The Public Eye Chat With…Linda Mason
(CBS)
Brian Montopoli: Producers will contact you and say "can we do this?" Can you give me an example of that kind of interaction?Click here to listen to the interview.
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.
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See all 232 CommentsInsulting 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......
Democrats and their accomplices in the media need to stop underestimating the American people.
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
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.
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.
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!
CBS also fired a number of staff members when Mary Mapes%u2019 provided forged records against President Bush, yet they kept ugly ol' Dan feeding at the trough. It was HIS NAME on the show, but they didn't hold him responsible.
Is CBS holding Katie responsible for the plagiarism in the column that carries her name? Nope. They fired the guy who cheated, yet Katie stays, so it appears that she will be held to the same standards as Dan Rather; meaning none.
It is now easy to understand why CBS is in a far third place.
Promoting someone as dim-witted, and bigoted, as Ms. Mason, and then allowing her to speak in public, exhibits the complete incompetence of CBS.
After reading so many thoughtful answers, my previous question has been answered. CBS is at fault. They are a COMPLETELY FOUL organization. Their stench of incompetence matches the smell of an over-filled garbage scow at high-noon in August. Why, oh why, do they continue to FIRE the WRONG people????
As another reader commented, it's probably not sexism that has doomed Katie, as there are plenty of solid female TV reporters with unimpeachable journalistic cred (like Christiane Amanpour) and Katie Couric was never one of them - but Moonves, who likes to see smiley faces on everything at CBS, decided that viewers wanted smiley face Katie presenting the news. Can Moonves admit he made a mistake?
As another reader commented, it's probably not sexism that has doomed Katie, as there are plenty of solid female TV reporters with unimpeachable journalistic cred (like Christiane Amanpour) and Katie Couric was never one of them - but Moonves, who likes to see smiley faces on everything at CBS, decided that viewers wanted smiley face Katie presenting the news. Can Moonves admit he made a mistake?
If what you say is true, you must have some research that shows a disproportionate % of older white males tuning out Katey (as opposed to older females, etc.) You do, don't you? Or is this another case of "the facts may not be true but the story is" ala Dan "where is he now" Rather?
Albert Einstein once said that Insanity was doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results, which aptly describes the mainstreat media. You folks are so patently shallow and elitist, with 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.
The problem at CBS is Les, Katie, Linda Mason and the rest of the cabal of empty suits, not the viewing public. You and the all the other left wing media outlets are simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, while steering a course directly for the icebergs.
Bon Voyage......
The problem is wholly CBS. The network wanted a set image doing what they have been doing since Walter left. That is strongly left slanted, vaporous and mostly propaganda news.
And for a time they had a run with it. But they were mugged recently by the blogs, Matt Drudge, FOX news, talk radio and the internet generally.
CBS is not a big news funnel anymore. Their share of the news pie is getting smaller and smaller. The recent past suggests that share will continue to shrink.
Nor is any of this a secret to anymore not even CBS. Anyone with their eyes half open and a somewhat functioning brain can read the writing on the wall.
Despite impending news marginality, CBS plods on as if the calender says 1960 and they still rule the roost. Fact is they are not even smart enough to protect their dwindling share of the news market. Ms. Mason is emblematic of the problem; she blames old white guys.
That is not only stupid and tasteless, it is flat out racist.
TJ
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