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<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=2>part 1 & 2 can be viewed online @
</FONT></STRONG><FONT><A
href="http://www.pbs.org/frontline/newswar">www.pbs.org/frontline/newswar</A></FONT></DIV>
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<TD id=contentcol><A href="http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/"><IMG
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<H1>PBS' 'Frontline' examines ways politics, business hurt news
media</H1></DIV>
<P class=byline><A href="mailto:jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com">Joe Garofoli,
Chronicle Staff Writer</A></P>
<P class=date>Tuesday, February 13, 2007<MAP name=ent_nav_links_Map></P>
<DIV id=articlecontent><SPAN id=articlebody>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>The timing couldn't be better for the
four-part "Frontline" series "News War" premiering tonight on PBS. Not
only does tonight's first episode explain why non-journalists should
care about the Valerie Wilson leak investigation trial unfolding in a
Washington, D.C., courtroom -- it uses the probing, contextualized
"Frontline" style to answer a question on a lot of lips:
</STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>What's wrong with the American media?
</STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>Readers didn't need a week of front-page
stories about diaper-wearing astronauts and the alleged cultural
significance of Anna Nicole Smith to tell them that the Fourth Estate is
having an identity crisis. There's also last week's Pentagon inspector
general report criticizing the Bush administration's manipulation of
prewar intelligence, reminding Americans that most of the Beltway media
danced to the White House's drumbeat to the Iraq war four years ago.
</STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>The 4 1/2-hour "News War" series traces the
pathology crippling the media business -- financially and legally --
back to the days of the Nixon administration. What it reports is not
necessarily new, but it is one of the first televised efforts to connect
the factors transforming the news industry at this critical juncture in
journalism. And many of the key players -- on both sides of the camera
-- are in the Bay Area. </STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>Over its four parts, "News War" explains the
significance of recent media controversies, including
BALCO-investigating Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance
Williams -- who could face jail time in the next few weeks -- and San
Francisco blogger Josh Wolf, who recently became the nation's longest
imprisoned journalist for refusing to turn over digital footage to
police. </STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>The last two installments of "News War" --
which, in true deadline-pushing tradition are still being edited and
unavailable for preview -- are likely to include interviews with Google
and Yahoo executives, whose companies are taking readers and advertisers
from traditional news sources without paying much for the newspaper
content they aggregate. Daily Kos blogger founder Markos Moulitsas, a
Berkeley resident, also was interviewed to show how readers are pursuing
new, more interactive media sources. </STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>In between are a parade of journalistic
all-stars, and not all of them come off looking great. Influential
Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, whose Watergate reporting with
Carl Bernstein helped topple Richard Nixon, admits that he blew it when
he said the chance of never finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
"is about zero." </STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>"It was totally wrong," Woodward said in the
first segment of "News War." "I think I dropped the ball there. I
should've pushed much, much harder (investigating the reality of WMD)."
</STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>In the first two installments, "News War"
explains how current efforts by federal prosecutors to chill
investigative journalism by trying to coerce reporters to reveal
confidential sources is not a new story. Neither is the White House's
push to kill stories that allegedly threaten national security -- such
as the New York Times expose that the National Security Administration
is listening to citizens' phone conversations without warrants. The
media faced similar issues in the early 1970s during the publication
battle over the Pentagon Papers and for its coverage of the unpopular
Vietnam War. </STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>The difference now, said Berkeley-based
"Frontline" correspondent and co-writer Lowell Bergman, is that the
financial and legal landscape of the journalism industry has changed.
Major newspapers, which traditionally have been the leaders in
investigative reporting, were more financially robust 35 years ago. Now
that they're financially weaker and not held in as high public esteem,
they're in a more vulnerable position. </STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>At the same time, the legal protections that
have enabled the use of confidential sources for nearly four decades are
under attack by the Bush administration. </STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>And when publishers cut costs, investigative
reporting -- one of the most vital checks on government power, as the
Watergate coverage showed -- is often the first to go. Next up on the
budget chopping block, frequently, is foreign reporting, something that
major television networks said they'd increase after the Sept. 11
attacks as a way for Americans to better understand the world. That
hasn't happened. </STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>"The economic foundation that was very
prosperous for decades is now in trouble at the same time (as the
shifting legal landscape)," said Bergman, an award-winning investigative
producer and reporter at "60 Minutes" and the New York Times.
</STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>"Universally, what everybody is saying, from
the CEO of Google on down, is that you're going to lose some in-depth
reporting," Bergman said. "And the watchdog role that the news industry
developed, particularly newspapers over the last four decades ... is
getting damaged." </STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>"Part of what we have in the documentary is
a historical flashback," Bergman said. "People under 40 don't know where
we were then, where we are now and how things can change."
</STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>Providing that perspective for "News War"
are three prominent Bay Area residents who developed, largely funded and
executed the series. Bergman, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
Dean Orville Schell and Bay Area philanthropist Richard Goldman.
</STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>Schell came up with the idea three years
ago, largely out of frustration with the state of journalism. Many
respected journalists had visited his school and told him they were
depressed by the ways the business was changing. </STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>Schell began having a version of this
conversation with Goldman. </STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>"In my early life, it never came up that the
news was slanted or that the business was under pressure," said Goldman,
86. The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Foundation eventually gave $1.5
million to the "News War" project, one of the largest individual
donations in "Frontline's" 24 years, and more than half of the $2.5
million budget. Goldman said, "We were influenced by Orville. He's a
very persuasive guy. And Lowell has a very good reputation." The series
is a co-production with the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism,
where Bergman teaches investigative journalism. </STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>The challenge now is getting people --
especially those younger than 40 -- to tune into a 41/2-hour PBS
documentary, not usually a neon come-hither to younger audiences.
</STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>"Most of the country doesn't really care
about anything other than local news and a little entertainment," Schell
said. "And I don't really worry about having everybody eat their
broccoli." </STRONG></FONT>
<P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>But he hopes the series' appeal will ripple
outward from the nation's intelligentsia to "those who desperately care
about having a free press able to deliver accurate information."
<BR></STRONG></FONT></P><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>
<HR>
Related documents and interviews available at </STRONG></FONT><A
href="http://www.pbs.org/frontline/newswar"><FONT
face=Arial><STRONG>www.pbs.org/frontline/newswar</STRONG></FONT></A><FONT
face=Arial><STRONG>. </STRONG></FONT>
<P><I><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>E-mail Joe Garofoli at </STRONG></FONT><A
href="mailto:jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com"><FONT
face=Arial><STRONG>jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com</STRONG></FONT></A><FONT
face=Arial><STRONG>.</STRONG></FONT></I><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>
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