Brian William Blogs!
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Blogging, Good DecisionsSome journalists are very cautious about blogging, but Brian Williams seems to be enjoying it. The anchor for NBC Nightly News just started recently and the results are good.
Yesterday, he blogged a newsroom debate about whether they should lead with General Abazaid’s comments on Iraq that directly contradicted what Cheney said or the Supreme Court decision that granted the government more power to take an individual’s property away for the “greater good.”
Williams said the newsroom staff had “a spirited debate”. That’s code for “they fought like dogs.”
This area of case law (known by its lofty official name, “eminent domain”) has been “creeping along” in past years, as producer Sharon Hoffman pointed out at our meeting. Producer Barbara Raab made a strong argument that this story pits big business against “the little guy” in America and will strike a chord when Americans come to understand the impact of the decision. Executive Producer John Reiss went on record as saying that in terms of news value and national policy, the war in Iraq should trump the court case on tonight’s broadcast. He pointedly used the words “for now”
…that was just before 3:00 p.m. EDT, and I might add: the managing editor has yet to weigh in, and is weighing the options for tonight. I will say it was exactly the kind of debate that should happen in a newsroom. It was measured, it was among colleagues who respect each other, and it had to do with stories that impact many of us. It’s also some measure of how seriously we take our responsibility.
This type of transparency is very cool and will serve to make people respect our gatekeepers more.
And as a journalism major from Mizzou I love to see the professionals finally “getting it.”
This entry was posted on Friday, June 24th, 2005 and is filed under Blogging, Good Decisions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
