Mike Wallace defends integrity of today's journalism

By Chris Evans
Special to freedomforum.org

05.25.01

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NEW YORK — When legendary journalist Walter Cronkite and respected academic Benjamin Barber planned a discussion on the state of journalism at the First Amendment Center, they expected a reasoned parley about the dangers to free press in an era of media megamergers.

But when Cronkite had to cancel and "60 Minutes" newsman Mike Wallace agreed to step in, Barber, of Rutgers University, suddenly had his hands full — for Wallace wasn't about to concede that journalism today is either corrupted or dying.

In a lively debate last night, co-sponsored by media watchdog Mediachannel.org and attended by an overflow crowd of more than 200, Barber tried to build a case that journalism is in a state of decline, and Wallace countered him at almost every turn.

In opening comments seemingly intended to set the tone for the evening, Barber asserted that, as more news organizations merge, profits have become paramount and news quality has suffered.

Quickly produced sound bytes, he said, have taken the place of true public discourse on complicated issues, and as a result, journalists have been reduced to merely reiterating what they are told rather than investigating.

One example of this, he said, occurred when The New York Times and other news organs reported earlier this year that former President Clinton's staffers had vandalized the White House before President Bush's team moved in, only to recant later when they were told the stories had been exaggerated.

"The watchdogs of freedom, the media, seem to have become part of the problem," Barber said. "Who will scrutinize the scrutinizers when they have become the gossipers and the liars?"

But Wallace said Barber was going too far. Free press is alive and well in America, he declared, and today's journalists remain committed to getting out the real story.

"Gossipers and liars?" he asked incredulously. "I'm not so sure that the watchdogs have become part of the problem."

"Who the dickens knows what really went on at the White House and whether it was or was not trashed?" he added.

If you want to say "that we have somehow been co-opted" by politicians, Wallace told Barber, find a better example.

Barber agreed that the White House vandalism story might not best show today's true threat to journalism, which he perceives as the "bottom line" mentality.

"The underlying fear I have is that when six or eight (news corporations) own all the media outlets," he said, news coverage could be corrupted by corporate interests and a lack of diversity among news providers.

Wallace countered that he saw plenty of diversity, both at newsstands on the streets of New York and in newspapers serving towns and cities throughout the country.

Corporate interests — whether those of media owners, advertisers, or others — have always sought to influence news content, Wallace said, but reporters and editors have always cared too much about journalism to cave in to those pressures easily.

"Look, '60 Minutes' made its reputation not just by confronting malfeasance," he said. "The first big sponsor '60 Minutes' had at the beginning was Ford Motor Company. We got ahold of some documents about the Ford Motor Company ... about the fact that the … gas tank of the Pinto was potentially explosive. And they (Ford) were willing to let a certain number of these gas tanks explode and pay for the lawsuits that would follow rather than reconfigure the car."

Ford threatened to pull advertising, Wallace recalled, but the journalists investigating Ford fought to air the story anyway.

"We made the story, and they (Ford) were off the air with us for two weeks before they were back."

Journalists, their corporate bosses and outside interests that would seek to control the news continue to go through the same fight today, he added.

Wallace did express concern about some news coverage, including what he said were weaker, "copycat" TV news magazine programs that imitate "60 Minutes" but adhere to lower standards.

But he remains convinced that journalists continue to persevere and produce quality journalism.

"I genuinely believe in the honesty, the integrity of the news organizations today," Wallace said. "I don't believe that we cave into commercial pressures.

"Walter Cronkite might disagree with some of the things I have said here tonight, but he wouldn't disagree with that."