ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 18, 1996 TAG: 9611190047
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID BAUDER ASSOCIATED PRESS
Few journalists inspire fear quite like Mike Wallace. For a public official, a phone call from the veteran ``60 Minutes'' correspondent is a synonym for a bad day.
That reputation lends a certain weight to Wallace's new campaign to reach out to people who believe they've been wronged by news organizations.
Wallace is promoting the establishment of a national news council similar to one that has operated for years in Minnesota, in which a panel of journalists and nonjournalists rules on the fairness of news stories when the subjects complain.
The failure of an earlier effort and the hostility of many in the news business are working against him. But to Wallace, it's only fair that journalists who criticize the work of politicians, sports figures or business leaders be subject to the same scrutiny.
``The individual who feels a wrong has been done, you can either write a letter to the editor or you can sue,'' he said. ``To sue for libel can sometimes cost millions, and it's a long and draining process.''
He should know. Wallace was treated for depression during his drawn-out battle with Gen. William Westmoreland, who sued CBS News for libel after he was charged with falsifying estimates of troop strength in the Vietnam War. The case was dropped after chewing up $12 million in legal costs.
Minnesota's news council seeks a middle ground. Its panel holds hearings and issues judgments on the fairness of stories. The findings mean nothing legally - participants give up the right to sue for libel - yet can publicly vindicate either side.
About 1,800 cases have come before the council since 1970, said Gary Gilson, executive director.
Many reporters and editors react angrily when stories are questioned, telling the subjects that they don't understand the newsgathering process, Gilson said.
``Our whole goal is to get news organizations to relax, to sit down as equals and listen,'' he said.
The council's most celebrated recent case, and the one that attracted ``60 Minutes'' cameras, was a ruling that WCCO-TV in Minneapolis aired a distorted series questioning the safety record of Northwest Airlines.
Council members said the station pieced pictures and graphics together to make the situation look far worse than it was. For example, one promo for the series - shot with a tilted camera - showed an airplane heading on a 45-degree angle toward the ground.
The series also included unrelated material about sexual harassment, the council found.
A day after the ruling, WCCO won a local Emmy Award for the story.
Don Shelby, the WCCO anchor who reported the series, said he was devastated by the news council's findings.
``There were things that we did in the story that I would change,'' he said, such as the tilted camera and some promotional efforts. ``But there was nothing untruthful about it.''
He recalled a news council member asking him at a hearing about the Golden Rule, or how he would feel if someone did a story like that about him. ``How do you answer that?'' Shelby asked.
WCCO has now soured on the news council, and there are some news outlets in Minnesota that have never participated in its proceedings. In a similar fashion, a national news council that sprang up during the 1970s was doomed by the hostility of some major news organizations, Wallace said.
It faces the same difficult road in getting established today. CBS News, for example, hasn't necessarily jumped on Wallace's bandwagon.
And, says Richard Wald, senior vice president of editorial quality at ABC News in New York, ``I don't think there is any greater appetite for it now than there was before.''
Wald questioned whether television networks would ever participate in a news council proceeding for fear that its findings could be used against stations during federal licensing procedures.
He said he also doubted it would do much to end debate between the news media and its bashers.
A Minnesota insurance company said it would give broadcasters a discount on their libel and slander insurance if they would agree to promote the news council and refer disputes there. But C.F. Lake & Co.'s offer - potentially a powerful incentive for participation - attracted no interest.
The news media should not underestimate public mistrust, said William Babcock, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota. It's not the same atmosphere as when the national news council failed, and the WCCO ruling is important evidence of this, he said.
Gilson is hoping that Wallace's advocacy could attract some money for a national news council or his group, so they can help allay the fears of news organizations that the idea will have a chilling effect on investigative journalism.
``This is practically like climbing Mount Everest for news people,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 linesby CNB