Letters
Easy Grader?
I taught English in New York City public high schools for over a decade and know that all grading is ultimately subjective, but I question Terence Smith's criteria for judging how the America media covered the Iraq war in his article "Hard Lessons" (CJR, May/ June). He acknowledges that most media saw issues from the American viewpoint and operated as cheerleaders. He gave them a grade of C-. In the high school where I taught, students could graduate with C- grades. I'd grade TV coverage an F.
Gary M. Stern
New York, New York
Embedded Lesson
In his May/June piece on his experience in Iraq, Bob Arnot offered a key insight that I wonder if he or any other practicing journalist in the United States fully grasped. Arnot was surprised, he wrote, to see how much his story was enriched when he would "find an old metered cab, and drive around town," in order to understand what problems confronted the average Iraqi.
Those of us who have been concerned with the decline of the press in the United States have been imploring journalists to get out of their offices, out of the bubble, and walk around their communities to get a sense of the concerns of the folks in their community.
Journalists should not have to experience a war to make this connection.
Christopher S. Kelley
Department of
Political Science
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio
Reality TV News
It's no wonder that Orville Schell's best broadcast students don't want to work in most commercial stations (CJR, March/April). Instead of training them to become Fred Friendlys, perhaps he should teach them what twenty-first century broadcast reporting is all about.
First of all, he shouldn't fill their heads with the myth that in-depth TV reporting used to be the norm, which now has been corrupted by the bottom line. It never was the norm. Jobs like that were slim forty years ago, and they're still slim today, although with outlets like investigative units, cable documentary networks, PBS, and the 60 Minutes clones, I'd warrant there are more opportunities now than when I started thirty-five years ago.
In-depth reporting on a commercial newscast was recently attempted in Chicago, and it flopped. The fatal flaw? We are a linear medium with a mass audience. No matter how well it's done, a five-minute report on Chicago's schools isn't going to interest those in the suburbs. They'll "flip the page" by turning to another channel.
Finally, it's obvious that Schell has never had the thrill of doing a live shot on twenty minutes' notice, or producing a package in half a day. Sure, it's not Nightline. But you know what? If it's done right, it's the essence of what journalism's always been in this country: Get the facts. Get them fast. And tell the story. If that doesn't interest you, there's always magazine writing.
Too few in our business do commercial TV journalism well. Too many do it poorly. But whose fault is that? Perhaps it's the fault of J-school deans whose "best students" somehow got the impression that it's not worth doing in the first place.
Robert Luther Ray
Producer, WMAQ-TV
Chicago, Illinois
Legal Threat
Re: Douglas McCollam's article about international libel suits against journalistic Web sites (CJR, May/June):
The problem is not just that cyber-journalists based in Western countries may face lawsuits in dictatorial nations with draconian libel laws simply because their articles may be downloaded abroad. Worse, harsh libel judgments in repressive countries may be honored by dozens of other nations around the world as a matter of routine custom in international law. Thus the legal risk greatly increases for all journalists whose articles are posted on the Internet.
The potential effect could be to transform libel law at an international level, with standards set not by countries with the freest media laws but by those with the most oppressive ones.
Mark Feldstein
Associate professor
Media & Public Affairs
George Washington University
Washington, D.C.
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