DATE: Thursday, November 6, 1997            TAG: 9711060461

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   71 lines

MEDIA CRITIC WILL SPEAK - WITHOUT FEE - AT BEACH

James Fallows wants to make it clear up front that when he comes to Virginia Beach next week to speak to a local business group, he won't be paid for his efforts.

If he were, he'd have some explaining to do.

In his 1996 book ``Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy,'' Fallows savaged journalists who haul down fat fees on the lecture circuit.

Those ``buckrakers,'' as he called them, feed public mistrust of the media when they take money from groups they might be writing about later, he wrote.

He named names, too. ABC's Cokie Roberts has commanded as much as $35,000 per speech, Fallows revealed; Ted Koppel, $50,000.

The book drew blood. Stung by the broadside from Fallows, then Washington editor of The Atlantic Monthly, some journalists felt they'd been stabbed in the back by one of their own. ``Journalists are better at dishing it out than taking it,'' Fallows said in a telephone interview this week. ``We generally feel free to criticize politicians, business people, athletes, actors, movie directors - and think that's just how it should be. But when we get criticized, suddenly it's war.''

When Fallows speaks Wednesday to the Central Business District Association of Virginia Beach, he'll discuss media trends he has spotted since his book came out from his new vantage point as editor of U.S. News & World Report.

For the most part, he said, he has seen little in that time to contradict the central theme of the book: that the modern mass media have lost Americans' respect and alienated them from public life and politics with shallow, cynical, shouting, celebrity-driven reporting.

``There are still a number of indicators that people are feeling peeved with the press and what we do,'' Fallows said. ``Reporters are still down there with politicians and lawyers in terms of public trust.

``I think the main source of long-term concern in the business may be the continuing erosion of the market for real news as opposed to entertainment,'' he said. ``Network TV, for example, seems to feel more and more pressure to have `news lite' and people-watching.

``One thing we're trying to go through at U.S. News is seeing whether we can build a strong market for good, explanatory, clarifying journalism that will give you a useful picture of what's happening in the world.'' Fallows, 47, a Harvard graduate and Rhodes scholar, was chief speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and has done weekly commentaries for National Public Radio since 1987. He lives in Washington with his wife and two sons. A few industry trends did manage to escape his broad-brush indictment of today's mass media. He had kind words for the so-called ``public journalism'' movement, which has spawned experiments at The Virginian-Pilot and other medium-sized dailies aimed at re-engaging citizens in the democratic process by seeking to treat politics as a vital activity rather than as a spectacle or ``horse race.'' ``The best part of the American press now is probably better than it's ever been,'' Fallows said. ``There's a wider range of choices available. . . . People who want first-rate news can find it.''

He said, ``I think the real struggle for the news business is finding ways to make actual news interesting.''

As for the ``buckraking'' bugaboo, Fallows said he has accepted no paid speaking engagements since taking the helm at U.S. News 14 months ago. With employee speakers, fees that are deemed acceptable, such as for university lectures, the recipients and amounts are listed in the magazine. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Fallows

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JOURNALIST'S LECTURE

James Fallows will speak Wednesday at the Holiday Inn-Executive

Center, 5655 Greenwich Road, Virginia Beach. The luncheon will begin

at noon. Admission is $18.50. For reservations, call 490-7812 by

Friday.

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