Famed journalist, former CBS News anchor and father of a Tufts alumna Dan Rather led a panel discussion in an almost full Cabot Auditorium yesterday that set out to focus on the press' role in covering war and conflict.
But the Second Annual Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism, which was sponsored by the Communications and Media Studies Program, the Fletcher School's Edward R. Murrow Center of Public Diplomacy and the Tisch College of Citizenship and Pubic Service, eventually morphed into a broader discussion of the current state of journalism, with an emphasis on international news reporting, as Rather guided four panelists with questions and often weighed in himself.
The panelists were Kimberly Abbott, a media advisor for the International Crisis Group; Dave Marash, a Washington, D.C.-based anchor for Al Jazeera English; Charles Sennott, a staff writer for the Boston Globe; and Commander Joseph "Cappy" Surette, APR, a public affairs officer for the U.S. European Command (EUCOM)/Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) Liaison Office.
After receiving an introduction from University President Lawrence Bacow and one from Communications and Media Studies Program Director Julie Dobrow, Rather delivered a succinct address and then introduced the panel.
He discussed the importance of "destroying ... the illusion that foreign events don't matter," saying, "Our citizens must know what is ... really happening in these wars that are being waged."
Rather said that, although certain wars are given primary coverage, there are always numerous global events of grave importance that the American press ignores or does not cover sufficiently.
He emphasized the critical role that news executives and media company owners play in facilitating good reporting, calling them an "underreported, misunderstood part of journalism." He offered as an example the time that a television executive opted to cut into the final episode of the hit show "Dallas" to let Rather deliver a breaking report on the Tiananmen Square incident in China.
Rather also touched on the changing face of journalism, reminding an audience that ranged from young undergraduates to veteran professors that it often took days for some of his reports from Vietnam to see airtime during the United States' war there.
Rather then introduced his panel and asked each of its members pointed questions. He reacted to many of the responses and often shaped subsequent questions around them.
In responding to one question, Marash expounded on a point Rather had made in his keynote address, saying that the press "is not covering [enough] conflicts." The advent of 24-hour news networks, Marash said, meant that "there is the space to do it."
He qualified these statements by saying, "The press is operating in difficult conditions," and that journalists often have to fight for access to information and financial resources.
Abbott spoke to the importance of reporting more than just the bare bones of events. She said that it is critical for reporters to provide background, something that quick Internet and television news reports often omit.
It is a problem, she said, "if you aren't giving people the full context ... and giving people the full picture."
Surette, a commander in the military who is responsible for providing the press with information about foreign conflicts, said that the military seeks to provide journalists with the most "timely and accurate" information that it can.
He also mentioned that the military is one of only a few organizations that deliberately and consciously release information to the press that will be detrimental to its public image.
"The military has a tremendous respect for the press ... The relationship between the press and the military has an all-time high," according to a recent Gallup poll, Surette said.
The major question that dominated the last portion of the discussion was how the press can get the American public involved in actively reading newspapers and seeking quality international news.
"The World War II generation did feel a moral imperative to know about the world ... [Now,] people feel that knowing about the world is perfectly discretionary," Marash said. "There's not much the news media can do about it," he said, but added that he thought a turn-around is in the works in the American public.
Rather contended that good journalists can avert the problem caused by people's indifference to world affairs. "Find a reason that people should care about the story - that's what we can do," he said.
Audience members thanked Rather and the panelists with strong applause at the end of the lecture.
"I think they spoke about a lot of issues we all feel are important," senior Aaron Miller, an international relations and economics major, said.
Professor and former University Provost Sol Gittleman agreed with the panel members' assertion that good journalism must include global and historical context.
"People learn that how you get out of the Middle Eastern problem is [by] looking back," he said, giving one example of a world problem that quality journalism can help solve by educating people.
