie Friedhoff

he Nieman Fellows meet South Three big conservative newspapers create false news. Korean journalists in a confer- control 70 percent of the newspaper Later in our trip, we board a train to Tence room on top of Seoul. Old sales. A week before we left Cambridge, head east. Here we are, 10 Niemans linoleum floors, new microphones, and The New York Times reported on a from nine countries—including Nige- a view that strikes the eye: skyscrapers, controversy with an odd twist: Current ria, Bosnia, Chile and India—Curator flashing screens, roof decorations in president Kim Dae-Jung, a former dis- Bob Giles, his wife, Nancy, and U.S.- glass and steel. A huge banner says, sident and devoted liberal elected in South African novelist and Nieman “Welcome Niemans!” in English, and 1997, was accused of stopping the writing instructor, Rose Moss. This jour- in Korean, which to me, the German major papers from criticizing him. Kim, ney had been arranged and is headed fellow, could be ancient Greek. After the story noted, believes there is need by Lee Dong-Kwan, our Nieman col- our flight halfway around the world, for “media reform” and regards the old league. His aim is to try to bridge the we’ve entered a world many of us have players as too powerful. cultural gaps between our backgrounds never been to before—Asia. In this muggy conference room on and his. On our first day visiting Korea, our top of Seoul, it seems as if some agree If Lee seems slightly nervous, he has topic is online journalism. Soon we with the president. One of the Korean every right to feel that way. Our delega- learn about Ohmy news, a journalistic reporters says that “It is public opinion tion is two-thirds female, and in a tradi- Web site that recently scooped the lead- that Korean news do not have a truth- tional country like South Korea, that ing national newspapers with stories ful objectivity.” That is one reason why might be considered almost improper. like the one about some government Ohmy news works well, with citizens “Interesting!” the deputy major of the officials using public money to pay for acting as reporters. Ten thousand ancient city of Kyungju calls it. “Oh, private amusements. One of the South people contribute to this Web publica- how unexpected!” says the chief of the Korean journalist explains: “The Ohmy tion, while some 30 people edit the Korean Information System. Another news site is received as the only truly copy that comes in. issue: Instinctively, we don’t like the alternative source of news right now.” But this leaves me wondering how popularity assigned to us. Wherever In Seoul, half of the homes have Internet this Web site can publish articles with- we go, we’re introduced as “extraordi- access. out checking facts. Didn’t we talk dur- nary and world famous journalists,” in My body clock tells me it’s night- ing our Nieman year about the ways to a tone that sounds a lot like: “May we time, time for bed, but my mind maintain quality in online journalism? proudly present: Madonna!” That we couldn’t be more awake. I did not By a few days into our trip, I find myself are expert in questioning authorities expect any discussion at this morning realizing how differently we think about doesn’t seem to matter. Suddenly, we meeting—or at any other meeting in these issues in countries like the United are treated as the officials whom we Korea—on one of the more delicate States and Germany. In a place like use to grill. Banners, newspapers, even issues in the country, the media and South Korea, where freedom of ex- the TV news talk about us. We receive the government. pression and of the press has yet to gifts from politicians, CEO’s, even from South Korea, long headed by a mili- become a protected reality, Ohmy news President Kim. Can that be good? tary government and its propaganda provides a perfect platform to say what To Lee’s relief we don’t revolt, but machine, had its first presidential elec- cannot yet be said in the regular media. grab our nametags and do what we do tion in 1987. Freedom of the press was It seems like a signpost along the road best—observe. After all, we are here to introduced—but disassembling a to democracy, and people here have experience the culture. If this treat- settled media bureaucracy is never easy. more important things to do than to ment is part of it, let’s touch, smell and

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 111 Nieman Notes

analyze it. Food and gifts are a social roads, I see poor farmers, then some of stimulated by the nature of our group. language, not just in South Korea, and the most sophisticated farming tech- In the end, it was a journey that since our group provides a unique niques in the global market. There are repeatedly pushed all of us beyond our window to many different nations, we almost no women in powerful posi- own cultural, intellectual and emo- are, of course, being pampered. We are tions, but there are some courageous tional borders. And that was the beauty served the king’s soup, the finest jelly- women performing “The Vagina Mono- of it. fish, and little somethings in a bag—a logues” on stage in Seoul every night. We were Niemans on the road, and wristwatch, a book. We smile, observe It could be said that we survived a though nobody quite understands what and begin to understand. trip of clapping, business attire, and that means, it gives new dimensions to South Korea is a country of change. five official appointments a day. But I’d an old idea—to promote and elevate It is a traditional culture encountering much rather say that for 10 days we the standards of journalism. Today, globalization, an Asian Tiger still di- changed from being reporters to being that means global journalism. ■ gesting the 1997 stock market crisis, diplomats of our profession. We and a product of the Cold War trying to changed from practicing journalism to Stefanie Friedhoff is a 2001 Nieman open a dialogue with its communist participating in the globalization of Fellow who is a science writer and brother in the North. It is a young journalism. And South Korean officials correspondent for German newspa- democracy unraveling the strings of a endured us as well, this multi-cultural, pers and magazines. She is based in totalitarian past. To me, it often feels outspoken group of men and women, Cambridge, Massachusetts. like East Germany in the years after the as they sat through some never-ending wall came down, with its subtle chaos interviews and were baffled by Presi- and strong contradictions. Along the dent Kim extending his time with us, [email protected]

—1943— —1947— David Lamb (NF ’81) said of Foisie, in the Times obituary, “He was soft- Frank K. Kelly writes, “I must be Jack Foisie died after long illness spoken and a gentleman but was best one of the oldest living Fellows. I was on June 14 at home in Wilmette, Illi- working off the beaten track, picking in the class of 1942-43. I was called into nois at the age of 82. Foisie was a up information in the field, mixing the army in January 1943 and returned journalist for over four decades and with average people. He was the best of to finish my fellowship in the spring of was especially well known for his war the old school journalists.” 1946.” reporting. He got his start at the Seattle After his retirement from the Times Kelly has been honored recently with Post-Intelligencer, worked at The Se- in 1984, Foisie lectured and wrote com- the establishment of the Frank K. Kelly attle Times and San Francisco mentary on foreign affairs and contin- Endowed Lecture on Humanity’s Fu- Chronicle, and served in the Army, first ued to go on occasional assignments. ture, an endowment for lectures to be as a combat soldier and then as a com- He is survived by his wife, Florence given annually and published as ex- bat correspondent during World War McTighe “Micki” Foisie, three chil- cerpts or in their entirety to the public II. Working for the Chronicle upon his dren, seven grandchildren, two great- and to world leaders. Kelly writes from return, Foisie covered the war in Korea grandchildren, and a brother. the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and traveled to Vietnam in 1962. In “This project was launched at a lun- 1964, he was hired by the Los Angeles —1952— cheon here on my 87th birthday by the Times to be bureau chief in Saigon. directors of this Foundation, which I In his Los Angeles Times obituary, John Lawrence Steele died on June helped to create in 1982.” Robert W. Gibson, the Times foreign 13 of cardiovascular and pulmonary A committee is forming to organize editor who hired him, said that Foisie failure. He was 84. Steele began his the inaugural lecture, to be given by “was fiercely independent in his think- journalism career in 1939 in Chicago at Kelly himself, and to build an endow- ing on Vietnam and everything else. It the City News Bureau. He worked for ment for the project. For information, made him a marvelous reporter. …He United Press in Chicago and Washing- contact David Krieger or Chris Pizzinat never took hearsay. If someone said ton, D.C., served in the Navy reserve at the foundation at 805-965-3443, or the village was being shelled, he would during World War II, and continued to visit the Foundation’s Web site at want to go and see it himself. He work for UP after the war. www.wagingpeace.org. wouldn’t report it until he saw it.” In 1953, he started work with Time-

112 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Nieman Notes

Life News Service in Washington, cov- was a commentator on NBC, CBS, the ish Columbia, on February 16, for his ering the Eisenhower, Kennedy and BBC, the CBC, and a moderator and role in advancing the Canadian pub- Johnson administrations. He moved panelist for the Voice of America. lishing industry’s support for the Ca- from the position of Washington bu- Steele is survived by his wife, Louise, nadian Centre for Studies in Publish- reau chief to vice president of Time a daughter and two sons. ing. Hancox, who has been a journalist, Inc. and, after 1982, he was a public editor, a publisher and publishing con- policy consultant to Time. —1966— sultant, retires this year after five years During his career, Steele wrote on as a professional fellow and visiting journalism and public affairs and col- Ralph Hancox was awarded the professor at SFU’s Master of Publishing laborated on the book “The Private Chancellor’s Distinguished Service program. The Reader’s Digest Associa- Papers of Senator Vandenberg.” He Award at Simon Fraser University, Brit- tion of Canada, of which Hancox was once president and CEO, is to fund a professional fellow for the program in Hancox’s name. Nieman Foundation Announces International Fellows for 2001-02 —1974— Morton Kondracke has written a Twelve international journalists and radio host; the links between reli- book to tell the story of his wife, Milly, were appointed to the 64th class of gion, identity, national history, and who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Nieman Fellows at Harvard University. governance systems. disease in 1987. “Saving Milly: Love, Their names, countries of residence, Agnes Nindorera, Bujumbura, Politics and Parkinson’s Disease” is and interests follow: Burundi, producer at Studio Ijambo; about their love, their efforts to man- Waziri Adio, Lagos, Nigeria, edito- the evolution, since the end of the age the debilitating effects of that dis- rial board member of This Day news- Cold War, of social economy, interna- ease since her diagnosis, and of his eye- paper; the nexus between the press, tional law, and human rights in Africa. opening experiences as an advocate politics and sustainable development. Paule Robitaille, Mexico City, for Parkinson’s research. Owais Aslam Ali, Karachi, Pakistan, Mexico, Latin America bureau chief for In an article in The Washington Post chairman of Pakistan Press Interna- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; Magazine in June, Kondracke wrote, tional; influences of international de- the causes of civil wars and revolutions “Ever since Milly was diagnosed with velopment in Pakistan and the region. and the consequences of civil conflict, Parkinson’s, the nation’s leading neu- Chiba-Nieman Fellow; funding pro- the effectiveness of conflict manage. rologists have been saying that this vided by the Atsuko Chiba Founda- Martin Wise Goodman Canadian disease could be cured within 10 years. tion. Nieman Fellow; funding provided by They still say that, but Milly’s time is Dejan Anastasijevic, Belgrade, the Goodman Trust in Canada and the running out.” A long-time Washington, Yugoslavia, senior journalist for Vreme Goodman Fund in the United States. D.C. journalist and commentator and weekly; military structures in contem- Geraldo Samor, Rio de Janeiro, currently co-host of Fox TV’s “Beltway porary ethnic conflicts and the issues Brazil, correspondent for Thomson Boys,” Kondracke has increasingly of democratic consolidation. International/International Financing found himself on an unfamiliar side of Kavi Chongkittavorn, Bangkok, Review; the economics of international politics—advocacy—as his wife’s con- Thailand, managing editor of The Na- financial markets and impacts on local dition has worsened. Beginning in 1993 tion; humanitarian laws and the devel- economies and development. with a visit to the Clinton’s, the opment of East Asia since the end of Giannina Segnini, San Jose, Costa Kondrackes have fought to increase the Cold War. Partial funding provided Rica, investigative unit coordinator, La federal funding for Parkinson’s disease by The Asia Foundation. Nación; financial markets and informa- research, and in doing so have had to Yuan Feng, Beijing, China, assis- tion technology and their impact on deal with a convoluted “disease poli- tant to the chief editor of China economic and human rights. Knight tics” web of activist groups competing Women’s News; gender and women’s Latin American Fellow; funding pro- for federal allocations, hotly debated issues as China makes the transition vided by the John S. and James L. Knight issues such as stem cell research, and into a market-oriented society. Foundation. the politicians whose votes may deter- David B. Green, Jerusalem, Israel, Jabulani Sikhakhane, Rosebank, mine whether a cure is found years senior editor/writer at The Jerusalem South Africa, editor at large, Financial sooner, or years later. Report; Israel and the Crusades—how Mail; the impact of South Africa’s re- In articles and interviews, Kondracke the medieval wars have had an impact entry into global markets since demo- is as forthcoming about his political on the Arab-Israeli conflict today. cratic elections in 1994. Funding pro- efforts as his enduring devotion to Milly. Rami Khouri, Amman, Jordan, syn- vided by The United States-South Africa Though the first 20 years were quite dicated columnist and freelance TV Leadership Development Program. ■ different from the past 13, Kondracke

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 113 Nieman Notes

salient issue for both the United States Chris Georges Reporting Scholarship Expanded and other governments and interna- tional organizations like the U.N. The Christopher J. Georges Jour- ington bureau, covering politics, eco- “This new communications initia- nalism Scholarship Fund for in-depth nomics and budget issues. His stories tive is innovative and key to tackling reporting is expanding its eligibility to on the welfare system in 1997 were the growing crisis on AIDS/HIV. It will enable more young writers to apply. nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. take some time to put together, but I The award, established in 1999 for The scholarship fund is adminis- hope to sponsor small and medium- interns at The Wall Street Journal, tered by the Nieman Foundation. term projects before the major pro- now is open to any journalist up to age Deadline for proposals is October gram is up and running fully. 30. The scholarship winner will re- 15, 2001. In addition to a written pro- “I am very excited about this new ceive $10,000 to support an indepen- posal for an independent journalism position, and I am already using the dent investigative reporting project. project, candidates for the fellowship Nieman network to help me with the This scholarship fund was estab- are asked to submit a resume, a brief initial planning. I would be very inter- lished to enable young journalists to biographical essay, and a selection of ested in suggestions from fellows from engage in the research and writing published work (please note: selec- both developing and developed coun- that reflects Chris Georges’ commit- tions of work cannot be returned). tries about what kind of training for ment to in-depth journalism on issues The journalist selected for the scholar- reportage on global health would be of enduring social value in which the ship will receive a portion of the award most useful,” he says. McDowell’s new stories document the human impact at the beginning of the project and the office e-mail address is: of public policy. remainder upon publication of the [email protected]. Georges was an honors graduate of story or stories. Harvard and a Wall Street Journal re- Proposals should be sent to: Chris —1980— porter who died in 1998 at the age of Georges Scholarship; Nieman Foun- 33 from complications related to lu- dation; One Francis Ave.; Cambridge, Judith Stoia’s “Between the Lions” pus. He worked in the Journal’s Wash- Mass. 02138. ■ won an “Outstanding Achievement in Children’s Programming” award from the Television Critics Association this summer, an honor that it shares with writes, “In fact, for 33 years we’ve lived out and found it at Ohio University in “Sesame Street.” This is the second a love story….” Athens, Ohio, where I will spend the year running that “Lions” has received academic year as the E.W. Scripps Vis- the award. Stoia is the program’s pro- —1977— iting Professional in the journalism ducer. school. I will teach one section of basic “Between the Lions” features a fam- Tony Castro’s book, “Mickey reporting and editing and an upper ily of lions—Theo, Cleo, Lionel and Mantle: America’s Prodigal Son,” has level course in international reporting. Leona—who run a magical library. With been published by Brasey’s, Inc. Castro, I also will help with a program that the help of puppets and other helpers, formerly with Sports Illustrated, spent sends interns to work abroad.” episodes expose children to the writ- six years researching Mantle’s life, in- ten word in a wide range of forms, from terviewing more than 250 people. His —1979— poetry to recipes, based on a compre- previous book is “Chicano Power: The hensive literacy curriculum. Emergence of Mexican America.” His Michael McDowell became Senior For Stoia’s recent article on the show work has also appeared in the Los Policy Advisor to the Fogarty Interna- and its evolution, see the Fall 2000 Angeles Times, The Washington Post, tional Center of the National Institutes issue of Nieman Reports. The show’s and other publications. Castro lives in of Health on July 10. His long-term award-winning Web site can be found Beverly Hills, California. goal will be establishing a large multi- at www.betweenthelions.com. year grant program for developing —1978— countries and U.S. reporters and edi- —1981— tors on international health issues such Ken Freed writes, “After my year in as HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases across Laurel Shackelford was promoted Lebanon, I returned to Omaha and borders, peacekeeping problems in to executive editor of The Monterey tried the life of a Midwestern recluse; areas of high health risk, and building (California) County Herald. She had reading, tending to my flowers, and capacity for medical journals in devel- been deputy editor/editorial page edi- staring into the middle distance. All oping and middle-income nations. tor. Prior to joining the Herald’s staff, very nice, but as they say about Ne- “I have become increasingly inter- Shackelford was an editorial writer with braska—the yards are wide and the ested in the global health side of for- The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ken- horizons narrow. So, I looked for a way eign policy, and it is a growing and tucky.

114 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 Nieman Notes

—1983— wrapping up work as a consultant for a join the investigative staff of The Wash- new documentary series, “This Far By ington Post, where I will work on na- Callie Crossley left ABC News June Faith: African-American Spiritual Jour- tional and international projects. The 1, just a few months shy of her 13th neys,” set to air on PBS February 2002, move came as owner Knight Ridder anniversary at the newsmagazine “20/ and she is pondering other opportuni- was slashing costs at the Inquirer, again, 20.” Crossley’s ABC career began just ties to do more of the same. and there was a sizable exodus of tal- after she completed work as a pro- She is also looking for more oppor- ented reporters and editors taking ducer on the acclaimed documentary tunities to do commentary for radio buyouts or searching for new papers. I series “Eyes On the Prize.” and TV and to build up her roster of was fortunate enough to land at the Crossley took advantage of a buyout speaking engagements. Crossley con- Post, where I work for two extraordi- package offered by Disney corporate tinues her weekly stint as a featured narily talented editors and am sur- owners of ABC. Throughout her ten- panelist on WGBH-TV’s “Beat the rounded by smart, thoughtful report- ure at ABC, Crossley balanced a rigor- Press,” which examines media issues. ers, including Nieman classmate Guy ous producing schedule with outside The National Press Club recently Gugliotta, who covers science. interests. She says the buyout offered awarded “Beat the Press” the Arthur For now, I am splitting my time her “the chance to make those outside Rowse Award for Press Criticism. between Washington and our home in interests my main focus. I was looking Crossley’s e-mail address is Cherry Hill, New Jersey. A move will for a creative way to reinvent myself.” [email protected]. eventually follow. Callie reports that she is now hang- My wife, Cathy, continues to teach ing out her shingle as a media consult- Gil Gaul writes: “After 18 years, art and produce in-house publications ant (and no, she assures us, in this case many wonderful, I decided to leave at Haddonfield Friends School. Our it is not code for unemployed). She is The Philadelphia Inquirer in July and oldest son Greg is entering his junior

Donald Woods Remembered By Nieman Classmates

Donald Woods, a 1979 Nieman Fel- lished the details of the killing. He was understand the psyche of the natives. low, died August 19 in England of can- threatened, banned from writing, and That was not Donald Woods. He spoke cer. He was 67. A fifth-generation South placed under house arrest. Soon, he the language and used that as a tool of African, Woods had accepted apart- and his family fled to England, where communication. Period. This can be heid as sensible policy until, as a law he campaigned against apartheid in seen in his relationship with Steve Biko. student at the University of Cape Town, lectures, articles and books, including There is no truth that he used Steve he began to comprehend the system- the biography, “Biko.” Biko for his personal aggrandizement. atic hypocrisy in South African law. He Van Riper continues, “[Woods] used Donald could have made it on his own was reported to have later called apart- his Nieman year to travel the country without cashing on Biko’s name. heid “the great obscene lie.” denouncing apartheid and raising the Peggy Simpson recalls, “I’m not Woods practiced as a lawyer, then consciousness of a whole generation sure we had personal conversations worked for a short time for newspa- of Americans… To those who praised with him then. He was under attack pers in England and Canada, and in his courage…Donald would argue that from many U.S. blacks for ‘co-opting’ 1960 returned to South Africa to work it was not courage but indignation that the Biko story and while that wounded for The Daily Dispatch in East London. drove him.” him it was confusing to many of us. I’m Within a few years, he became editor. John Mojapelo writes, “Unlike many not sure we were as much solace to In that position, he hired black journal- of his privileged white brethren, Donald him as was the concert piano!” ists, worked to include material ex- never elevated himself to the level that And Peggy Engel w rites, “How many pressly for the paper’s black reader- he was a white man who was fighting Nieman fellows could have pulled off ship, and vehemently criticized racist for blacks. To him we were all South meeting with the president of Harvard government policies. Africans. His ongoing fight against the on Tuesday and picketing his office on Woods met Black Consciousness pernicious system of apartheid was Wednesday? Donald was on campus as Movement leader Steve Biko in 1973. aimed at getting rid of an evil system a guest of Harvard but that didn’t stop “It was a gradual, at first guarded, friend- for both black and whites. him from joining student rallies and ship that grew between Woods and the “He was one of the few whites who speaking out at every occasion..…” fiery Biko, but it was a friendship that could speak Xhosa like a native. South Woods stayed in touch with Steve was forged to last,” writes Woods’s African whites, who normally could Biko’s family and returned last May for classmate Frank van Riper. In 1977, speak…one of the indigenous lan- the wedding of Biko’s daughter. Woods after Biko was arrested and beaten to guages, usually assume because they is survived by his wife, Wendy, three death in interrogation, Woods pub- speak the language they automatically sons, and two daughters. ■

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 115 Nieman Notes

year at Princeton. Cary, our youngest, —1990— —1992— is starting his sophomore year at Cherry Hill West. He took home major medals Dick Reavis, “a white Texas male, George de Lama was named deputy in swimming and track at the Junior now of middle age,” joined the civil managing editor/news for the Chicago National Wheelchair Championships rights cause in Alabama in the summer Tribune in July. De Lama has worked this summer at Rutgers University. of 1965. Three and a half decades later, for the Tribune since 1978, most re- he tells his story in a memoir, “If White cently as associate managing editor for —1985— Kids Die: Memories of a Civil Rights foreign and national news. Movement Volunteer.” Mike Pride, editor of The Concord Reavis writes in the book’s preface: —1997— Monitor, writes: “I have had two books “What I saw in one small ghetto left me published this year. One is “My Brave enraged for twenty years…. The story Mathatha Tsedu now works for Boys,” which I wrote with Mark Travis, of the Civil Rights Movement as I knew South Africa Broadcasting Corporation editor of the Monitor’s editorial pages. it has not been told, perhaps because it [SABC] as deputy chief executive of It is a history of the Civil War regiment does not end with the lofty victories news. There, he joins Nieman alumnus that suffered the most battle deaths of that are officially commemorated to- Barney Mthombothi (NF ’94), who is all 2,000 Union infantry regiments. We day. The movement’s incomplete SABC’s head of news. Tsedu writes: “I worked on “My Brave Boys” as a hobby struggle will probably not be resumed moved from The Star where I was for eight years. In addition, Felice during my lifetime, though someday, deputy editor on June 30 and started Belman and I co-edited “The New I’m sure it will, because at bottom, it here on July 1. For me it is a significant Hampshire Century.” Felice is a former wasn’t about color, anyway: it was about move in that I have spent my last 23 Monitor city editor who is now an human equality, the oldest cause years as a journalist in print and mov- editor at The Washington Post, and the known to man. It is my hope that this ing to broadcast has been very chal- book grew out of a yearlong series of work will help place the Southern civil lenging. But that is what work as a profiles in the Monitor. The University rights struggle in a broader and more journalist should be.” Press of New England published both realistic context.” books in April. —2000— “My biggest family news is that —1991— Monique [his wife] and I became grand- Dennis Cruywagen writes: “While parents on June 3 when Grace was Kabral Blay-Amihere writes, “July taking some classes at the Kennedy born to Melissa and Yuri, our middle 1 marked my 25 years as a practicing School of Government during my son. Also our oldest son, Sven, a com- journalist. There was no party or fan- Nieman year, it hit me that although puter engineer who lives in the D.C. fare to celebrate. Instead I wrote and South Africa has become a democracy, area, will be married in October and published a book, ‘Fighting for Free- the majority of us have never experi- our youngest, Misha, will be at The dom: The Autobiography of an African enced living in a democracy. For ex- University of New Hampshire in the Journalist,’ to mark my silver jubilee. ample, even the press—which gener- fall. Monique still teaches foreign lan- “The book was launched on August ally speaking has to undergo some guages in a local school district. 17 by Ghana’s new head of state, John more changes before it’s fully repre- Agyekum Kufuor, whose policy towards sentative of the population—often talks —1987— the media is progressive. His govern- about acting in the public interest. Yet, ment has repealed the obnoxious crimi- somehow, it has taken it years to real- Susan Dentzer was elected chair of nal libel law which previous govern- ize that it alone could not define or the Dartmouth College Board of Trust- ments used to suppress the press. speak on behalf of the public interest. ees effective June 2001. Dentzer gradu- “The other development in my life is I wanted to learn more about democ- ated in 1977 and was elected to the that I have been appointed Ambassa- racy, democratic norms, values, tradi- board in 1993. An on-air correspon- dor to Sierra Leone. This appointment tions and culture. dent with PBS’s “The NewsHour With means that I am moving on to new “So, while in Cambridge, I applied Jim Lehrer,” she covers health-care frontiers in my service to Ghana. It has for a Mason Fellowship to do a Masters policy, the economics of health care, been a hard decision, accepting to be- Degree in Public Policy and Manage- and other economic and social policy come a diplomat, but I believe that this ment at the Kennedy School. And that’s issues. Before her move to PBS, Dentzer new platform will still afford me every where I am right now. If all goes well, was an economics columnist and chief chance to serve my country and man- I shall graduate on June 6, 2002. economics correspondent for U.S. kind. I will always remain a journalist “Being back in Cambridge is great. News and World Report and a senior and a writer and will use this new post But summer school was grueling. Made writer of business news at Newsweek. to write more books.” me think: Oh to be a Nieman again.” ■

116 Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 End Note

In Korea, Nieman means prestige. Most Nieman alumni became publishers or editors in chief of major newspapers. Out of 19 fellows, about half have served as cabinet members. This is why the 2001 Niemans visit- ing Korea were pampered everywhere we went. In a society where Confucian tradition of heirarchy is still strong, it really matters what group one belongs to. Regardless of whether it is good or bad, it is reality. ■—Lee Dong-Kwan

Nieman Fellows in a train’s dining car on the way from Seoul to the ancient cities of Andong and Kyungju.

Volunteer guide Dong Ho Kim (right) gives a tour of Seoul’s new soccer stadium to Nieman Fellows Consuelo Saavedra (left) and Sayuri Daimon.

Nieman Reports / Fall 2001 117