Father of '20/20' decries decline of TV journalism

By Katie Aschim
Montana Kaimin

Over the last few decades, television journalism has seen major budget cuts, more dependence on tabloid stories and too much emphasis on the bottom line. Unfortunately, a former network news producer says, the damage may be irreparable.

Av Westin, who went from being a copyboy to becoming the father of "20/20," spoke about the decline of his profession in his April 3 keynote speech for the annual Dean Stone celebration of the School of Journalism.

photo by Lisa Hornstein

Broadcast news is suffering from budget cuts and deteriorating news standards, warned broadcast journalist Av Westin during the annual Dean Stone lecture on April 3.

"Since the 1990s, when the bottom line became paramount, it has trumped the editorial line every single time," said Westin, who worked at ABC and CBS for 46 years.

Much has changed since television first came onto the media scene. "In the beginning, TV news was often described as the jewel in the crown (of television)," he said.

TV news segments were short but high-quality in television's early days, Westin said. That changed in 1964, when network news doubled its air time to 30 minutes. Producers had extra time to fill, leading to the beginning of what Westin called "syndicated news" — gossipy non-news used to fill air time.
"Something very dangerous is happening to broadcast journalism," he said.

In many newsrooms, research budgets have been slashed and overseas bureaus have been closed, Westin said. Editing time for feature stories is often cut from five weeks to less than a week. Stations are forced to rely on video from national news sources instead of doing their own reporting. Viewers no longer expect well-reported stories, he said.

Producers now have access to up-to-the-minute ratings, and make decisions about program content based on ratings rather than quality, Westin said.

Industry also controls network news, Westin said. After Disney bought ABC, a news program at ABC did an investigative report of pedophilia at theme parks. When it surfaced that a number of incidents had occurred in Disney-owned parks, the story was pulled, he said.

Westin praised coverage of the war in Iraq. "It brings a sense of danger and risk into the American living room," he said.

Contrasting the coverage with that of the first Gulf War and the conflict in Afghanistan, he identified the coverage of today, in which reporters are embedded with troops, as "good propaganda" that raises valid questions in the minds of viewers.

Despite the positive turn in war coverage, Westin is pessimistic about the future of broadcast journalism.

"The downward spiral we’re experiencing will continue, and it will get worse," he said.

Westin started in the journalism business as a copyboy at the age of 16. In his 20 years at CBS he served as a news writer, reporter, TV director and special events producer as well as television’s first foreign field producer. He worked with Fred Friendly at PBS for two years before moving to ABC news, where he worked for 24 years. During that time he helped create several programs, including the TV news magazine "20/20."

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