DEBORAH AMOS OF NPR

Charm Fans at Murrow Symposium Lunch

SEATTLE — Journalism today “is trusted about as much as Congress,” lamented Deborah Amos, National Public Radio (NPR) correspondent.

She and Judy Woodruff, Public Broadcasting System (PBS) co-host and correspondent, spoke at Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow Symposium lunch at Town Hall. The event was co-sponsored by CityClub.

JUDY WOODRUFF OF PBS

(Disclosure: The Washington News Council was a co-presenter and hosted a table of 10.)

The packed downstairs room was filled with NPR/PBS fans. True, public broadcasting is generally more trusted than other news media, but is also sometimes accused of political bias (i.e., leaning leftward).

I asked Amos if Transparency, Accountability and Openness – the “TAO of Journalism” – might help increase public trust in journalism. I shamelessly displayed my “TAO of Journalism” T-shirt. (Almost everyone at our WNC table was wearing one too.)

Public broadcasting, I noted, already follows those three principles. Shouldn’t all journalists be transparent about where they’re coming from, accountable if they make mistakes, and open to other points of view?

That’s what journalists demand of those they cover. Isn’t it a two-way street?

“That’s great,” Amos said: “Maybe that is part of the answer. Those that aren’t transparent, accountable and open will fall by the wayside.”

Hey, it’s no panacea, but it could help. Nothing much else is working to restore media credibility, is it?

Meanwhile, public broadcasting may survive while traditional commercial media outlets struggle and fail financially. “Who would have thought 20 years ago that the public model would come out on top?” Amos mused.

Judy Woodruff, who has worked for NBC, CNN and PBS (she anchored Frontline and co-hosted the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour), noted: “We’re not in the advertising business. We have to raise the money to do what we do.”

Asked by Murrow College Dean Lawrence Pintak if funding from outside sources such as foundations and corporations might help support journalism, Woodruff said: “We need to be very careful,” citing the potential for major conflicts of interest.

Amos and Woodruff agreed on the continuing need for quality journalism, both local and international. “We have watched the gutting of local reporting in this country,” Woodruff said.

Many freelance journalists around the world now write for online websites such as GlobalPost, Amos noted, which pays $250 per story. But that’s not enough to live on, so “entrepreneurial” journalists must also find other freelance work.

“If there’s no paying model off the web, then I shudder,” said Amos.

Pintak asked both women “how much hope” they had for the industry.

Woodruff: “Young people are so much more comfortable with the new technology, if they can just learn the fundamentals of journalism, we’ll be OK.”

Pintak asked about “political bias” in journalism. Amos: “As you watch CNN collapse, the new model is ‘you’ve got to take sides.’” She noted that “bipartisanship” in journalism was perhaps “only a 50-year blip,” and that American journalism may be returning to its origins – i.e., a much more partisan press.

“We do have a pluralistic press,” she said, but added, “It’s a Wild West out there.” As for NPR, she cracked: “Our stock and trade is being boring.” The NPR/PBS-friendly crowd clearly disagreed.