All Blog Posts from Public Eye

It's Thursday, and that means it's time for the Public Eye Chat. This week's subject is CBS News Business Correspondent Anthony Mason. You can read excerpts, and listen to the full interview, below.

---

Click here to listen to the interview.

---

Brian Montopoli: You were on the floor last week during the tense period for stocks. What was the atmosphere like there?

Anthony Mason: Well, I think the real question as it started was is it just a one-day thing, or is it going to be something more serious. And obviously, it became apparent pretty quickly. The last couple of corrections the market's had were…drastic one-day downdrafts, and all of a sudden it seemed like everything was all right. And the real question this time was, is this just one bad day, or is it the beginning of quite a few bad days.

There was really worry on the floor. There was real worry that there was a significant drop, that first day, and that it didn't recover by the close. There was real trepidation. And as we now know, with good reason.

Brian Montopoli: When you're trying to characterize that for people, especially early on, do you just go by what you're feeling from the traders? Presumably, you have to look at it with a little bit of a grain of salt, because I assume panic is not uncommon on the trading floor.

Anthony Mason: I tend to go to the guys who have been there the longest, who have seen the most of these. Because they're the ones who don't use words like "panic" very easily. Because it's very easy to look at a 250 point drop or a 300 point drop and go, "oh, wow." Although these days, percentage-wise, that's not nearly as big as it was even five years ago.

But I tend to go to them first and say, "How bad is it?" It looks bad, but what's it based on? And when somebody like Art Cashin at UBS, whose been on the floor for like 40 years, tell me he thinks this was a mild heart-attack, I pay attention. That's when I go, "OK, if Art Cashin thinks it’s a mild heart attack, there's something here."

Brian Montopoli: Do you worry when you're covering it about contributing to further problems by talking about it in the media and casting it as a significant thing? Do you worry about the repercussions of your coverage?

Read full post…

"This broadcast has had three anchors and three executive producers in two years. Everybody wants this to work."

--CBS Business Correspondent Anthony Mason, discussing the hiring of Rick Kaplan as executive producer of the "Evening News." Check out our chat with Mason here.

Today we give you the inaugural entry in our new feature, which we’ve imaginatively named “The Public Eye Chat.” Our first subject is CBS News business correspondent Anthony Mason, who sat down with me yesterday for a discussion about himself, his job, and his profession. Below you’ll find excerpts from the chat. You can also listen to the whole thing by clicking on the link below.

---

Click here to hear the full interview.

---

Brian Montopoli: Why did you go into TV News -- not “why did you go into news,” or “why did you go into TV,” but why did you go into TV news?

Anthony Mason: Well, in my case it goes way back. I started when I was a kid – and I'm talking probably like 10 or 11 years old – I actually conceived of my own imaginary television network. I mean, I had the whole thing programmed out in a spiral notebook. I programmed every single show. I stole shows from other networks that I liked. It would have been like '66 – I called it Green Hornet Broadcasting ‘cause The Green Hornet was my favorite superhero, and The Green Hornet show was on every night at 7:30 on my network. Even though I think the only ever made 26 Green Hornet shows. But that didn’t matter.

And then I just conceived of all these other shows that I liked, and I would sort of make them up in my head, and then of course I had my newscast. Which I did with – I used my father's telescope as the camera, and I set up a card table, and hung a little sign in front of it that said "WGHB" – Green Hornet Broadcasting – and I did my show.

BM: Do you ever feel constrained by the format of doing – of trying to tell a full story in less than two minutes? Does that frustrate you?

Read full post…

During his tenure at CBS News, correspondent Anthony Mason has worked out of London and Moscow and has reported from more than 30 countries. Prior to CBS, he's had some notable experiences reporting from New Jersey cemeteries and he founded Green Hornet Broadcasting (read on for more on that.)

So what do you do for a living?

I cover business stories for the "Evening News." That means I report on everything from payola scandals in the music industry to troubles in the auto industry to the Martha Stewart trial. I go wherever the money goes.

I also moonlight for our "Sunday Morning" program doing primarily cultural stories. I did a long series on mystery writers (I’ve profiled more than 40 of them) and lately seem to be doing quite a few stories on musicians.

What is not being covered enough at CBS News?

Everything really. The strength of TV news is the power of images. The great weakness is the lack of time. We don’t have nearly enough of it. Especially not in a 22 minute newscast.

What is the strangest thing that has ever happened to you on the job?

When I worked in local news in New Jersey years ago, I was sent to cover a story about a man who refused to bury his dead teenage daughter because he was convinced she would be resurrected. The court finally ordered him to bury her. My new bosses ordered me to go live from the gravesite. As I was going on the air, I looked down at the monitor briefly to see the word “LIVE” go up in the corner of the screen over the images of the headstones in the cemetery behind me. Strange and embarassing.

<

Read full post…

Anthony Mason has been a correspondent with CBS News since 1989, covering everything from the 1991 Soviet coup attempt to contributing to a series of profiles of mystery writers for “Sunday Morning.” He’s been based in London and Moscow and has reported from more than 30 countries for CBS. Now based in New York, he’s been CBS’ business correspondent since 1998 and we noted some of his recent work earlier. Take a look at his bio for some more information about his background, then fire a question at him via e-mail or post it in the comments section and he’ll answer it tomorrow.

Read full post…

CBS News business correspondent Anthony Mason recently shared his thoughts with PE on how well the media covers the economy. He piqued our interest again this past Friday, when the “Evening News” closed with his piece on “The State of The Media.” With all the attention Mason’s been getting from us lately, we decided it was the perfect time to ask him our 10 standard questions and, of course, offer the opportunity for readers to submit theirs. As always, e-mail us your best questions or post them in the comments section and Mason will answer one.

Read full post…

The Free Market Project, a division of the conservative Media Research Center, has released a report criticizing the three broadcast networks for downplaying "strong growth and, instead, emphasized negatives such as corporate layoffs and outsourcing in more than half the stories about jobs or unemployment."



One should not make the mistake of treating the report as objective. The mission of the MRC is to prove "that liberal bias in the media does exist and undermines traditional American values," and "also to neutralize its impact on the American political scene." It's worth checking out – and I should point out that one of its conclusions is that CBS is "the worst network" when it comes to economic reporting – but bear in mind that many of the conclusions that such a report will come to are pretty much settled before the research is even begun.



That does not mean, however, that the issue of how the press covers the economy is not an important one. The economy is vast, fast changing and difficult to characterize simply. It's easy to cherry pick facts to paint a positive or negative picture, something that politicians and partisans do regularly, particularly during an election cycle. News outlets have to try to cut through the rhetoric, which can be particularly difficult to since most journalists lack an understanding of complex economic concepts. And they also have to try to provide context so that news that seems to suggest wider implications – say, job cuts at a particular company – doesn't give media consumers an inaccurate overall picture of the economy.



Blogger Brad Delong, in the syllabus to a course he is teaching this semester at Berkeley called "Covering The Economy," articulated the problem for print journalists this way:

Nobody goes into journalism to write bad stories that mislead their readers and omit or downplay the important news of the events that they are covering. Journalists, especially daily journalists have a very difficult job. They are under ferocious deadline pressure. They are beat reporters--which means that they cannot afford to alienate their sources too far, for they have to go back to them again and again. They are dealing with complicated and subtle issues. And at least half the people they talk to are telling them subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) lies.

I talked to CBS News business correspondent Anthony Mason about the challenges of covering the economy.

Read full post…