Well, good morning, everyone and thank you for coming here to csis. Im glad to see theres also a large group of students in the room. Want to raise your hands wax thats great. Wow. Im deborah mccarthy, executive director of a new program we have here at csis to bring Diverse Voices and diverse perspectives to discussions of foreign affairs. Its a result of the partnership between the International CareerAdvancement Program alumni association. And csis. We have some amazing donors were committed to this effort and we want to thank. The panel we have today is fantastic. It will challenge you, bring your thoughts and provoke new questions. Our moderator, beverly kirk, is well known to many of you as a Program Manager of smart womens march power plus four other incarnations yet csis. Shes also a member of tranone to icapaa and getting so Program Going so please enjoy. Thank you so much and thank you everyone for joining us here and online and ten views on cspan. As deborah mention im beverly kirk, a fellow at csis in the International Student program and i managed the smart womens march power initiative. Full disclosure, i spent more than two decades as the journalist. In fact, most of that time with you in washington and ive worked with three of the four people who were sitting on the stage. And so let me introduce them to you. To my immediate left is jeff ballou, the 100 tenth president of the National Press club. The first africanamerican man and the first representative of the International Meteor organization. Jeff is the newsletter at Aljazeera Media Network and is part of a global editorial leadership team. He helped to establish the English Channel back in 2006. He is a Dupont Peabody Merle and Emmy Awardwinning journalist. He praises work at cspan npr and local d. C. Stations. Next to him as diana marrero, the director of the hill looking and a new media platform that she helped to launch that is focus on latina public affairs. Before shifting to the business side of the media she was an awardwinning journalist beginning her career at the miami herald which is part of a team that covered the Elian GonzalezInternational Custody battle, and she also served as the acting Washington Bureau chief for the milwaukee journal settle for her work has appeared in the Washington Post, usa today and the south Florida Sunset approaches abound and past president of the washington, d. C. , chapter of the National Association of hispanic journalists. So welcome, diana. Next to her is roslyn jordan, the United Nations correspondent for aljazeera and sh shes priy covered the state department and the pentagon for aljazeera. Previously she covered the white house for nbc news as well as broadcastinbroadcast missions nr an emmy for work on nbcs 2004 president ial Election Night coverage in she want original Associated Press award for her reporting on the u. S. Immigration debate. I work with threat in bc. Next to her is eric ham, a political analyst for the bbc, sirius xm, the hill and is also contributed to cnn. He has been senior contributor and a former hill staffer. He was a key advisor to senator bill nelson and the Senate Armed Services committee. Its also the the author of the book called the gop civil war, inside of the battle for the fall of the republican party. And also want to give a special shout out to eric because this is a homecoming for turkey was previously director of Congressional Affairs here at csis. So welcome home. Thank you. We have a saying here, you never really leave. Its kind of like the hotel california. So lets get started with the Geopolitical Impact of the Fourth Estate and want to start with the issue of trust. That is an issue that is certainly ever present and want to know to think about what happens when people feel like the information that they are getting their questioning whether they can believe it, particularly as that concerns global issues, global hotspots. I think trust is paramount because once you lose trust, you cant trust the information. As it relates to the Fourth Estate, as you can tell in the current arena, theres a lot of challenges to the profession, a lot of people engaging in twitter trolling and a whole range of interesting behavior. Ill put it nicely, characterize it. Pg tv. But when it gets down to is this. If you have the leader of the free world spending months, weeks, days, weeks, months, for 18 months leading into the presidency denouncing the press, which is an intricate part of the constitution itself, youre not only undermining trust in the Fourth Estate, your undermining trust in the constitution itself. And when you do that, that undermines trust in the other institutions in a country dirt and if we are supposed come if the United States is supposed to be a beacon for democracy and Free Expression and freedom of the press, then other despots elsewhere in the world say see, the president of the United States can do it, we can do it, too. And they do. And so, therefore, its a scary situation in the sense that it not only puts journalist in danger, it puts your information in a place where it can be created by people who dont have their peoples best interest at hand in countries that are not up to snuff in terms of having stable environment, having safe streets, having anything that resembles a sense of safety and security to move about, and even feel that they can question their representatives. And if they cant do it here, then youre left to your own devices, and thats chaos. That could lead to chaos. I come at this from a political standpoint. I work for a political newspaper, and its interesting to see how that is divided among partisan lines as well. Theres been surveys that show that democrats versus republicans, republicans are actually less likely to trust news sources than democrats are. So its a really interesting dynamic that happening. The columbia journalism review put out a study around the time of the election looking at the folks who were retreating tweets from clinton versus trump and then what media sources they were using in retweeting pencils. They put out a fantastic bubble chart the looks that, basically was a proxy for democrats, republicans have much to the trust certain media institutions. Youll see places like the Washington Post, New York Times, cnn, all organizations that should be trusted that are mainstream that are credible really discarded by half the population. It was really striking to see that. And then on the other end at places like Breitbart News being trusted and we tweeted by the right but obviously not by the left or what i feel good about is being at the hill, i work at a place that is very nonpartisan. That comes from a very straightforward perspective. We were excited to see, we were right in the middle. So we were this big green spot in the middle, we with the most trusted news source by both the democrats and the republicans. One of the thing i will say about trust is that this is acrosstheboard come its not just a good news phenomenon. If we look at surveys is a lack of trust in institutions globally. The church, government. You could go down the line. Companies here people are just not trust the major institutions that for many, many years had held that trust of consumers in the public. Rosiland, you are out in the field reporting on issues. How do you make sure that people trust what youre telling them . Well, i keep in mind that from the very beginning of the United States [phone ringing] theres like the suspicion of a free press. Lets not forget we once had the alien sedition act in which criticizing political figures for the baby could land you in prison. And it was bipartisan. Politicians dont like to be held to account. So i keep that in mind when im trying to do my work. What i say to people try to challenge my work is look at my sourcing, look at how i characterize the information. Was a accurate . Was a fair . Did i give all sides the credence . Did i present a skeptical view where it was necessary . One of the things that we have to remember about working in the media is that its the two way street. We collect information. We present the information. We analyze the information. But it is incumbent upon the public, the readers, listeners, the viewers, the people who engage with us on social media to actually think about what they are seeing and hearing and reading. Use your critical faculties. Be skeptical. Ask your own questions. Dont just take what aljazeera put out and what the bbc puts out a what cnn puts out, or what any number of newspapers, because newspapers are still very much a vibrant part of our political culture. Dont just take what is being published as the gospel truth. Ask your own questions. Ask whether the people presenting information have a track record of actually showing you whats happening. Or if they have a record of trying to pull a fast one on you. You cant be a passive consumer. I hate that word because its such a business word but you cant be a passive consumer of the news. This is my personal view. Being an informed person is being a good citizen, particularly in the United States which has the first amendment. And so when people say well, what about this . I will say, take a look at these stories. I will say, take a look at what i said. Tony what you really objecting to. Then we can have a conversation. Thats usually how i defuse it. I end up taking it right back to the person and saying, okay, you took the time to actually reach out to me and say i have an issue with that you reported. Lets talk about it. Do you have insight that made i overlooked . In for me. Thats my job. I get paid to learn something every day and sent to share it with everyone else. But you have to do it every single day. Theres a story or theres a line youre only as good as your last story. In this climate youre only as good as your body of work. And if you make a mistake, people hold you accountable. I challenge journalists to hold our readers and listeners and viewers accountable as well. Are you engaging with us in good faith, or are you simply looking for someone to reflect your personal opinion . Im not here for that. You can call your mom. [laughing] eric, you come at this from a different spin. You do analysis. You make sure people trust your analysis. Thats a really interesting point, because what i try, i try to stay away from the partisanship because so many people are looking for that. A lot of people want to know whos up, whos down. And always asked are you a republican, a democrat . I tried to tell them that we tried to stay away from that and were just looking at what the impact is of the action, the policy we are addressing right now, and what that will mean for multiple audiences in different groups. And also when we look at the Fourth Estate, if i could just go into this, coming from the standpoint of having worked in one of the three branches of government, in congress, which i was there we saw the Fourth Estate as sacrosanct. It was an independent body, if repressed but it was something we felt was important to how democracy works. And it was also a tool that we could use, not in terms of actual propaganda or anything like that but actually getting out the message in terms of what the work is were doing, what issue we are focusing on, what legislation were trying to pass, what were trying to do particularly in terms of funding for at the time when i was in congress the iraq war was at an alltime high and we really engaged in that so we were focusing on trying to make sure that people knew about how we were trying to provide for our troops, how were trying to engage in the war. We want to try to get that message out. And also one thing i can say as a contributor for the hill in terms of writing, what i have found is when i write about stories of international interest, unfortunately i dont get as many eyeballs. I dont get as many comments or much feedback on those types of stories here in two scenes that, i guess maybe its because were living in such a heightened political environment right now. But when you write about the whos up, whos down come in terms of the politics, thats when people really seem to get engaged. I think its incumbent on all of us in the media to really try to break through that and really focus on trying to educate and tried to bring our audience alone. What we want to do is we want to try to i think take them to Higher Ground and not reached to the lowest common denominator. You raise an interesting point about international views and our attention and appetite for that and we were talking back in the green room about how things are covered here in the u. S. Versus how international bead organizations, which all of you have experience with, cover that. So we will jump to that topic. How are International News outlets affecting or impacting coverage here in the u. S. . I asked this not necessary from a political perspective on a know when i watch bbc or when i watch aljazeera or when i watch others, the story line up and issues that are covered are often very different than what i see when i watch cnn, msnbc, fox news, abc, nbc, cbs. If you guys could talk about the differences there. I would say probably not nearly as much of an impact as we would hope. We were talking before about the political crisis in venezuela. You know, when one of our senior correspondence, our latin american editor can get in and can get a visa, she will go into report. But if the venezuelan government doesnt give our cruise visas, they have to sit on the border and colombia and watch people come across, and basically scavenged to keep himself and the families alive while the political crisis plays itself out. And you would think u. S. Networks would want to be there. This is human suffering. This is political crisis. All of the elements of the drama, tension, and a political figure who, for better or worse, is considered the bogeyman here in washington, cant break through. The story cant break through. Cynically, i think, if we take the mass casualties, people losing their lives before the u. S. Media with actually invest time and people, and people are expensive to actually cover the political crisis in venezuela. Yemen, no one can get in. Its an active war zone. The saudi israeli control the access. The u. N. Does not have the ability to take reporters in with the righ brightness weve already asked because of ongoing cholera epidemic. So we have two cover around the edges. But again because of the u. S. Is not actively directly involved in the conflict, it is supporting the saudis, but because the u. S. Is not leading this war, very little presence, certainly on the airwaves. Youll see story in the times and in the post, but if you want better reporting then youre going to have to start reading the guardian, the independence, start reading middle east newspapers but you will not find it whole skill in a typical u. S. Newspaper. Right. And also just with that qatar crisis com, and actually speakin that issue on error practically every day on air. I do for bbc or sky news. I dont see any u. S. Media Companies Action really engaging and speaking about it but its something that its an ongoing issue and its something that many audiences outside of the u. S. Are deeply engaged and concerned about. Theyre such a huge demand with bbc and sky news to really not only address it and talk about it, but they want to know what is the u. S. Role in the crisis and whats the u. S. Policy, whats the u. S. Position, what is donald trump, what is the president going to do to try to address this issue. And so it something that theyre covering en masse but its also something that theyre desperately looking for the United States and the United States engagement and what is the u. S. Position on these issues. Any International Issue that ongoing, you have any think may be one of the advantages to being an american, i shouldnt say that. That sounds pretty bad, right . But anyway, what i think passport is a good thing. Theres a huge demand, a hue thirst and appetite for International Media outlets looking for that u. S. Voice and looking for someone who can speak coherently to what the u. S. Role is and explain it and break it down to those audiences, those particular audiences. And i think thats so key right now. And we dont see i think american Media Outlets addressing the issues and speaking to traditional american audiences about whats going on in the rest of the world. To your point, id want to add to your point, i just came back from two weeks in the middle east covering the diplomatic crisis. I didnt see any of my fellow american reporters until Rex Tillerson left the presidency trip in europe and flew to kuwait city for a week of diplomacy. Because of the secretary of state is in carrying a big media contingent as previous secretary said that, people had to fly in domestically and were holed up in random motels around the city and would be get access to meet because theyre all closed doors, but that was a one moment you saw the Washington Post and the New York Times and the tv networks paying more than three seconds attention to something that directly affects the u. S. National student interest. Every war that the u. S. Is running is out of its Forward Operating base in doha, and yet we cant get coverage of what 11,000 u. S. Forces are doing in doha, in the u. S. Media otherwise. So you have to consider also whats the trigger when the secretary of state goes, it becomes automatically an important story. Diana, i wanted to talk to you about this because you noted that both latino americans get the news in english language english language Media Outlets, and yet on any given night you watch englishlanguage Media Outlets and you dont hear anything about venezuela as rosiland note and you dont hear much else that whats happening in the countries of origin in many cases, or whats going on in the Latino Community within the u. S. , and less it has something to do with immigration. Immigration. Thats all you ever hear about because thats not the whole story. You could speak to that. Absolutely. Coming at it from a u. S. Based newspaper perspective that is national in nature that covers politics, last year i launched the latino, an online portal for use with your solicitor who are primarily english speakers, the vast majority of hispanics in the u. S. Actually speak english, consume the news in english, but theres very little attention being devoted to news that speaks to them and that covers the issues they care about. As you noted many of them either our immigrants themselves, the children of immigrants and then have a vested interest in stories on mexico, venezuela, cuba, puerto rico, are not immigrants but obviously they care about whats happening on the island as well. So there is attention being paid by u. S. Based news outlets to those issues, and i think we were writing at the hill for a very influential audience. Our core audience are these Decision Makers in washington. Its the president , the members of congress, their staffers aree reading fail to do their job. Im proud of the fact that we brought more International Attention or more issues of International Importance to that audience through the latino land. So we have written quite a bit about in the crash because you cant get away from that but weve written a lot about trade and the crisis in the puerto rico. In fact, we had a report, special report we were i think youll u. S. Based newspaper that had an entire section devoted to the crisis in puerto rico and what was happening there. For those who are not familiar with the crisis in puerto rico, could you is going into a complete economic tailspin. People are leaving in droves because they dont have jobs. It is a u. S. Territory, so all Puerto Ricans are u. S. Citizens who can easily come to the u. S. , and they have come to find better economic opportunities. Its a huge story that very few people are covering, and we devoted an entire section. Weve covered it through out the we devoted one day we spent a lot of time writing about this issue. In fact, it was interesting because all news is global and a leading newspaper in puerto rico ended up reporting of the fact that u. S. Newspaper had report on puerto rico because of such a unique thing and no one paying attention to. Its just an interesting perspective. In fact, just to tie those last two points together, what eric and you were raising, what you have in u. S. Newsrooms is if it doesnt matter to me, if its not land on my front doorstep, i dont care. Ethanol those other critical issues. End relives when you dont have a seat at the table and then the window into what is going on then you are not informed. Is because americans are not interested or that some parts are not keeping up or are nonexistent . To make you have to make a decision of what is important to. On the 24 hour news cycle if you decide covering the crisis in venezuela is important that they will Pay Attention. If they dont have the foresight to connect the dots if you have one of the largest for word operating bases full ad you dont care to tell the secretary of state shows up then the secretary of state has a very low opinion of a journalist where he just keeps a handful of us in the plane. You have to care about the issues and you have to push harder to be in the room so you can be that is a story that could take up quite a bit of that. We have this much space but only this much beyond with is being accessed. So the issues that come from that was raised if i bin the town of kentucky or montana or whenever what are my key issues . Do i care about broadband or subsidies or other things like farming or coal mining of that nature . That is one issue. If you talk about the edgy 20 but those sorts of things are incredibly important so they can go to the chief 20 g20 why is this important to me . Is this critical . And in my part of the world but and not just racial diversity but geographical if you dont have people from Rural Communities are people of color or all those other factors in the room to have decisionmaking power than those stories will not be covered. Venezuela. G20, and it definitely will not be covered properly. This country is becoming more diverse than ever but if you look domestically across the country not that many are actually diverse. And ira agree with you it is a difference between what youre covered and what you were serving. I will state for the record please raise your he and. Raise your hand for girl wait for the microphone. I have a question about sources like npr with the baseball shooting and the sources were not willing to do a talk to them so is that trouble the you have seen as well . Because said you expect a huge issue because they dont trust you. That is not a new problem when i was a reporter in milwaukee i was assigned a story in which someone was killed and that was supposed to go to the neighborhood to talk to the neighbors if they knew the person i walked up and down the street and nobody would speak to me. I couldnt even shoot to the house or the voice or their feet they did not want to talk. They were very much afraid or very scared to be the target of retaliation. I went back to the newsroom and told my editor i know what to do i not done of the door and he said that is your story this is what cry does cry does so go back this is what happens when became an people are afraid for their own safety. And that was the story. Al will always be an issue they dont want to talk or the words are out of context. Their views are not respected or a the media has an agenda. Is an ageold problem. If people want to talk they will. I am asking people and people should want to be on tv because i am on tv but that is the wrong way to approach her job. You have a lot of people out there with that attitude is understandable why if they witness something horrible they dont want to say anything because they are afraid it will be taken out of context. Sometimes you have to put the camera down and talk with a person obviously the Gold Standard and say on camera i saw this happen. And your fifth job as a journalist is to find a way and then to say it isnt just checking of the boxes. I got this video of the season. Now i am done. You will chronicle the actual formula. But it has gotten much worse. I was a political reporter ted years ago in a i experienced this but that level of vitriol a and hatred for the news media has completely intensified then you hear reporters being heckled at press conferences. But it has become much harder to deal with. Also a couple of points that goes back to something that i said earlier which is if people feel they are covered fairly then they will not open their doors to you if they feel that what was said earlier was take it alberta of context and on top of that you have people over a course of time that have trashed the press because it is convenient for a political point, you have that ageold history complicated with the political frosting on top with that bad tasting cake. Were to be escorted out by police or things of that nature per probe lets not clean that up so we have a responsibility to get it right but also need to have the voices in the room but those that are enshrined with the responsibility have the decontrol and power to be used accordingly to reinvest trust in all the institutions. But to simply trash that for a the cascading effect and did you try to find out who did it . Who else got hurt . And this vitriolic gets in the way can i take my kid to that ball field on saturday because of Little League . You have to think about those things. It would be very easy if we could say to the media now more than ever you need to hire your people to do this work and they need to be hired to work all over the country. Not just a new york or washington but every state and they need to cover that state and understand the culture and the history and the local issues their job is to tell the story this is a business in most of those media organizations. My question is by your particular job is perrier possibility is there a possibility of truth based information . Where we can all agree to share information . We know they have a charity navigating with that broad branch with these valid it organizations i have two points on that perot but beyond your local library and it is impossible to say this is from all things. You have a lot of organizations like the National Press club and others who come together to begin the process of sorting this out jews say who is really doing the job well . Who is not . And to stop those falsehoods that is happening in the journalism community. Fact checking is a popular thing nowadays. So whether it is true or false is early because you have actors jumping into the arena and giving the stamp of approval by our government to be inserted into the White House Briefing room or congress or elsewhere. The perfect example of that are the organizations that dont practice the craft with their imbalance may yet for political reasons the white house allows them to be credentialed in the of briefing room. That should scare you. There is a difference between conservative leaning News Organizations there is a world of difference between fox news and breitbart and i would trust fox news i would not trust breitbart because they have a history of doctoring videos. Or doctoring the fax that is going back to do the former secretary of agriculture which help to put him on the map making it look like it was a racist speech but it was nothing of this sort but that was the organization but now they are credentialed in some parts of the town thank god for by a former colleagues and day sent them away but i i lost because we have to have some standards. It is not for the government to say youre a legitimate News Organization for that free marketplace of ideas so if you have a central repository there are people whose say scientist, ph. D. Is those teaching under their belt dont know what they are talking about so i dont think it is possible to have this repository if we cannot agree as a country who was qualified to judge and who is not. I think the movie which is replaced with a different perspective that is how we work we come at a from a different perspective we try to get there but we dont actually get there to have the repository itll take that as possible or that would be allowed for that. But going back to that issue and what value is credible from the destruction in media . There are five companies right now that are not providers of news originally done for themselves. Like those segregators letter capturing 65 percent of advertising revenue right now. The left is devoted to organizations that are reporting on the ground and paying those salaries but that is something to do think about how do you bring about the of revenue that is needed . And the question before that is the state to of media and 2016 and the results of social media. What role the citizen journalism play in uh coverage of global events . Especially complication to u. S. Foreign policy . We saw footage coming from the attacks that may have inspired president trompe to launch this airstrike. So what effect do social media advancements . That is the perfect example and we have to build relationships and to be able to extract that video to say this is how we got it. We cannot authenticate what you are seeing but some things are what they are. So it is a very dicey proposition but it is not so precarious that you try to do teach people what the standards are or what is the balance were just opening your smart phone. Co pay you have the preponderant of video not just fell one video to order the airstrike but the preponderpreponder ance of videos coming had to look at all of that video. That was even more than the attack of 2012. With that preponderant of evidence and very quietly and other government Say Something has to be done then that does have an impact but you have to tell people this is where we got it, this is to provided it but the preponderance is you do have to be very honest with the readers what they are seeing and reading. Governments dont usually move that quickly to have intelligence ahead of something that happened but perhaps this is a new version of i heard gunshots on this street where you hear something on the scanner or you hear the Fire Department is going this is that new version that they say this is happening i need you to Pay Attention klay Trayvon Martin now they are paid attention to because people can say i of seeing something that doesnt fit the local board that is potentially illegal. And they need to know about it because we need to know if our outrage is justified. So we are not stuck with the same stories every day sometimes it feels like 24 hours in the 10 hour day but ultimately we are better served because we tried to get more of the universe out to them. Warm last question. I want to ask about our reach to new audiences or may be lost audiences given the earlier points for the need for diversity whether race over country of origin origin, what are the bridges like social media to bring people from Rural America us that it wasnt a terrorist organization . To reach people learning through john stuart . And the second part is if you see al lets like aljazeera so what is of a promising model and other countries to sustain quality journalism . That the risk of sounding selfserving so building bridges and hosting for arms talking about what we do in a the profession to hold them accountable but your second point is harder. But it goes back to economics the rest are wellpublicized. You are looking at what you want at the end of the day. You have to be able to say i want this and i want to actively cultivate that viewing habits because it is eyeballs. Some people say why have to pay to read the newspaper . Because reporters have to eat or pay mortgages so you katchis to just cannot give away a the service so you do have a responsibility also to have the right information but then pay for that information so if you paid for reverie what you have to pay for the journalist and journalism. Also being an analyst is to make sure there are other voices in the room and trying to move beyond because it seems like most Media Outlets are maybe one or five people like my team so one of the things i am always pushing for is here is someone that will talk about this in this particular place or country were not hearing from. So i think it is when we get into the room and now our voices are elevated into have those additional voices of ideas to make sure they are pushed out there isnt collective but from my perspective making sure we are pushing back out there. I am really building now as a business and from that perspective i can say the industry as a whole is were doing a lot of defense. We just tired for our video choices but to that point to reach out to a new audience with Business Models about a month ago be launched to the leaders have met and there was such a hunger for that project because that community has not been spoken to in a very mainstream way. Of the englishlanguage way and that the back was incredible with 55,000 live stream. So these are the kinds of things to think about. Thanks for being here today and joining us. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]. Looking at every major direction in the United States and as they have abandoned the peaceful protest in baltimore or ferguson or los angeles it is always something because of what the police have done. Looking at those number one victims are other black men if a white person is concerned then the made person she ought to be concerned about is her partner or husband because statistically they will cause a crime. With the impact almost daily we will not eliminate the stress. They never eradicated the flu virus you just learn to live with it. If you are expose said you get a shot or isolate yourself with hygienic measures