We'll Speak For Ourselves, Thank You Very Much
It seems some new visitors have made their way onto PE today. That might be courtesy of the Drudge Report which linked to one of our earlier posts. While we certainly don't mind the attention, I thought it might be a good idea to clear up an apparent misperception.
The headline to our link on Drudge read: "CBS bashes anonymous sources on Katie Couric story." Not that Drudge is best known for his impeccable accuracy but this characterization is wrong in two ways. First, I wasn't trying to "bash" anything in my earlier post, but to simply point out the irony in reporters having to use anonymous sources even in covering their own profession, which itself has issues with the whole practice. It seems in some instances, media organizations are not much different than the institutions they cover. Simply something I thought was an interesting point that nobody else was addressing.
More importantly, CBS was not saying anything, Public Eye was. Deborah Howell, The Washington Post ombudsman, recently discovered the pitfalls of assuming separation within a news company. While her charge is the newspaper itself, The Washington Post is also closely attached to the paper's Web site and new radio venture. Despite the fact that these are different companies, it's a distinction that few news consumers recognize as meaningful. As Howell put it, "all three Posts are under different management, but to most readers or listeners, The Post is The Post is The Post."
And in the same way, it's easy to understand how "CBS is CBS" when it comes to Public Eye. Only it really isn't. You see, we enjoy a separation from the news division of CBS that is pretty unique in journalism. We work under the banner of CBS Digital Media, not CBS News. Of course we're all part of one larger company, but while we may from time to time have more access to people in the news division, we're afforded no special rights or treatment. We're not all that interested in speculation and rumors of personnel moves, we're interested in the CBS News product and journalism in general. But even if we were standing vigil on the Katie watch, we wouldn't know anything more than you do.
CBS News does not speak through Public Eye in any way other than to respond to questions and requests we submit or occasional submissions given by name. When we comment and make observations about CBS News or any other news organization, it represents our independent thoughts and reactions, as accurate or misguided as you may find them. And, as always, feel free to make a comment or drop us an e-mail to let us know which you find us to be.