Broadcast Newswriters Speak

About News Quality

A report from the

Writers Guild of America, East

July 2007
Table of Contents
Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................... 3
Rationale ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Description of Report..................................................................................................................... 4
Findings.......................................................................................................................................... 5
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................... 8

Writers Guild of America, East, Broadcast Newswriters Speak About News Quality, July 2007 2
Executive Summary
Rationale
What we have always understood as “journalism” is evolving very quickly. Traditional media
outlets, including newspapers, television, and radio, still produce most of the original news
reporting in America. Yet the combined pressure of profit expectations and the loss of audiences
and advertisers to “new media” are causing media companies to examine every aspect of how they
do business. That has led to many changes in the workplace for journalists. The question is: do
these changes help or hinder the provision of quality news to the public?

Despite the growth of new media options, local television remains by far the most popular news
choice for Americans. The Project for Excellence in Journalism found in their most recent report
that 65.5% of the public gets news from local TV; another 28% from network TV.1 Local
newspapers are at 28%.

CBS Corporation and The Walt Disney Company, two of the largest media conglomerates in the
world, also dominate the world of television news. They own and operate TV stations that reach
more than 60% of the country’s population.2 Their network news programming runs on affiliate
stations as well as on owned-and-operated outlets; few if any media markets in America are
beyond the reach of their programming. Their network news programs (CBS and ABC) are
watched by millions.3 Their radio networks and stations also reach many millions of listeners.

For these reasons, taking an inside look at the changing circumstances of news production at ABC
and CBS is an important and unique contribution to the debate over news quality and its relation to
the public interest.

1
The Project for Excellence in Journalism, “The State Of The News Media 2007.”
2
CBS owns and operates stations reaching approximately 37%; ABC 24%. “View of media ownership limits
changes,” David Lieberman, USA Today, 1/29/2007.
3
ABC World News Tonight reaches nearly 10 million, CBS Evening News 7.5 million. “Exec producer leaves NBC
post,” Michael Learmonth, Daily Variety, 3/2/2007.

Writers Guild of America, East, Broadcast Newswriters Speak About News Quality, July 2007 3
Description of Report
The report is based on information gathered from May 2006 through April 2007 from:

• Interviews with WGA members at ABC and CBS news outlets

• Surveys distributed to WGA members by mail and through the workplace

• Information from the WGA member database

When members are quoted, they are identified only by workplace to preserve their anonymity.
Their workplaces include networks and O&O (owned and operated) stations in New York, NY;
Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, IL: and Washington, DC. WGA members play many roles in the
newsroom and have overall responsibility to monitor and report on breaking news. These roles
include:

• Producers, who select stories and determine the order in which they will run

• Writers of news voiceovers and anchor copy

• Assignment Desk Editors

• Copy/Audio/Video Editors

• Researchers and fact checkers

The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) are
labor unions representing writers in motion pictures, broadcast and cable television, news, and new
media. The Writers Guilds are active in legislative activities on the state, federal and international
levels with a special focus on globalization, labor, communications, and copyrights. They also
conduct programs, seminars, and events on issues of interest to, and on behalf of writers.
Collectively, they are known as the WGA.

For more information, see the Statement of Methodology.

Writers Guild of America, East, Broadcast Newswriters Speak About News Quality, July 2007 4
Findings
MEDIA CONGLOMERATES ATTACK UNIONS, SLASH JOBS

The conglomerates have slashed jobs overall, converted full-timers to part-timers, and combined
jobs. The result is too many conflicting demands on the few workers who are left, resulting in a
lower-quality news product. Twenty-five years ago, most jobs at the major media networks, and
their owned-and-operated stations in the largest markets, were unionized. But year after year, the
media conglomerates have fought to weaken union contracts, including NABET and IBEW as well
as WGA contracts, in order to add more temporary and part-time workers and reduce full-time
staff positions. Another key demand from companies has been to remove union jurisdiction rules
to increase the number of workers holding multiple job titles at the same time. For example,
where in the past, writers did all the writing and engineers did all the editing, now “writer-editors”
could do both jobs.

CBS and the Disney Company have cut back on union staff significantly since 1980. Now they
are trying to gut the Writers Guild completely. If Writers Guild news writers, graphic artists,
producers and desk assistants go the way of all the other professionals in the newsroom, broadcast
journalism may never recover the quality it once had. The charts below show how dramatically
CBS, in particular, has slashed full-time newswriters.

ABC News WGAE Staff, 1980-2006

400
Total
300

200

100
Full-Time
0
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

500
400
300
200
100
0
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Writers Guild of America, East, Broadcast Newswriters Speak About News Quality, July 2007 5
 CBS News WGA Staff, 1980-2006
NEWS QUALITY TUMBLES

The report demonstrates that our members are experiencing a decline in newsTotal
quality, especially
when once-independent newsrooms are consolidated. Some of the aspects of this decline are:

• Less news overall: fewer stories are covered, and they are repeated more frequently,
especially on co-owned stations (recycling)

• Less hard news, more “infotainment” news and more cross-promotions of outlets or
products owned by the same company. Full-Time

The charts below show WGA members believe their outlets, particularly local stations, are not
spending enough time and energy on important stories.

Q. Do you think your news outlet spends enough time and energy making sure that your
audience has enough information to make sound judgments on issues relevant to public life?
28%
Enough

3% More than enough

56%
Not enough
18% Not nearly
enough

Q. How often are stories with a true public interest or hard news component bumped for
celebrity news, human interest stories, or reports on isolated incidents of crime or disaster?

Total
Daily 49%
Local stations only

57%
Several times per week 20%
21%

Several times per month 10%

7%

12%
A few times per year
12%

8%
Never 2%
Writers Guild of America, East, Broadcast Newswriters Speak About News Quality, July 2007 6
Other aspects of the decline in news quality include:

• Less research and fact-checking

• Less time spent seeking multiple sources

• Less investigative reporting

• More VNR use

• Less preparation time

• More time spent multi-tasking (for example, doing production work as well as writing)

UNIONS PROTECT JOURNALISTS AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST

The report also details how unions protect journalists and the public interest:

• How union contracts can limit the negative impact of newsroom consolidation

• How professional journalists continue to uphold standards of quality journalism, and how
the protection of a union contract facilitates that professionalism

• How the decline of full-time jobs and the addition of part-time and temporary jobs with
less or no union protection can hurt news quality

Writers Guild of America, East, Broadcast Newswriters Speak About News Quality, July 2007 7
Recommendations
The FCC has the power to ensure that broadcast media provide a higher standard of news quality.

The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) supports the Center for Media and Democracy’s
proposals around the use of video news releases (VNRs):

• All provided and/or sponsored video footage be required to carry a continuous, frame-by-
frame visual notification of its source.

• All provided and/or sponsored audio material be required to include a verbal notification at
its beginning and/or end, disclosing its source.

• Broadcasters be required to place in their public file a monthly report on their use of
provided and/or sponsored material.

• U.S. government agencies funding and/or producing video or audio for news broadcast be
required to make all such material public and archive it online.

The WGAE also recommends that the following actions be considered:

• Hold public hearings specifically regarding localism and broadcast news quality in the top
markets where most of the U.S. population lives.

• Create and publicize a special public comment period and/or public hearing regarding the
effect of these labor practices in newsrooms on the public interest.

• Issue a public statement that the public interest would be served by CBS and Disney
reaching amicable contract agreements for their newswriters and other news personnel

• Appoint a commission or working group to develop standards for broadcast news quality as
a public interest requirement. Include working journalists on both the national and local
level, as well as industry representatives.

• These standards could include time requirements for original news production, local
coverage, political coverage, and strict disclosure requirements for paid news placement
and promotion of co-owned entities. Entertainment programming should not be allowed to
count toward a news requirement.

• Re-introduce the Fairness Doctrine and require newscasters to present multiple sides
of an issue.

• Make infractions of these public interest requirements punishable by fines.

• Require documented adherence to these standards for license renewal.

Writers Guild of America, East, Broadcast Newswriters Speak About News Quality, July 2007 8