Silurian News March 2014

Society of the Silurians EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM AWARDS DINNER The Players Club 16 Gramercy Park South Thursday, May 15, 2014 Drinks: 6 p.m. Dinner: 7:15 p.m. Meet Old Friends and Award Winners Published by The Society of The Silurians, Inc., an organization (212) 532-0887 of veteran New York City journalists founded in 1924 Please Save the Date. Reservation forms will be mailed soon. MARCH 2014 From Print to Digital: My Turbulent Path BY STEPHEN B. SHEPARD FROM TO sometimes with great reluctance, I came hen I first considered taking to see the value of the new technologies. on the role of founding dean I slowly realized that digital technology Wof a brand-new journalism would enrich journalism, creating an in- school, I initially thought of it as a per- teractive, multimedia form of storytelling sonal capstone, the culmination of a life- that invited community participation, that time in journalism. Having been a senior could be personalized, that could be de- editor at Newsweek, editor of the Satur- livered on a vast array of mobile devices, day Review, and editor-in-chief of that could be consumed globally, that BusinessWeek for more than 20 years, I could be distributed using social media. saw my new posting as a chance to pass And so, I finally managed to embrace the on my experience to the next generation. changes necessary to create a new Boy, was I wrong. As the journalism world school for a new age. Stephen B. Shepard became the founding dean of the Graduate School of changed in content and delivery, I was My personal passage is, of course, a Journalism at the City University of New York in March 2005. He helped build the one who became a student. microcosm of the larger struggle within the school into one of the nation’s best, creating an 18-month M.A. program To be perfectly candid, the new world the journalism profession to come to terms that features a fully converged curriculum, paid summer internships for all stu- seemed upside down to me. In the tradi- with the digital reckoning. Though many dents, and a diverse student body. More than 90 percent of its graduates are tional world I knew best, journalists de- mainstream media companies have been now working in journalism – for newspapers, magazines, broadcast stations, fined what was newsworthy and decided hollowed out by all those layoffs, a paral- web sites, and new media startups. On January 1, Shepard stepped down as when and how to cover it for essentially lel universe is slowly growing in journal- dean, turning over the post to Sarah Bartlett, a distinguished journalist (at The passive consumers who occasionally ism. Everywhere you look, new digital New York Times and Business Week), who has been with the school since it wrote a letter to the editor. It was a one- outlets are springing up that offer prom- opened. Here, Shepard reflects on his experience of building a new school for way street. ising alternatives – from Politico and a new era. The Internet changed all that. “The ProPublica to the Texas Tribune and people formerly known as the audience,” BuzzFeed, to say nothing of blogs, web as NYU’s Jay Rosen memorably de- at any time. dia critic A.J. Liebling’s famous apho- sites, and hyperlocal ventures. This year, scribed them, could now talk back. In All this meant a massive loss of con- rism was now officially wrong: freedom something called Inside Climate News fact, anyone could now be a journalist – trol for traditional journalists. Those of us of the press was no longer limited to won a Pulitzer Prize for National Report- or at least commit an act of journalism on who took pride in acting as trustworthy those who owned one. ing, and a blog named California Watch their blogs or web sites. Pretty soon we gatekeepers, who filtered the news for As journalism became decentralized, was a Pulitzer finalist for Public Service. had to embrace the even more radical rise you, who sifted through the glut of infor- we professionals were dethroned. It was There is more journalism produced today of social media, starting with YouTube, mation to tell you what was important and a psychic shock, a loss of esteem as well by more people on more platforms than Facebook and Twitter and now including why, were now criticized as elitists, dis- as a loss of livelihood for many people. ever before. And much of it is reaching Instagram and Pinterest. News was fast guising our own unspoken biases in a cloak Not surprisingly, my instinct was to be new audiences through social media, cre- becoming a conversation – a process of so-called professionalism. In the defensive – to protect the world I knew ating new communities of like-minded rather than a product. The long-standing emerging world, news-gathering and dis- and treasured. readers. model of one journalistic outlet speaking tribution would be decentralized and thus But I was no Luddite. I understood No, the real problem is not journalism to many people on a fixed schedule, like more democratic. The journalistic judg- full well that there was no going back to per se. The defining issue is now finan- an ageless Walter Cronkite, was replaced ment of the pros would be pre-empted by the old ways. The technological tide was cial: The traditional business model that by many voices speaking to many people the wisdom of the crowd. In effect, me- simply too powerful. Gradually, and Continued from Page 4 When Socolow Talked, Cronkite Listened 1964 when he was covering the Vietnam A SILURIAN PROFILE war. “He was the guy who kept everybody on the straight and narrow path. When you heard from him in the field, you BY CARL D. SPIELVOGEL would receive congratulatory ‘grams’ anford Socolow spent 32 years when things went right — and not such at CBS News, most of them in nice notes when they didn’t.” Shigh-profile posts, including six “I’m happy to say I didn’t get many of years as executive producer of the the criticisms,” Safer noted. “CBS Evening News With Walter When asked about Sandy’s manage- Cronkite.” But his career in journalism ment style, reputedly a lot more vocal and goes much farther back, all the way at a higher decibel level in the newsroom to the Stuyvesant High School than the soft-spoken, sometimes laconic Spectator; then as the editor-in-chief of Sandy we now know, Safer replied: “There the City College newspaper The Cam- was no soft and gentle back then. We had pus; a copy boy at The New York Times, a job to do, and everybody was a ‘hollerer’ and as a war correspondent in Korea. — and somehow it worked.” The lad who started school at a one-room Little wonder that Sandy bristled at a schoolhouse in northeastern Connecticut comment at a recent Silurian luncheon became the epitome of integrity in broad- about the lack of attention to accuracy in cast journalism. some aspects of journalism these days. ‘’Sandy was the conscience of the “Socolow was the ultimate fact- CBS newsroom, the go-to guy for every- checker,” Safer said. “He would make thing,” said Morley Safer, now of 60 Min- double- and triple-checks to make sure Sanford Socolow had a long association with Walter Kronkite, including utes, but who first worked for Sandy in Continued on Page 2 being the executive producer of “CBS News With Walter Cronkite.” PAGE 2 SILURIAN NEWS MARCH 2014 President’s Letter When Socolow Talked, Cronkite Listened Continued from Page 1 Africa and the Middle East. He then being Commissioner). They were married BY ALLAN DODDS FRANK everything was correct.” came executive producer of “CBS News in 1960 and produced those three accom- n our 90th year, the Society of That view helped contribute to mak- With Walter Cronkite,” the most-watched plished offspring. They were divorced in the Silurians remains relevant ing Cronkite known as “the most trusted news program in TV history. When 1975. Iand robust, with nearly 300 mem- man in America.” Sandy was the man Cronkite retired, he stayed on to super- In a recent discussion about “the new bers and an average of 100 attending behind the scene. vise the transition to Dan Rather. media,” Sandy had some sharp words for each of our invigorating monthly lun- Sandy and I first met in 1948 at Baruch Sandy, now 85, retired from CBS in cable TV (he doesn’t use Facebook, cheon speeches. College, where he attempted to fulfill, 1988 and became founding executive pro- Twitter, Instagram – or J-Date). “I can’t First Vice President Betsy Ashton without success, his parents’ dream that ducer of “World Monitor,” an acclaimed understand the willingness of cable news has successfully transferred much of he become an accountant. He soon real- but rather short-lived daily TV news maga- to repeatedly broadcast news that has not the reservations process online to ized that wasn’t to be, and he transferred zine owned by the Christian Science Moni- been properly researched or vetted, as EventBrite and, so far at least, most to CCNY uptown, where he majored in tor. Then back with Walter, as executive they race to be the first with their so- members seem to be happy with that history, but spent most of his time report- producer of “The Cronkite Report,” a se- called ‘breaking news’,” he said. convenience. Thanks to Betsy and ing for and then editing The Campus. ries of 12 one-hour, single-subject reports Commenting on what author Mark In 1950, our professional careers be- Treasurer Karen Bedrosian for the Discovery Channel.

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