Outside Voices: On Presiding Over The News

Each week we invite someone from the outside to weigh in with their thoughts about CBS News and the media at large. This week, we asked Leroy Sievers, former executive producer of ABC News' "Nightline," to contribute. Sievers has held several positions at CBS News, including producer in the Los Angeles and Miami bureaus, assistant bureau chief in the New York and Los Angeles bureaus and bureau chief in Los Angeles. These days, he is a consultant to various human rights groups and you may have heard his occasional commentary on National Public Radio. In light of CBS Sports President Sean McManus's recent appointment as president of CBS News, Sievers shares his thoughts on the business of managing reporters. As always, the opinions expressed in "Outside Voices" are those of the author, not ours, and we seek a wide variety of voices.

CBS News has a new president. He's not a newsman, he's a "sports guy." That is, he's been the president of CBS Sports for many years. Now, a lot of people in the news business are going to be horrified by this choice. How can an outsider run one of the great, although somewhat tarnished, news organizations in this country? Heresy?

Well, it's easy to see the reasoning. It's all about Roone Arledge. He went from ABC Sports, where he revolutionized sports coverage, to ABC News. The traditionalists there were horrified, but he went on to revolutionize news coverage too. NBC News, which does not have a president right now, was also rumored to have been looking at sports producers as well to fill their top slot.

Now, it's not a given that a sports guy can do what Roone did. It's doubtful that anyone could have the impact he did. But what's interesting is that the three networks seem to think that it's important to have a non-journalist in charge of their journalism.

Let me say here that I worked at both CBS News and ABC News. There were a number of news presidents while I was at CBS -- some better, some worse. At ABC, David Westin, a lawyer with no journalistic experience or credentials, succeeded Roone. He's never covered a story, never produced a broadcast. He's never had to decide if getting that picture was worth risking the lives of your crew and yourself.

But maybe it's time that all of us in the news business face an ugly truth. We think that journalism is a profession, a calling. It's not a "job." It's more than that. And no one else is qualified to understand what we do, let alone manage us.

Well, maybe we're the only ones who think that. I'm not a lawyer, no firm is going to hire me as senior partner. No hospital will hire me as chief of surgery. For that matter, Starbucks probably wouldn't hire me as a manager. All of my restaurant experience came more than 25 years ago. So why do the network bosses think that it's better for a non-journalist to run their news divisions?

Maybe they, like much of the public, don't think much of what we do, or how we do it. No one seems to respect journalism the way journalists do. And maybe they don't think that journalists are any good at running things. And they may be right. Being a good producer does not mean you'll be a good manager, yet that's the standard career trajectory. And there are plenty of "journalists" in senior management, many of whom are not particularly good at their jobs. Somehow, when many people get promoted, they forget what it's like in the trenches. They become hard, cruel, cold.

Journalists by nature should be difficult to manage, at least if they're any good. They should ask embarrassing questions, challenge authority, be opinionated -- not qualities that are necessarily key to climbing the corporate ladder.

I guess when something like this happens, it makes journalists confront an ugly thought. Maybe what we do isn't so special. Maybe anyone can do it. But I don't think that's right. I think that journalism, at its best, is special. In the end, what's important for the president of a news division is not necessarily to be a good journalist. Their job is to be a good manager. But what is important is that they respect the work that the journalists who work for them do. Being a journalist isn't easy. Not everyone can do it. It can be physically challenging, emotionally costly, and far too many of our colleagues have paid the ultimate price. That's not something to be ignored or disdained.

So, I wish the new president all the best. The success of CBS News would be good for all of us. And maybe some day, a journalist will be hired to run some other business. But I wouldn't count on it.