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March 18, 2005

Louis Boccardi Reminds Fletcher Community that “Old Values” Still Have a Place in Today’s Media World

“There is nothing in 24 hour news that says you can’t be responsible, fair and accurate,” said Louis Boccardi. The former head of the Associated Press, addresses students and faculty on March 16, 2005 at the Fletcher School as the latest speaker in the Charles Francis Adams Lecture Series and the first of the Edward R. Murrow Center Series. While he agreed that that the 24 hour news cycle has changed the news environment he was quick to point out that “AP’s been doing 24 hour news for 157 years!” Boccardi emphasized the important role the media plays as a watchdog and stressed that journalistic integrity and values must remain a constant in today’s media landscape. “The old model’s gone,” he said, “but not gone is a place for the old values, if we can live up to them.”

Boccardi launched his career in journalism “at the bottom of the bottom” working for New York City newspapers as a reporter. He began working at the AP in 1967 and served in positions as AP managing editor, executive editor, vice president, executive editor in charge of new operations and executive vice president and chief operating officer. He retired from heading the largest news organization in the world in 2003.

Over the course of Boccardi’s accomplished career in the media, he witnessed technology’s dramatic effect on the field. “On July 31, 1967,” he told the audience, “the day I started my career in journalism, Vietnam dispatches from Saigon came into the office at a rate of 30 words a minute. On the day I left on May 31, 2003, the AP wire speed was 10,000 words a minute.” In addition to providing news producers with new capacities, technology has also enabled more people to become news producers themselves. More and more people are now able to say, “hey, I’m here, I have a voice and I have something to say,” said Boccardi.

Boccardi defended journalistic integrity as a necessary constant amid a sea of technological change. Instead of seeing the end of objective journalism he said, “I don’t think that the new paradigms will necessarily drive out old values.” Media companies, he claimed, are and will continue to have to change and adapt to new technology and changing audience demands. “The old pattern is gone or is going and they [news companies] will reinvent or be left behind,” he warned. Media will no longer be able to deliver news when and how they want to but instead will have to cater to when and how consumers want to receive news and information.

Boccardi could hardly speak on the topic of integrity in journalism without addressing his recent work as the co-chair of the Independent Review Panel investigating Dan Rather’s September 2004 CBS report which was critical of President Bush’s Texas Air National Guard service. Speaking exactly one week after Rather’s last broadcast on CBS, Boccardi summed up the findings of the 224 page document saying, “we found no hint that anybody that put the story on the air knowingly thought it was false or had a feeling it was false - they felt that they had it and that’s what our report says.” At the end of the day, he and co-chair U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh found that, “the report went to air much too quickly.”

In addition to his work on the Dan Rather case, Boccardi’s advice was also sought in the case regarding New York Times reporter Jayson Blair’s allegedly fabricated stories. When asked whether these cases have implications for the future of professional journalism, Boccardi replied, “each of them was just awful” and “a violation of standards that are in place” but he also cautioned audience members not to apply these failures across the board as they are individual cases unique to their specific circumstances.

Integrity was a constant theme throughout the night with Boccardi championing journalistic values, celebrating their existence today and offering insights into ways to preserve them well into the future. Boccardi spoke to Fletcher not only as a leader in his field but also as the father of a current student pursuing a joint-degree at the Fletcher School and Harvard Law School. He offered specific advice on returning integrity to the field of journalism, such as relying less on anonymous sources and becoming more open in the reporting process. Openness and transparency, he said, are essential as so much in journalism hinges on honesty with the audience. Addressing the recent media stories on the government video news releases, Boccardi said, “I don’t think the government should be monitoring news releases that could pass for the real thing but the responsibility lies with the media who aired it.” An optimist and a firm believer in the power of good journalism, Boccardi gave hope to the audience about the future of the field saying, “I believe that intelligent, fair-minded people gathering facts and educating the public remain a critical underpinning of a free society… and we call that journalism.”

Article by Anna Tiedeman, MALD '05

Posted by jessica at March 18, 2005 03:15 PM