Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Not Revealing Sources Helps the Terrorists?

Source: Washington Post

The Justice Department is opposing a bipartisan effort on Capitol Hill to protect journalists from having to reveal confidential sources, calling the legislation "bad public policy" that would impair the administration's ability "to effectively enforce the law and fight terrorism."

In testimony prepared for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this morning, Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey Jr. says "imposing inflexible, mandatory standards" would hurt the department on prosecutions involving public health, safety and national security.
The department's position is a disappointment to lawmakers and news media advocates who have been negotiating with Justice officials and this week scaled back the bill to meet administration objections. Senate sponsors Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) and Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) altered the measure to allow prosecutors to compel journalists to testify about sources if that would prevent "imminent and actual harm to national security" and the potential harm outweighs the public interest in unfettered reporting.

Dodd said Justice officials "are making a judgment that this is good politics for them to be opposed." While the legislation faces "a hard mountain to climb," he said, it is aimed not at journalists but at "consumers of information."

"There are numerous instances since the founding of the republic when we have relied on aggressive investigative reporting to get to the bottom of things," Dodd said. "You now have a chilling effect."

Scheduled witnesses at today's hearing include Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, who narrowly avoided jail by testifying last week in the Valerie Plame leak investigation, and Time Inc. Editor in Chief Norman Pearlstine, who surrendered Cooper's notes in the case after losing in the courts.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

CNN Plans High-Tech News Show

CNN plans to launch a three-hour daily news program Aug. 8, in which anchor Wolf Blitzer would pull together news from around the globe in front of two walls of video screens simultaneously showing several breaking news stories as they are unfolding.

The program, called "The Situation Room," would gather teams of CNN correspondents, analysts, contributors and guests to discuss the top news stories of the day and give viewers minute-to-minute coverage with streaming video. Blitzer described the show at the Television Critics Assn. conference in Beverly Hills on Sunday as "old-fashioned good, solid, serious journalism" that "tries to be transparent" by taking advantage of the latest technology.

"We're not going to compromise on journalism but we're going to take you behind the scenes and let viewers see what we're getting when we're getting it, especially in those critical hours where news is gelling," Blitzer said. "I've been frustrated that viewers are only able to [see] a small fraction of what we are able to gather."

The program, which would air from 3 to 6 p.m. ET, is loosely modeled on the concept of the White House Situation Room, and would combine traditional reporting with online resources, such as blogs, Blitzer said.

Source: LA Times

TV News Catching On to the Web Thingy

A few weeks after CNN began offering free video streams on their website, CBS has started to do the same. All this to rev up a struggling TV news viewership base in which viewers are slowly dying, literally.

"Our audience on the Web is 10 to 15 years younger than our TV audience" for news, says Larry Kramer, president of CBS's digital-media operations. Visitors to ABC News's long-established Web site have a median age of 45, nine years younger than ABC News's median TV audience, according to Nielsen/NetRatings and research by the network, which is owned by Walt Disney.

Not only is the Web more widely used by young people, but on-demand videos also are more convenient for people who aren't home in time for the 6:30 p.m. news program. Time-pressed Americans also are increasingly less willing to sit through a half-hour program waiting for the one story they are interested in, says Jeff Marshall, who oversees digital-media buying for Publicis Groupe's Starcom USA.

With this in mind, "the advertisers we are going to are different," says CBS's Mr. Kramer, including electronics manufacturers and fast-food chains. On the CBS Evening News TV broadcast, pharmaceutical companies predominate, making up seven of the 10 biggest advertisers in the 11 months to April. These included Novartis, Merck and Pfizer, whose drugs often treat chronic conditions common in older people, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
Cable networks such as CNN and Fox News already have a more diverse mix of advertisers than broadcast news, including more auto makers, for instance. Even so, CNN hopes its Web effort will bring in advertisers, such as movie studios, that traditionally seek younger audiences. CNN is in discussions with 70 to 80 marketers about online ad deals, says Greg D'Alba, CNN's chief operating officer. He says "it's early days, but with a heck of a lot of promise."

Source: Wall Street Journal