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This week's "10 Plus 1" subject is Jim Murphy, who will step down as the executive producer of the CBS "Evening News" at the end of the year. Murphy, who started in the job in January 2000, has been the longest-serving executive producer in the show's history. He led the broadcast through a number of significant news events, including the Sept. 11 attacks, the Columbia space shuttle disaster and the Iraq war. Previously, he was executive producer of "This Morning" and its predecessor, "CBS This Morning," and was senior producer of the "Evening News," "CBS This Morning," and "48 Hours." The "Evening News" has won a number of awards during Murphy's tenure, including six Emmy Awards.



So, what do you do for a living?

I watch, listen to, talk about and read about news day and night and then spend each day trying to figure out how you pack the world into 22 minutes each evening and keep viewers engaged at the same time.

What is not being covered enough at CBS News?

Everything. I take to heart the complaints about war coverage and think there's never enough time to cover the good as well as the bad. I think everything from China's ascendancy to the AIDS epidemic, bitter politics to bitter cultural wars, sports to entertainment all provide exceptional stories that we don't get to cover fully. But I also think people (especially in ivory towers) don't realize that while we strive to cover it all and cover it well we also are employed to sell papers, and we have to do both to survive.

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

There have been so many it's hard to keep count. When I worked in local news in New York with the renowned anchorman Roger Grimsby, the station got so cheap it sent us to cover Live Aid in Philadelphia in a beat-up courier car with a broken gasoline gauge. Guess who spent much of an evening on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike with no gas?



On the network level, nothing can compare with the day Dan Rather and I finally got the Saddam Hussein interview in Baghdad. Surreal isn't a big enough word. At one point, we were being held in a "safe house" in Baghdad where a tuxedoed butler served us drinks and snacks. I sat there for hours staring at a plate of chocolate éclairs avoiding them because I was simply too anxious to eat. I found out later Saddam had them smuggled in fresh daily from some famous Paris bakery. Later that day, I was shocked when the dictator himself was waving his arms in the air down a long hallway of his palace to get me to come on over for a chat in his office. There he showed incredible insight and knowledge of American politics and media -- interesting for a guy who didn't believe in freedom or democracy for anyone HE personally knew!

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Public Eye has taken you into the “Evening News” control room and the “Early Show” control room. We’ve even shown you the CBS News morning editorial meeting where CBS executives and producers discuss the news you’ll see each evening, morning and into the future. Now you get to see a lineup meeting, where evening news producers gather to begin the process of putting together a show.



There is plenty of competition to get onto the newscast and much of it takes place before the lineup meeting. But it is here where the decisions begin to solidify and the broadcast starts to take shape. Today was an especially busy news day with a full menu to choose from. There is talk about whether or not to cover Saddam Hussein’s trial even though the accused refused to show up. Anchor Bob Schieffer made a compelling case for explaining how it was Saddam was able to simply refuse. There is talk about where to place President Bush’s speech and a new CBS poll and whether or not some Republican House leadership wrangling should make the show. There’s explanation of an interesting story on the Egyptian elections, a package on the MTV generation of soldiers and lots of talk about the war in Iraq.



Click on the video and find out the answers to these questions and get a first-hand look at how these issues are discussed between Schieffer, Executive Producer Jim Murphy and the rest of the “Evening News” editorial team. The lineup discussed in the meeting is subject to constant change as news develops throughout the day. This video has not been edited in any way other than to add chyrons to identify those involved. It’s an unprecedented look at a small part of the process that goes into putting together a network newscast. The video runs just about 20 minutes.



UPDATE: In case you're wondering why the shooting at the Miami airport did not come up in the meeting, there's a simple explanation: The meeting took place this morning, and news of the shooting did break until the afternoon.

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Public Eye has taken you into the “Evening News” control room and the “Early Show” control room. We’ve even shown you the CBS News morning editorial meeting where CBS executives and producers discuss the news you’ll see each evening, morning and into the future. Now you get to see a lineup meeting, where evening news producers gather to begin the process of putting together a show.



There is plenty of competition to get onto the newscast and much of it takes place before the lineup meeting. But it is here where the decisions begin to solidify and the broadcast starts to take shape. Today was an especially busy news day with a full menu to choose from. There is talk about whether or not to cover Saddam Hussein’s trial even though the accused refused to show up. Anchor Bob Schieffer made a compelling case for explaining how it was Saddam was able to simply refuse. There is talk about where to place President Bush’s speech and a new CBS poll and whether or not some Republican House leadership wrangling should make the show. There’s explanation of an interesting story on the Egyptian elections, a package on the MTV generation of soldiers and lots of talk about the war in Iraq.



Click on the video and find out the answers to these questions and get a first-hand look at how these issues are discussed between Schieffer, Executive Producer Jim Murphy and the rest of the “Evening News” editorial team. The lineup discussed in the meeting is subject to constant change as news develops throughout the day. This video has not been edited in any way other than to add chyrons to identify those involved. It’s an unprecedented look at a small part of the process that goes into putting together a network newscast.

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He’s the longest-serving Executive Producer in the history of the “CBS Evening News.” He’s covered wars, 9/11 and disasters of all sorts. He’s worked on newsmagazines, morning shows and in local television news. He even produced “Siskel and Ebert’s” movie-review show. His name is Jim Murphy and he’s agreed to stop by and answer our questions – and yours – before he leaves his current post after the first of the year. You know how this works by now, each week a CBS News employee gets 10 questions from us and one submitted by our readers – maybe more if they're good enough. Here’s your chance, to e-mail us Jim your questions.

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It certainly wasn’t surprising that we kicked off a rowdy conversation by wading into the Media Research Center’s criticism of the CBS “Evening News.” What did come as a pleasant surprise, at least to me, was the lack of vitriol and personal attacks in the course of that conversation. Apparently it is possible to have a rational conversation about media bias that is dominated (mostly) by strong opinions voiced in a (mostly) courteous, thoughtful manner.



Who knew?



I’ll try to maintain those standards in continuing the discussion (with some of these obviously unbalanced people). First off, MRC’s Tim Graham was kind enough to weigh in, here’s part of his post:

”Vaughn, this item is very instructional. If your objective is for CBS employees to engage in dialogue with their critics, it's interesting that they can't seem to do it for long without going CAPITAL in their outrage at being questioned. A longer fuse would be a good idea, at least in engaging the public.



I appreciate your effort to engage Brent Baker's critique. It's fair enough to say it is our job to nitpick, and we feel the need to find something every day, and some days are better (worse) than others. I would not agree we always slant the material. Often, the material is slanted enough without the additional push. It's fair to say the MRC has a bias -- and we have never claimed otherwise. But you don't have to be objective to know what objectivity is, or isn't.

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