Journalists Assess Early Lewinsky Coverage

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Feb. 18) -- Public opinion surveys show most Americans do not think the media have acted responsibly in their coverage of the Monica Lewinsky controversy. And even some people in the news business share that view.

A group called the Committee of Concerned Journalists has sponsored a study of reporting on the Lewinsky story that shows many journalists abandoned the two-source rule when quoting anonymous sources.

The survey shows, in the first six days of coverage, that:

• 41 percent of the coverage was analysis and opinion.
• 25 percent was based on a single named source.
• 18 percent was based on anonymous sources.
• Only 1 percent was based on two named sources.

The study, released Wednesday, suggested a growing emphasis on disseminating the latest developments in a competitive story rather than determining their accuracy.

"The media culture today is oriented around talking about the news rather than reporting it," said Tom Rosenstiel, a media critic and vice chairman of the committee.

"The news organizations that had the least facts tended to pretend they knew the most," said Rosenstiel, who has worked for the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek.

The study examined the nightly newscasts, prime-time TV magazines and specials, selected talk shows, two magazines and the front-page stories of five newspapers to determine the extent to which they relied on unnamed sources or other media to deliver the story. It also attempted to quantify the amount of each account that was based on facts, rather than speculation.

The shows and organizations reviewed were the evening news broadcasts and prime-time magazines, Sunday talk shows and specials on ABC, CBS and NBC; CNN; "Larry King Live" and the "Charlie Rose Show"; Time and Newsweek; the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Washington Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Wednesday February 18, 1998

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