The Public Eye Chat With…Linda Mason

(CBS)

It's Thursday, and that means it's time for the Public Eye Chat. This week's subject is CBS News Senior Vice President, Standards and Special Projects Linda Mason. You can read excerpts and listen to the full interview below.

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Click here to listen to the interview.

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Brian Montopoli: Producers will contact you and say "can we do this?" Can you give me an example of that kind of interaction?

Linda Mason: Sure. We're doing a story on something and we want to go get pictures of the person in question. Where can we go? Can we go on the sidewalk outside his house? Can we knock on the door and ask him to come out? …Of course you can't go on somebody's private property, but you can stand on the public sidewalk and have your camera there. They were just looking to get some video. So that's an easy one.

A harder one is we want to go undercover with a hidden camera. We're looking at airport safety, and we have a story on airport workers who don't have to go through the strenuous system that the pilots and the hostesses have to go through. They have a separate door where they come through. Can we send a hidden camera there? We talk to the lawyers and depending on what state you are, etc. etc., yes, and we did it. And it was a very interesting piece.

Brian Montopoli: Recently, as you know of course, a producer was fired for writing a Notebook that was in part lifted from a Wall Street Journal piece. What actions, other than firing the producer involved, has CBS News taken in response to that?

Linda Mason: That's something that happened a month ago, and I'd just as soon pass. We've taken – we think we have fixed the situation.

Brian Montopoli: Has there been any change in reminding people about standards? Has there been anything like that?

Linda Mason: Well, every time something like this happens, whether it's at CBS, the New York Times, NBC, ABC, yeah, we sit down and say, "Hey, we've gotten a little too complacent, we have to pay attention to these things." Absolutely.

Brian Montopoli: And so did that entail a company-wide refresher course?

Linda Mason: There wasn't a refresher course. It was ironic because I was scheduled to give a standards session to the Web at that very time, right before it happened…

Brian Montopoli: But that would have happened either way.

Linda Mason: That would have happened either way, yeah. It wasn't spurred by that event. It was spurred by, as I went through the different groups who I had not yet reached, the Web was one of them.

Brian Montopoli: Is the notion that CBS News has credibility beyond what maybe a blogger has particularly important to maintaining its popularity and success?

Linda Mason: I think a blog and CBSNews.com are two different things. I think a blog tends to reflect the opinion or opinions of the people putting out the blog. It in no way strikes to be fair and measured. It's putting out that viewpoint, I think. And I think that CBSNews.com is trying to put forth the whole story. So I think there's a real difference.

Brian Montopoli: And do you think people understand that difference?

Linda Mason: I don't know.

Brian Montopoli: You told me, a little while back, that you were "the first woman at every job I had at CBS News." And that includes in 1971, when you were the first female field producer for The CBS Evening News With Walter Cronkite. I'm curious your take on Katie Couric's experience as the first solo female nightly news anchor.

Linda Mason: I'm just surprised at how, almost 30 years after I worked on the "Evening News" as the first woman producer, that Katie is having such a tough time being accepted by the public, which seems to prefer the news from white guys, and now that Charlie's doing so well, from older white guys. I guess they want the reassurance of a Walter Cronkite.

I had no idea that a woman delivering the news would be a handicap. And I'm afraid that Katie's paying a price for being the first woman. But I think it's a great trail that she's blazing, and I think if the broadcast continues to be as good as it has been, if we continue to break news, if we continue to tell interesting stories, people will start to watch. It takes time, I think. But I was surprised that there was an obvious connection between a woman giving the news, and the audience wanting to watch it.

[rexmurphy]

Newsflash for CBS:

Insulting and embarrassing, all at the same time. You Liberal media folks are so patently shallow, biased and elitist and possess such inflated egos (its a wonder you don't float off the planet)buttressed by liberal "group think," that you could not be more clueless - sufferers one and all of the Pauline Kael pandemic, which fortunately has been contained on the East and West coasts.

The problem at CBS is old Les, Katie and of course Linda Mason and all the other empty suits, not the viewing public.

Albert Einstein once said that Insanity was doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. You left wing media outlets are simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, while steering a course directly for the icebergs.

Bon Voyage......

[dannydel2]

The most memorable thing Katie ever did was to take one up the bum on national t.v., purportedly for cancer. I wouldn't mind getting the raw footage of THAT show.

[ricardo4max]

It is extremely encouraging to see so many great posts and realize that the drive-by left wing media is completely wrong about what Americans think and feel. It's really makes one wonder how any Democrats were able to be elected at all.
Democrats and their accomplices in the media need to stop underestimating the American people.

[pokenhorn]

Hey, it's over. Those days when 'journalists' used that title as cover for their political activism are gone. The raised eyebrow, the snide tone, the sneer, the smirk... all of it now useless. We have the net, we have Rush, and we have Fox News. The fortunes of CBS, NBC, and ABC will improve as they become more like Fox.

[rpaulstu]

I haven't read every single post here, but in skimming around I haven't seen anyone comment on Mason's answer to Montopoli's second question: her REFUSAL to answer. "I'd just as soon pass" is hardly the reply I'd expect, given this site's dedication to "transparent journalism." Shame on Linda Mason on several different levels.

[dogpatch388]

Afterthought:

In these posts I keep reading the word, "journalist." And, for years I have heard "journalists" say that they went into "journalism" to "make a difference."

What a load! If you "journalists" really want to make a difference, stop calling yourselves "journalists" and become REPORTERS! We could surely use a few reporters who report the news rather than making up fiction or leaving out key parts of your story to satisfy your agenda or the agenda of your socialist boss.

Again, wanna make a difference? Report the news whether you like the news the way it is or not.

Bill Hobbs

[rekrap1227]

So all of you sexist TV viewers be warned! Either you start watching Katie Couric, skill or no skill, or you will be charged with committing hate crimes and all of your TV channels except CBS will be locked-out.
Affirmative action must and will work! Individual merit is just another lie of the capitalist oppressors.
Hillary Clinton's vast Right breast and wing Kentucky fried chicken conspiracy theory is now proven beyond a doubt.

[rekrap1227]

So all of you sexist TV viewers be warned! Either you start watching Katie Couric, skill or no skill, or you will be charged with committing hate crimes and all of your TV channels except CBS will be locked-out.
Affirmative action must and will work! Individual merit is just another lie of the capitalist oppressors.
Hillary Clinton's vast Right breast and wing Kentucky fried chicken conspiracy theory is now proven beyond a doubt.

[cootiepurge]

Why does this world accept as verbatim fact that Couric is the first woman to do this? What about Connie Chung (CBS), Diane Sawyer (ABC), Elizabeth Vargas (ABC),Paula Zahn (who cares?)? It's because none of them has the chops to deliver hard news, least of all the perky Katie Couric. The liberal left is hell bent on labeling people (the first woman anchor, the first black president, the first woman speaker of the house, etc.- It doesn't matter that they're qualified, as long as they blaze a trail. And the networks and CNN still wonder why ratings are plummeting and the viewing public are flocking in droves to FOX news. And someone actually suggested that Amanpour has credibility? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-.....!!!

[geiserdad]

What's Katie Couric's problem? Two answers:

First, audio. We have a big-screen but non-HDTV, el cheapo, off-brand TV, with a speaker about the size of jelly-jar lid, and it generates an audio that is intelligible and little else. Over it, Ms. Couric's voice is shrill, tinny, and very irritating to listen to for more than a few moments. Fix this!!!

Second, content. We don't care who your Talking Head is. But we're all bored with CBS News' fixation on political correctness and deliverance of the U.S. government into the hands of the Right People. Just do the news!