TVSquad

When you're sitting less than ten feet away from a television legend, you pay attention, even if you're hot and sweaty and somewhat aware that the deodorant you put on in the morning is no longer doing its job. That's the situation I was in as I hustled uptown from the One-Minute Pitch finals just in time for the panel discussion on the news media's role in a war zone. Twenty minutes and one very muggy F train station later, I found myself in the front row, with a panel of distinguished newsmen in front of me. But everyone knew the attraction was Rather.

More on the panel -- and more pictures -- after the jump.

The panel consisted of, from left to right, David Verdi, executive news director of NBC News, Rather, moderator Richard C. Wald, a former network news executive professor of journalism at Columbia, the nattily-clad NJ Burkett, who has reported from war zones for WABC here in New York, and...


... Chuck Lustig, foreign news director for ABC News. All of them talked about how news is done in a war zone these days, from the security call all the networks participate in every week to the training reporters like Burkett take to learn the difference in sound between small weapons fire and an RPG. Burkett also told a great story about how he reacted during a mock kidnapping held during the class; he was led to a spot blindfolded and at gunpoint, and was told to kneel down in the snow. He chose to run away in zig-zag fashion, which only a few people choose. Even though we all knew it was a mock kidnapping, it was still a harrowing story.

Bosses like Lustig and Verdi have other concerns. First of all, they know that they can't order someone to a war zone, so they ask for volunteers. Verdi said that if the volunteer wants to do it to boost his or her career or thinks it's a great adventure, than the person isn't right for the job. He or she has to know that it's the story of the decade and they need to cover it; when they express that sincerity, Verdi and Lustig will send them. Lustig mentioned some of the security procedures his reporters have to go through in Iraq, including guards, drivers, multiple routes, and equipment. It's a very expensive undertaking but it has to be done.

They all expressed the fact that it is now easy to report on things in close to real time, with videophones, laptops, and remote transmission technology being readily available to reporters in the field. As recently as even the last Gulf war, reporters still had to videotape reports and bring them back to a central point, where they'd be transmitted to home base. But now, even those relatively brief delays are gone.

Rather was in fine form. Even though people at CBS may think he's lost something off his fastball, his responses to Wald's questions and to questions from the audience were as passionate and eloquent as ever. He managed to squeeze in a Ratherism or two, but stories about reporting from Vietnam didn't exactly call for it.

I was lucky enough to be able to ask the panel a question on why there's a perceived bias with American news organizations compared to organizations like the BBC. Rather took the mike, looked me straight into the eye and gave me a long answer about how the bias argument is made by people on both sides who scream it when the news isn't presenting their side. Newspeople do the best they can, but they're human, so "of course there's going to be bias," Rather said (He followed it up by saying "And I'm sure someone's going to have that quote on the Internet before we're done here."). But the key for a journalist is to not be influcenced by any outside agendas. And Wald correctly added, "And if you think the foreign press is objective, then you don't know the foreign press." It's not exactly as trendy as what's on the Lost Season three poster, but for a news nut like me, this was all exciting stuff.

When the panel ended, I angled to get a few minutes with Rather like I did with Mitch Hurwitz the day before, but he was shuttled out the side door before anyone could talk to him. Oh, well. I had other things on my mind: I needed to find food and some Right Guard before the next event, which was the premiere of The Knights of Prosperity. So I walked around the vicinity of the Directors Guild Theater during the break. After a chicken wrap, a banana-coconut Frappuchino, and a trip to Duane Reade, I was good to go for the premiere, the results of which you'll see later today.