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Westin Rejects Infusing Opinions Into ABC's Reporting
ABC News president says organization must deliver stories competitors aren't
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/15/2009 9:00:00 PM
Don't look for ABC to start injecting opinions into its reporting, but quality journalism alone won't be enough to win an asymmetric war for news hearts and minds against a host of cable and online adversaries.
That was the message from ABC News President David Westin according to prepared remarks from Westin's keynote speech at a Media Institute Awards dinner in Washington Thursday night.
"One of the things I hear most often is that we need to start injecting opinion into our reporting. People say that we're being left behind by Jon Stewart or Fox News," he said. "But to interlace our factual reporting with our opinions on what we're covering is for me both wrong and ultimately ineffective."
He said there was a place for opinion, and that it was on the op-ed pages. "If we are to speak at one moment about the truth as we've found it and the next about how we think things ought to be, why should those listening believe the former any more than the latter? Our reporting should never be mistaken for simply another point of view, rather than the result of painstaking work and checking and revision."
ABC News president says organization must deliver stories competitors aren't
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/15/2009 9:00:00 PM
Don't look for ABC to start injecting opinions into its reporting, but quality journalism alone won't be enough to win an asymmetric war for news hearts and minds against a host of cable and online adversaries.
That was the message from ABC News President David Westin according to prepared remarks from Westin's keynote speech at a Media Institute Awards dinner in Washington Thursday night.
"One of the things I hear most often is that we need to start injecting opinion into our reporting. People say that we're being left behind by Jon Stewart or Fox News," he said. "But to interlace our factual reporting with our opinions on what we're covering is for me both wrong and ultimately ineffective."
He said there was a place for opinion, and that it was on the op-ed pages. "If we are to speak at one moment about the truth as we've found it and the next about how we think things ought to be, why should those listening believe the former any more than the latter? Our reporting should never be mistaken for simply another point of view, rather than the result of painstaking work and checking and revision."
