When the Networks Do the Right Thing

Apr 19, 2007— -- "All the News That's Fit to Print" has been the New York Times masthead logo since 1896. But at the network news organizations, no such motto exists.

In light of the recent airing of the images and rantings by Seung-hui Cho, beginning with excerpts from a video inside a package received Wednesday by NBC, it appears each organization decides a little differently whether "all the news is fit to broadcast."

"Upon receiving the materials from Cho Seung-Hui, NBC News took careful consideration in determining how the information should be distributed," NBC spokesperson Allison Gollust said in a statement. But by Thursday morning, NBC had limited their usage of the video across NBC News, including MSNBC, to "no more than 10 percent of our airtime," according to the statement.

NBC's standards and policies chief was not available for further comment.

At ABC News, an abundance of caution was the word today when President David Westin told his troops, "I don't want to see the video used as wallpaper."

ABC News Publicist Jeffrey Schneider took it a step further.

"Once that first news cycle has passed, the repetition of it [the Cho video] is little more than pornography," he said.

While that may be a bit of hyperbole, there is a long history of network news organizations not always reporting everything that comes across the transom.

Richard Wald, who served nearly five years as the ABC News senior vice president of editorial quality, recalled several cases where he and various executive producers made a conscious decision to restrict what the nation would see and learn on the evening news.

"It was Charlie Glass's abduction that changed our minds about what we show on the air," said Wald.

Glass, an ABC News correspondent, made his own headlines in 1987 when he was held hostage for two months in Lebanon.

"We put a tape of him on the air and then realized what he was saying had been coerced," said Wald. "From that point on, we decided we could report what was on the tape but not let the individuals themselves say it and then in effect hang themselves."

Glass escaped after 62 days in captivity.

Wald said other cases are decided on taste.

"We made it a policy to not show dead bodies, especially when terrorism is involved," he said. "We did that because we are in your house at 6:30 p.m., we don't know who is watching, and all of a sudden we present material without any warning. We want viewers to understand the horror but not rub their noses in it."

The rules sometimes change during the broadcast day. For example, said Wald, "Nightline is more liberal with what it will air because it's on late at night when viewers are typically adults not children."