The veteran ‘Nightline’ anchor has some words of warning for online reporters eager to reinvent the wheel of journalism

“If we are now moving into an era in which … speed is the main criteria of putting something online, then I think that’s dangerous.”

By J.D. Lasica

Immediacy has never been a strong suit of Web news among the mainstream media. But in the coming months, dozens of content providers — from giants like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to small-town weeklies and dailies — will team up with Netscape, Microsoft, PointCast and other push-news services to broadcast their own “channels” of breaking news right to a user’s desktop.

That promises to fundamentally reshape the online news landscape. What risks do these traditional print organizations face in moving toward a broadcast model of Net news? I posed the question to Ted Koppel, whose 1996 book “Nightline” dissects how television has reshaped news values in our lifetime. Koppel, who surfs the Web only infrequently, has some words of warning for online reporters eager to reinvent the wheel of journalism. This is his first interview on the subject of the Internet.

New forms of media like PointCast seem to be ushering in an age of instantaneous news on the Internet. What lessons do print journalists need to learn from their broadcast brethren?

Koppel: First of all, it’s not totally analogous to what I do or what my colleagues Peter Jennings or Dan Rather do. We have a deadline in the same way that my newspaper colleagues have a daily deadline. Going on live is not something we do most of the time. Now, let me ask you, is there such a thing as an online deadline?

Sure, it’s continual, around the clock.

The deadline is when you’re satisfied as a professional journalist that you’ve got the story, the facts have been verified, and then you go with it.

What I thought you were going to ask about was the issue of all the dubious news reports floating around on the Internet. One of the problems that I see — and not much has been made of it — is that the credibility of any news report depends on the reputation of the source. To the degree you don’t know the source of the material, that needs to be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism. There is all manner of dubious information on the Web, and whether it ends up in the hands of Pierre Salinger, who gives it more credibility than it deserves, or whether it leaches into the public consciousness in some other manner, a journalist, as an editor, has a responsibility to ultimately separate truth from rumor.

The Internet’s immediacy seems to be one of its most attractive features. It gives people a greater sense of participation and immediacy —

Or a greater sense of paranoia about their government and the press and coverups and so on.

Some of the proponents of push media say that reporters shouldn’t report stories just once a day, they should break stories all day long by printing what they know when they know it and then updating it as additional information becomes available. Are there perils in reporting information the minute you get it?

Of course there are, and that goes back to making sure that we know who the reporter is. The main function of reporting lies in the sorting and assisting, the editing, the putting into context. Reporting is not really about, `Let’s see who can get the first information to the public as quickly as possible.’ It should be about `Let’s see who can get the first information to the public as quickly as possible — as soon as we have had a chance to make sure the information is accurate, to weigh it against what we know, to put it in some sort of context.’ Only after all that is done, then, when one of us goes on the air live with a breaking news story, we try to do that in an ad lib form with whatever reservoir of information we have on a particular story.

Take an example from a few years ago, a plane hijacking in the Middle East. Peter Jennings happens to have had a long history of reporting on events from the Middle East, and he is able to tap into that well of knowledge to provide viewers with context and perspective. Now, if we are now moving into an era in which reporters are pressured to get it online before we have a chance to check and edit the material — if speed is the main criteria of putting something online — then I think that’s dangerous.

Whether you have one or 78 deadlines a day in your online organization, I’ve got no problem with updating the news continually. But where we need to be cautious is that we don’t get pushed beyond that point into what I call ‘McThought,’ or the journalistic equivalent of fast food. There has been a tendency in network television for certain news executives to be watching a bank of television screens and seeing a news report on a competing news program and saying, `Let’s go with that,’ even though we haven’t had a chance to verify the information. Now, that’s probably not applicable to the online world.

Perhaps it’s too early to tell. I wanted to ask about the suggestion I’ve heard from some broadcast journalists that the news is alive, that no story is ever finally written —

That’s a colossal copout.

Why do you say that?

Well, it suggests that all we have to do is put any information we collect on the air because we can never hope to have it all anyway. No, there are several thresholds you have to cross before you put it on the line and go with it.

Such as?

Like getting your facts straight. Let’s take an example. A bulletin breaks on the wire. All you know is that a plane has gone down over Pittsburgh. Do you go on the air with that?

I’ve seen those kinds of news bulletins.

I don’t think you have enough information to go on the air with it yet. I have no right to terrify every person who has a family or a friend flying in the Eastern corridor. You need to at least narrow it down. What is the airline? What is the embarkation point? What is the destination? And even then, I’d like to know, are there any survivors?

ABCnews.com just recently launched on the Net. As more and more news organizations join the fray, isn’t it inevitable that Net news will become ratings-driven, with a kind of tabloid mindset where the premium is on getting the story first rather than getting it right?

That depends on what you’re buying. I don’t think that `Inside Edition,’ or any of the lighter, frothier so-called news and entertainment shows on the air has much to do with `Nightline.’ It’s a different audience. We’re looking for different things. But there’s always going to be room for the outlet that says, `We’re not worried about getting it first, we’re about getting it right.’

As a news consumer, I’m more interested in the quality of the information I’m receiving. Whether you’re the New York Times, or Wall Street Journal, or Washington Post, or Los Angeles Times — or whatever your particular news organization — you have to maintain your quality while you’re being faster and better than the other guy on the block. But if your competition reaches the point where you’re willing to sacrifice quality and context and completeness, I think that’s going to rear up and bite us in the ass.

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This sidebar to When push comes to news appeared in the May 1997 issue of The American Journalism Review.

By J.D. Lasica

Internet news services can custom-tailor your news and deliver it fast. They work well as supplements to your news diet, but they can’t yet compete with print media’s portability or with television news’ visual impact.

Following are the major players in the push news landscape. All of the services or programs are free to the user, though on rare occasion some material — like the Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition — requires a separate subscription. All will do Windows on your PC, with Mac versions available or in development for most. Better hurry with that download, though. Some of these start-ups may be gone within a year.

Company: PointCast
Product: PointCast
Headquarters: Cupertino, California
Web site: www.pointcast.com
The screen-saver that changed the face of push, PointCast is the most mature and stable of the push technologies. It works like a screen-saver, displaying scrolling news headlines, sports scores, stock quotes and company news based on selections you’ve made from a list of dozens of topics. Content from the New York Times, CNN, Wired and other news sources is displayed–along with animated ads. The downside? When active, PointCast all but assumes control of your computer.

Company: inCommon
Product: Downtown
Headquarters: San Mateo, California
Web site: www.incommon.com
Downtown takes a minimalist approach to push-pull. An unobtrusive task bar lets you program and access different “channels” of information. Content providers like the New York Times, USA Today and Yahoo News — which pay a $10,000 fee for the software as well as annual subscriber fees — have complete control over the content and appearance of the news and ads that are delivered to consumers’ desktops, allowing for greater “brand” identity. When new information becomes available on a channel, a small green indicator light flicks on.

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Push technology, the Internet’s trend du jour, allows online news sites to narrowcast personalized news directly to readers. Online publishers hope it will also push them into profitability.

The following article appeared in the May 1997 issue of The American Journalism Review.

By J.D. Lasica

For news consumers and publishers alike, 1997 may well mark a seismic shift in the way content is delivered on the Internet.

The phenomenon goes by many names: Push technology. Webcasting. Netcasting. Personal broadcast applications. Channel technology. Internet news broadcasting.

All refer to a technological revolution that is redefining the relationship between online news operations and their readers. And even if you’re not a cyberspace cowboy, push news should interest you because it has the potential to reshape the fundamentals of journalism in much the same way that television news has altered the rules of the profession.

Simply put, push changes the online news equation. We no longer have to surf for news and information. News finds us. Call it the Third Wave of Net news.

In the First Wave, newspapers launched primitive sites with cumbersome search tools, started their own members-only services, or hooked up with an online service like CompuServe, Prodigy or America Online. Few news consumers were dazzled.

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