By Ruth Steinhardt
The current cacophonous news landscape, with its glut of sources both reliable and not, can feel chaotic and overwhelming. But CBS News President David Rhodes said it might actually be “better for the audience” than a system dominated by just a few keystone outlets.
An earlier era of television news, in which CBS was one of just three major networks, “was simpler but it wasn’t necessarily better,” Mr. Rhodes said. The diversification of sources has not only led to “diversity of opportunity” for graduates of schools like SMPA, he said, but is “arguably better for the audience in aggregate [because] there are so many points of view and so much communication out there.”
Mr. Rhodes visited the George Washington University Friday for “Keeping Our Eye on the Future of News,” a panel hosted by the School of Media and Public Affairs and moderated by SMPA Director Frank Sesno. He was later joined in a panel discussion by two fellow CBS employees and GW alumni: journalist and anchor Reena Ninan, B.A. ’01, and Mosheh Oinounou, B.A. ’02, executive producer of CBS Evening News.
The conversation centered on the destabilized media landscape, in which polarized rhetoric tends to garner more reliable audiences. Mr. Rhodes said CBS invests heavily in the necessary resources for substantial journalism rather than entertainment. He cited the previous week’s strikes by the United States, the United Kingdom and France in Syria, during which CBS was the only American television news network with a reporter already on the ground.
“Where the hell is everybody? Why are we the only ones there?” Mr. Rhodes said.
“That’s journalistically really important. [Journalists] need to not just go cover some briefing, where somebody tells you what’s happened. Our country needs people to actually go and see what’s happened and not take anybody’s word for it.”
But though he emphasized the importance of serious journalism, Mr. Rhodes refused to condemn Fox News for its partisanship or for its belligerent stance against his and other mainstream news venues.
Asked if the conservative network had “lost its mind,” Mr. Rhodes said, “No, absolutely not. On the contrary, they know who they are. They have a clear identity.”
But, a questioner pressed, shouldn’t CBS push back harder on Fox’s attacks against its credibility? Mr. Rhodes said no.
“I think the best thing you can do to protect American journalism…is by doing it,” Mr. Rhodes said. “What those who are most critical of us want us to do is to take the bait, and that’s what you can’t do. There is a commercial proposition behind those attacks, and they can deliver on it much more if we actually get down into it.”
Mr. Sesno also asked Mr. Rhodes about a rumored exposé on the ousting of disgraced CBS personality Charlie Rose.
“There was no knowledge” at CBS of the former anchor’s alleged sexual misconduct, Mr. Rhodes said. Nor had network leadership ever shielded him from accusations. “But I think he personally in his life had an expectation of protection. So that might have been jarring for him that when he expected protection, none came.”
And Mr. Rhodes also expressed a cautious interest in acquiring CNN should the network ever become available for purchase, a possibility that CBS President Les Moonves has also floated.
“Any time an opportunity comes up like that, you’d be foolish not to look at the possibility,” Mr. Rhodes said.
Ms. Ninan and Mr. Oinounou came onstage to discuss their paths from GW to CBS and to break down the challenges journalists face trying to put together a produced news show in the digital age. If a story breaks on Twitter at 6:29, Mr. Oinounou said, viewers still expect to see it on the 6:30 news.
“The expectation of the audience today is that I need to be seeing the latest developments,” he said. “It’s all well and good to have a beautifully written and produced show, but if it’s not telling me the latest information I need to know at this hour, then we have a new challenge.”
Ms. Ninan said a meticulously planned show will often have to be completely rewritten in the afternoon, which is when she anchors.
“We put a rundown together starting at 10 a.m., cobbling together all these stories, and every afternoon at 12:35 the entire rundown gets busted,” she said. “And it’s always political news we didn’t necessarily see coming.”
“What we do now at the evening news is, our lead is called ‘White House TBD,’” Mr. Oinounou said. “And in my two months now at the show, nearly weekly, the president is changing the headline or making news within 20 minutes of the broadcast.”
Amidst the chaos, panelists agreed, the goal of CBS is to keep their audience’s focus on what matters as opposed to what Mr. Oinounou called “shiny objects.”
“Cutting through the noise is what we’re trying to do every day,” Mr. Oinounou said.
“And are you succeeding?” Mr. Sesno asked.
“Some days yes, some days no,” Mr. Oinounou replied.
