MEDIA - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
WEEKEND OUTRAGE: ABC NEWS SUSPENDS PRODUCER FOR WRITING PERSONAL ANTI-BUSH E-MAIL |
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by Danny Schechter newsdissector.org Entered into the database on Sunday, April 02nd, 2006 @ 20:16:56 MST |
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Readers of my current Mediachannel
piece on the unbrave world of media will note that I referenced a DRUDGE
REPORT "expose" of a private e-mail sent by an ABC GMA producer expressing
his personal disgust with our President's way of communicating. Read it--and then
read this item in Today's Saturday Washington Post. The ABC producer in question,
John Green, has been suspended and forced to make a groveling apology to the
White House, a gesture that sounds straight outta Stalinist Russia. Talk about a chilling effect on personal expressions by any and all network
producers. You can't even have a personal opinion and work in news anymore.
Note to Kerry Marash, a former colleague I once admired and who as an ABC Exec
did the dirty deed of dissing Green: employees are entitled to personal opinions
and being open-minded doesn't mean being empty-minded. You shouldn't lose your
right to free speech when you go to work for a network. (Although his views
have yet to be represented with any frequency on the air). Walter Cronkite speaks
about this in a statement on Mediachannel.org.
He says: "Journalists shouldn't have to check their consciences at the
door when they go to work for a media company. It ought to be just the reverse." When the anti-war and media activists recently sought to meet at ABC to discuss
war coverage, the request was referred to Kerry's office. SHE DID NOT CALL BACK,
to my dismay even though we have always been cordial. ABC REFUSED TO HAVE AN
OFF THE RECORD MEETING. Now I understand, even more, deeply how corporate environments
corrupt, almost by osmosis. This is so ironic because her husband Dave Marash, a great journalist who I
once worked alongside, was not rehired by ABC when Ted Koppel retired, only
to have his program, Nightline, replaced by "Nightline-lite." He has
now joined AlJAzeera International. I am sure he has sent many an email to his
wife about his dismay at working at ABC. I expressed mine in the book, "The
More You Watch, The Less You Know." Here's Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post today on the great e-mail threat
to the integrity the Republic and ABC News, whose president of News, former
corporate lawyer David Westin admitted publicly that ABC News was "not
critical enough" in its coverage of the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
"We let the American people down," he said. Now, he's let the cause of free speech down. Read all about this petty act
of corporate ass-covering and pay-back with disgust: ABC Suspends Producer Over Bush-Bashing
E-Mail By Howard Kurtz ABC News suspended the executive producer of the weekend edition of "Good
Morning America" yesterday over a pair of leaked e-mails in which
he used inflammatory language to slam President Bush and Madeleine Albright. John Green, whose unpaid suspension will last one month, apologized to
the White House in a call to communications director Nicolle Wallace,
while two ABC executives called the former secretary of state to apologize. "No one is sorrier than John for the embarrassment that these albeit
private e-mails caused to his colleagues and to the people who were the
subjects of those comments," said ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider.
"John would be the first to say this has been a real lesson to him.
John is abjectly sorry for all the comments that have come to light, and
that's appropriate." In one of the e-mails, written during the first presidential debate in
2004 and leaked to the Drudge Report, Green wrote to a colleague on his
BlackBerry: "Are you watching this? Bush makes me sick. If he uses
the 'mixed messages' line one more time, I'm going to puke." Green, who was not made available for comment yesterday, wrote his colleagues
after that leak to say "how much I regret the embarrassment that
this story causes ABC. It was an inappropriate thing to say, and I'm deeply
sorry." Wallace said yesterday that she "appreciated the call and the apology." The second leaked e-mail surfaced Thursday on the New York Post's gossipy
Page Six. In that note, Green wrote that Albright should not be booked
on the show because "Albright has Jew shame." Albright, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, acknowledged her Jewish
heritage in 1997 after it was discovered by Washington Post reporter Michael
Dobbs in the course of researching a book. Green wrote in that note that "she hates us anyway because she says
we promised her five minutes and only gave her two . . . I do not like
her." An ABC insider said Green was reacting to a heated dispute
between Albright and a network producer. The Albright Group, a global strategy firm founded by the former Clinton
cabinet member, took the diplomatic route. "Secretary Albright has
always had an excellent relationship with 'GMA' and with ABC and she still
does," her office said in a statement. "In fact, she looks forward
to appearing on 'GMA' on May 2 in connection with the release of her book
on U.S. foreign policy and the importance of religious tolerance." Both e-mails were disclosed at a time when public distrust of news organizations
and their ability to be fair are at or near an all-time high. The suspension was ordered by Kerry Marash, senior vice president for
editorial standards, and approved by ABC News President David Westin. Green, who got his job in 2004 as the Saturday and Sunday editions of
the morning show were being launched, has worked for ABC for 12 years.
He is highly regarded by many of his colleagues, and the show is in second
place on Saturdays, trailing NBC's "Weekend Today," but is in
third place on Sundays, when "CBS Sunday Morning" is No. 1. It is widely believed at ABC News that the e-mails were leaked by a former
employee who has a vendetta against Green. "Everyone who works at ABC News is unhappy with the situation because
it reflects on all of us," Schneider said. But, he said, "I
don't think the e-mails tell us anything about the show John Green was
putting on the air every Saturday and Sunday, which is fair and balanced
and down the middle." News VP Schneider appears briefly in my film WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception"
insisting that ABC News played it "straight down the middle" in its
coverage of Iraq. His boss David Westin would later contradict him. |