Transcripts For CSPAN Journalists Panel Examines Global Infl

This discussion includes journalists talking about the and howmedia landscape people outside the industry respond to what is being reported. From the center for strategic and international studies, this is just over one hour. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for coming. Im glad to see theres a large group of students in the room. Want to raise your hands. Thats great. Wow. Im deborah mccarthy, the executive director of a new program we have here at csis to bring Diverse Voices and diverse perspectives to discussions of foreign affairs. Its the result of a partnership between the International Career Advancement Program aluminize association, icapaa for short, and csis, and we have some amazing donors committed to this effort we want to thank. The panel we have today is fantastic. It will challenge you, bring new thoughts and provoke new questions. Our moderator, beverly kirk, is well known to many of you as the Program Manager of smart women smart power, plus four other incarnations here at csis. Shes also a member of icapaa and was instrumental in getting this whole program going. Please enjoy. Thank you so much, deborah and thank you to everyone joining us here and online and to viewers on cspan. As deborah mentioned, im beverly kirk, a volunteer at csis in the International Security program and i manage the smart women, smart power initiative. Full disclosure, i spent more than two decades as a journalist. Most of that time was here infrc and international studies, this is just over one hour. Washington and ive worked with three of the four people sitting here this stage. Let me introduce them to you. Jeff ballou is the president of the National Press club and the first African American man and the first representative an International Media organization to hold that post. Jeff is the news editor at Aljazeera News Network and helped to establish the English Channel in 2006. He is a peabody, murrow, and Emmy Award Winning journalist whos worked at cspan, npr and local d. C. Stations. Next to him is diana marrero. It is a new media platform she helped to launch that is focused on latino affairs. She was an Award Winning journalist beginning her career at the miami herald where she was part of the team that covered the Elian Gonzales International Custody battle. And she also served as the Washington Bureau chief for the milwaukee sentinel. Shes the founder and past president of the washington, d. C. Chapter of the National Association of hispanic journalists. Of hispanic journalists. Welcome, diana. Next to her is roslyn jordan. Is the United Nations andespondent for aljazeera has previously covered state department and pentagon for aljazeera. The white house for nbc news and tribune broadcasting. Emmyas nominated for an for her work on nbcs 2004 president ial Election Night coverage and won a Regional Associated press award for her reporting on the u. S. Immigration debate and i worked with her at nbc. Her is eric hamm, analyst for the bbc, sirius xm, the hill, and has contributed to cnn. Hes been a senior contributor a formerews and is hill staffer, was a key adviser to senator bill nelson and the author of a book called go the the g. O. P. Civil war, inside the battle of the republican party. Is a homecoming for eric. He was previously director of atgressional affairs here csic so welcome home. We have a saying here that you leave, like the hotel california. Lets get started with the about thet hand Geopolitical Impact of the Fourth Estate and i want to issue of trust because that is an issue that is everpresent and i want to know you think about what happens when people feel like the information that they are getting, theyre questioning whether they can believe it, that concernss global issues, global hot spots. I think trust is paramount trust, once you lose the you cant trust the information and as it relates to the Fourth Estate, a lot of as you can tell in the current arena, challenges toof the profession, a lot of people andging in twitter trolling a whole range of interesting ill nicely characterize it. Its pgtv. Yeah. But when it gets down to is this. If you have the leader of the free world spending days, weeks, months, for 18 months leading denouncing thecy intricatech is an part of the constitution itself, underminingnly trust in the Fourth Estate, youre undermining trust in the when youion itself and do that, that undermines trust in the other institutions in a country. And if the United States is supposed to be a beacon for democracy and freedom of theession and freedom of press, other despots in the world can say, see, the president of the United States it, we can do it, too, and they do. Scaryore, its a situation in the sense that it not only puts journalists in danger, it puts your information it can be where created by people who dont have best interests in that arent upes to snuff in terms of having stable environments, having safe streets, in terms of having anything that resembles a sense of safety and security to move about and even feel they can question their representatives cant do it here, then youre left youre left devices and thats chaos. Chaos. Uld lead to i come at this from a political standpoint. I work for a political newspaper. And its interesting to see how around part an lines, as well. Theres been surveys that show versusmocrats republicans, republicans are actually less likely to trust they are than than democrats are. Interestingally dynamic thats happening. The columbia journalism review study around the time of the election looking at the retweeting tweets from clinton versus trump and what media sources they were and retweeting themselves and they put out a fantastic bubble chart that was a proxy and republicans and how much do they trust certain media institutions and like the places Washington Post, new york times, cnn, all organizations that should be trusted, that are mainstream, that are credible, discarded by half the population. And it was really striking to that, and then on the other hand looking at places like Breitbart News being trusted and not,eted by the right, but obviously not by the left. What i feel good about is being thehill, i work at a place thats very nonpartisan and a veryt it from straightforward perspective so we were right in the middle. Middle, we were the most trusted news source by both democrats and republicans. One other thing ill say about trust is that this is board, its not just a news phenomenon. If you look at surveys, theres lack of trust in institutions globally. Government, you could go down the line, companies. Just not trusting major institutions that for held that years have trust of consumers and the public. Youre in the field reporting on issues. You how do you make sure that people trust what youre telling them . Mind that from the very beginning of the united theres always been suspension of a free press. Lets not forget we once had the alien act in which criticizing political people for their behavior could land you in prison and it was bipartisan. Like to be dont held to account. I keep that in mind when i do my work. Say to people who try to challenge my work is look at my was i look accurate, was i fair . Give all sides credence . Did i present a skeptical view where it was necessary . One of the things we have to remember about working in the its a twoway information. We collect the information, present the information, analyze the information. But it is incumbent upon the public, the readers, the viewers, thee people who engage with us on to actually think about what theyre hearing and reading. D use your critical faculties. Be skeptical. Ask your own questions, dont just take what aljazeera puts or or what the bbc puts out what cnn puts out or what any number of newspapers because still very much a vibrant part of our political culture. Just take what is being published as the gospel truth. Your own questions. Ask whether the people presenting the information have track record of actually happening orhats if they have a record of trying to pull a fast one on you. A passive consumer. And i hate that word because its such a business word. Be a passive consumer of the news. This is my personal view. Person isnformed being a good citizen, particularly in the united has the First Amendment. Say, well, people what about this . I will say, take a look at these stories. I will say, take a look at what i actually said. Really what youre objecting to. Then we can have a conversation. Thats usually how i defuse it. I end up taking it back to the took thed saying, you time to reach out to me and say, i have an issue with what you reported. About it. Do you have insight that maybe i overlooked . Inform me. Thats my job. I get paid to learn something to share itd then 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 mistake, people will hold you accountable but i challenge journalists to hold readers and listeners and viewers accountable, as well. Us in goodaging with faith or are you simply looking for someone to reflect your personal opinion . Im not here for that. You can call your mom. [laughter] eric, you come at this from a spin. Ent you do analysis. Do you make sure people trust analysis . Thats an interesting point because i try to stay away from because so many people are looking for that. A lot of people want to know whos down, and im always asked, you know, are you a republican . You a democrat . And you try to tell them that we that anday away from were just looking at what the impact is of the action, the policy were addressing right forand what that will mean multiple audiences and different groups. When we look at the Fourth Estate, if i could go into this, coming from the inndpoint of having worked one of the three branches of government, in congress, when i saw the Fourth Estate as sacrosanct. It was an independent body, it was a free press but something howelt was important to democracy works and it was also a tool that we could use, not in terms of actual propaganda or anything like that but getting out the message in terms of what the work is were doing, what on, whatre focusing legislation were trying to pass, what were trying to do of fundingy in terms for at the time i was in congress, the iraq war was at an and we were really engaged in that so we were make suren trying to people knew about how we were trying to provide for our troops and so we in the war want to try to get that message out and also, too, one thing i a contributor for the hill in terms of actually writing, what i have found is i write about stories of interest,nal unfortunately, i dont get as get aseballs, i dont many comments or much feedback and ite types of stories just seems that, i dont know, i guess maybe its because were a heightenedh political environment right now, but when you write about the down, you know, in terms of the politics, thats get people really seem to engaged and so i think its incumbent on all of us in the really try to break through that and really focus on and try toducate bring our audience along because what we want to do is we want to try to, i think, take them to Higher Ground and not reach for common denominator. You raise an interesting point about International News and our attention and appetite for it and we were talking back about howen room things are covered here in the u. S. Versus how international organizations, which all of you have experience with, cover that. So well jump to that topic. How are International News outlets impacting coverage here u. S. . I ask this not necessarily from a political perspective, but i i watch the bbc or when i watch aljazeera or i watch the story lineup areissues that are covered often very different than what i see when i watch cnn, msnbc, fox news, abc, nbc, cbs. So if you guys could talk about difference there. I would say probably not nearly as much of an impact as would hope. We were talking before about the in venezuela. Is seniore of our correspondents, our latin andican editor can get in get a visa, she will go in to report but if the venezuelan give ourt doesnt crews visas, they have to sit on and watch in colombia people come across and sav scavenge to keep alive while the political crisis plays itself think u. S. Would networks would want to be there. This is human suffering and all of therisis, elements of drama, tension, and a political figure who for better or worse is considered a here in washington. Cant break through. The story cant break through. Cynically, i think, it would peopleme mass casualty, losing their lives, before the u. S. Media would actually invest time and people. And people are expensive, to cover the political crisis in venezuela. In. N, no one can get its an active war zone. Control theeally access. The u. N. Does not have the ability to take reporters in with it right now. Weve already asked. Choleraof the ongoing epidemic. So we have to cover around the edges. But again, because the u. S. Is involvedely directly in the conflict, it is supporting the saudis, but because the u. S. Is not this war, very little, presence, certainly on the airwaves. Youll see stories in the times and in the post but if you want better reporting, youre going to have to start the guardian, the independent. It youre not going to find whole scale in a typical u. S. Newspaper. Also, just with the qatar crisis. Im actually speaking on that on air practically every day, either for bbc or for sky news. And i dont see any u. S. Media companies actually really engaging in speaking about it but its something that is an ongoing issue and its something that many audiences outside of the u. S. Are deeply engaged and concerned about and such a huge demand with really not news to only address it and talk about it, but they want to know what u. S. Role in the crisis, and whats the u. S. Policy, the u. S. Position, what is donald trump, what is the president going to do to try to address this issue and so its something that theyre covering its also something that theyre desperately looking states and the United States engagement and what is the u. S. Position on these issues. Any International Issue thats you have and i think tobe one of the advantages being an american, i shouldnt say that. That sounds pretty bad, right . Theres so many advantages. Passport is a good thing. Huge demand, huge thirst and appetite for Media Outlets looking for that u. S. Voice and someone who can speak coherently to what the explain it andd break it down to those audiences, those particular audiences and i think thats so see,ight now and we dont i think, american Media Outlets addressing the issues and speaking to traditional american audiences about whats going on the rest of the world. Diana to your point, i just wanted your point, i just came back from two weeks in the covering the diplomatic crisis. I didnt see any of my fellow american reporters until Rex Tillerson left the president s europe and flew to kuwait city for a week of shuttle diplomacy and then because the secretary of state isnt carrying a big media previoust, as secretaries have done, people had to fly in domestically and in random hotels around the city and couldnt really get access to meetings because they were all closeddoor but that was the one moment that you saw the Washington Post and the new the tv networks paying more than three seconds attention to something that directly affects the u. S. National Security interests. Every war that the u. S. Is is out of its operating base in doha and yet we cant coverage of what 11,000 u. S. Doha in theoing in u. S. Media otherwise. So you have to consider also the trigger. When the secretary of state ans, it becomesamly important story. That bothyou noted latino americans get their news in english language from english language Media Outlets and yet watch given night you english language Media Outlets and you dont hear anything as rosalindela, noted, and you dont hear about their happening in countries of origins or whats going on in the Latino Community the u. S. Unless it has to do with immigration. Thats all you ever hear about but thats not the whole story. Could speak to that. Absolutely. Coming at it from a u. S. Based perspective, that is national in nature, that covers i launchedast year, online portal for u. S. And arewho live here primarily english speakers, the vast majority of hispanics in english, consume their news in english, but attentionry little devoted to news that speaks to them and that covers the issues they care about. Noted, many of them either are immigrants children of immigrants, and have a vested interest in stories on mexico, venezuela, cuba, puerto rico immigrants but they care about whats happening on the island, as well. Is a isnt a lot of attention paid to these issues. Our core audience are the in washington. Its the president , members of congress and staffers who are hill to do their job. Im proud of the fact that weve brought more international more issues of International Importance to that audience through the latino lens. So weve written quite a bit, obviously, about immigration, cant get away from that. But weve written a lot about trade and the crisis in puerto rico. In fact, we had a