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Journalists Should Seize Opportunities to Experiment in a Changing Market, says Tom Bettag, Executive Producer of Discovery Networks
| Tom Bettag |
WASHINGTON, January 24, 2007 -- A visit to newsrooms today, says Tom Bettag, former executive producer for ABC News’ “Nightline” and current executive producer at Discovery Networks, is like a trip to the Wailing Wall. With news organizations downsizing, closing foreign bureaus and cutting already lean budgets, and with many flagship newspapers up for sale, many journalists in all media are anxious about the future.
“There is this pall over journalism that is absolutely unwarranted,” Bettag maintains. “If anything – and I’ve done this for 40 years – this is the most exciting time to be in journalism by far.”
In a presentation to the IRP Fellows and SAIS community on the future of broadcast journalism, Bettag sought to put journalists’ current anxieties into perspective. He showed a clip from the film, Good Night and Good Luck, featuring a tense exchange between CBS News correspondent Edward Murrow and his co-producer Fred Friendly, and CBS presidentWilliam Paley in the 1950’s over the networks’ programming choices and sponsors’ reactions.
“This,” said Bettag, referring to the film clip, “was the golden age of television, when news wasn’t supposed to make money…What everyone is decrying now, is what people were decrying then.”
If anything, says Bettag, the “golden age” was “way worse than what is going on now.” He cited the example of Howard K. Smith, fired from CBS for covering the civil rights movement in the south, and broadcasts – limited to only three television networks -- that seldom changed their formats.
Bettag said that viewers today are better served by more options for news content through broadcast, cable and the Internet. He predicted those outlets would further proliferate with viewers eventually customizing their own news programming, calling the current era “an interim period of nuttiness.”
“We’re in a strange period,” Bettag said. “Advertisers are spooked, and scared to death because they don’t know where to put their money, and what to make of the Internet or Tivo. But what people are desperate for is content and you have content. For journalists, this is a great moment.”
He advised the IRP Fellows to constantly prod management and look for openings and opportunities to produce quality news in innovative ways, saying, “this is always going to be a war,” but adding, “learn that you fight with a big smile on your face, and as graciously as you can.”
He argued that viewers still want quality programming, pointing to the audience surge that tunes in after major national events, such as 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina. But he expressed concern that many journalists have accepted a down-trodden mentality against ratings-starved executives, youth-obsessed advertisers and shareholder-driven cutbacks.
“It’s important to have a shift in attitude,” he said. “A lot of people in newsrooms are going around like victims… That’s got to stop.” He says journalists today need to approach the profession believing that this is a moment where “the medium is more fascinating, evolving in a way that has more possibilities than ever before, and when I’m more likely to get a hearing now than I ever would have.”
Bettag also reflected on his own career and his recent decision to leave ABC News along with veteran anchor/correspondent Ted Koppel, after serving as executive producer of Nightline for 14 years. Now at Discovery, where he continues to produce a series of long-form pieces with Koppel, he says the aim is to continue to provide, “serious, thoughtful programming.”
“If television doesn’t do it, National Public Radio or The Economist will,” he said. “In the end, the faith has to be in the marketplace. Americans want news that works."
Copyright © 2007 International Reporting Project. All Rights Reserved.