The presidents of the three major TV network news divisions (ABC, CBS, NBC) got together this week for a joint forum on their role in American journalism. It is, to be sure, a conversation worth having.
More specifically, however, it was encouraging to hear the news heads admit a dramatic mistake.
On Iraq, the three said that, in retrospect, they should have more aggressively questioned the Bush administration’s grounds for invading Iraq in the spring of 2003.
“Simply stated, we let down the American people on weapons of mass destruction, and I sincerely regret that,” [David Westin of ABC News] said.
Regret, in this case, is good. Hell, the fact that Westin admits he let America down reflects more remorse — and a greater sense of humility — than anything we’ve heard from the Bush White House for nearly four years.
Can you imagine, just for a moment, Bush acknowledging that he was wrong about WMD and that we went to war under false pretenses? I don’t think my imagination can even picture Bush uttering the words “I sincerely regret” in any context.
As for the networks, I have no reason to give them the benefit of the doubt. I hope the fact that they reported the White House’s deceptive propaganda without scrutiny or skepticism has taught them a valuable lesson, but if they’re going to be credible again, they’re going to have to earn it.
Westin’s expression of regret is a nice step, but I’d like to ask him, “So what are you going to do about it now?”
Post Script: One other interesting issue came up at the forum — exit polls.
They shared their concerns about exit polls that wrongly indicated early that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was leading President Bush in several key battleground states. The polls, which were sponsored by a consortium of major news organizations, were leaked onto the Internet.
“We’re not happy that the exit polls, even in the first wave, were wrong,” [Neal Shapiro of NBC News] said. “We’re all reviewing it, it should have been better.”
Again, acknowledging a problem is a positive development. But four years ago, the Voter News Service’s exit polls were wrong, the networks were upset and embarrassed, and everyone vowed to correct the mistakes. They ended up changing the name of their consortium to the National Election Pool, but little else improved. I’m glad to hear the news chiefs say they’re “not happy,” but let’s hope it leads to something constructive.