Back Inside The Morning Editorial Meeting

By: Vaughn Ververs
Topics: Behind The Scenes

When PE launched just four short months ago, one of the very first items we presented was a video look inside one of the major CBS News editorial meetings – the 10:30. The news division has gone through some changes since then, and we've gained some readers, so we thought it would be a good time to revisit it.

Video:
Lineup For CBS Evening News

This is the morning meeting where CBS News executives and producers gather to discuss the news agenda, what they're working on for today, tomorrow and into the future. While other meetings and discussions have already happened (and more will continue through the day), this is where the process begins to firm up – and where various interests are heard by all. Today's 10:30, usually headed by CBS News President Sean McManus, was conducted by Linda Mason, senior vice president for standards and special projects, and Rome Hartman, who recently took over as executive producer of the CBS "Evening News," makes his PE video debut.

While this is the second time we've taken a camera into an editorial meeting, it's important to remember how rare it is for any news organization to make public its internal discussions. And while PE policy is to edit such video for competitive or proprietary reasons, this meeting runs almost in full. The only part that didn't make it was the very beginning of the meeting, where the assembled had a good time making fun of my name. For the record, it's Vaughn, not Verne. And the only reason that is not included is that the camera picked up the exchange in midstream and most of it was inaudible. I promise. The rest of the meeting is unedited and runs just over 17 minutes.

So take a peek inside CBS News for a glimpse at how the sausage is made.

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by peterbaldwin-2009 January 19, 2006 11:58 AM EST: Bush should be condemned for taunting Jill Carrol's captors at such a delicate stage in the release effort by labeling them terrorists when they be may be bone fide resistance fghters. In Bush's psychopathic mind,keeping the fiction alive that all insurgents are terrorists trumps everything else, and Bush's stubbornness, which the MSN calls resoluteness, may ultmately lead to her execution. An immediate release of one female Iraqi as a sign of good faith is called for. Afterall, we have had prisoner exchanges in the past, and, as I remember no one in the White House or MSN gave a rat's ?*# when Omar Al Farouq escaped from Bagram US Air Base in Afghanistan in July after being hand delivered to the US by the Indonesian government.; Reply to this comment


by peterbaldwin-2009 January 18, 2006 11:51 PM EST: Jill Carroll's predicament was lead story, but no one wanted to say anything about it - a third rail. Rory Carroll from Dublin was 28 too. He got lucky. Hopefully the captors are insurgents and not terrorists or criminals. Al-Sadr could start making public comments or intervene directly. Her execution would only hurt the legitimate resistence fighters. Too bad the MSN won't touch issues like the nexus with US policy to kill unpopular journalists or what's happening right now in London with Blair on the hot seat and al-Jazeera making a freedom of information request over the Bush plot to bomb al-Jazeera offices that Tony Blair apparently nixed. The silence of the MSN regarding this is deafening. These are your guys whose lives have been on the line (and gals), but CBS cowers before the White House bullies and says nothing.; Reply to this comment