change across the company, including here at cnn. and i m sad that i won t be here to cover it. but since this is our final episode, we re going to do something today. this is a special hour and it s about change. it s about change all across the media world. what s changing? what might change? and what must never change about the accountability function of journalism. i love this show. this small but mighty show punched above its weight for so many years. even a former president commented on the cancellation. reliable sources has been a one of a kind show, and a popular show. this is one of cnn s highest rated weekend shows. so i want to say thank you to all of you watching around the world. i was lucky to be a part of it for nine years. but it began 30 years ago after the gulf war. so here s what the iconic former cnn ceo tom johnson said on facebook when he heard the show was canceled. he said it was founded by ted turner and leaders of cnn who felt deeply that media org
Function as we do. can we unpack that for a minute? i ve been thinking so much about this lately, that some of the biggest stories in the world barely ever register as news. certainly the climate crisis getting more attention. but you think about homelessness, the inability for future generations to own and invest and own homes. all of these economic conditions, because they happen slowly, because we have drip, drip, drip things that are happening in this world, they don t get the attention that the sudden burst from the fire hose does. how do we fix that, to make sure the most important stories are treated like they re news? how do we make sure it s news? first of all, i think all of the areas you mentioned can come under the heading of the following, which i believe is the most important story in the world today, that all news organizations, especially this one need to be covering in great detail. and that is the pendulum
Jody, how do you react to what jeffrey said? we haven t always done a great job of explaining why journalism is important and showing our workings. how do we know something? i think what is increasingly challenging at the moment is, when facts become up for grabs, that s when it becomes difficult. the job of a journalist we always say is not to ask people whether or not it s raining and take both sides, it s to go outside and feel the rain falling on you. we are in a moment where we go outside, and you feel the rain falling on you and tell someone, they might say fake news. part of our job has to be really to engage people, reinfuse people about facts, the importance of facts, the importance of agreeing on some key fundamentals and key information. i think the other thing that s really important, and we have to keep doing is making sure that journalists are properly supported, that we have the
Financial support that journalists need, but also that they have the backing of those in authority. when those in power have done great journalism, journalists become fair game. and what you see that is morph into online harassment. we have seen a huge increase in that in the past 30 years. and that quite oftenly morphs into real world violence. that online harassment is describing an environment of toxicity around journalism that is much more poisonous than it was. it s gotten so much more toxic. and doesn t that scare off some writers and turn off some reporters? don t we news a generation of great journalists because they don t want to be harassed, they don t want to be part of the mess? how do we ensure we re still getting the next best class of journalists to join in this
Viewers needed to resist that. i m sad to say all the trends i identified in my book have only gotten worse. you have to decode what they were doing. now they say it outright. and i think it s much more important for people to resist that kind of thing. what about diversity in the media in 30 years? there have been some strides in representation, but not enough. there have been strides. not enough. and certainly i think we re trying to resist the group think that happens in media, where even when you have people of color, they re approaching covering the news from a white male perspective. i think that s something that the industry has resisted. and that s why we re seeing, you know, these fights at organizations like the washington post and the new york times. we even at npr struggle with that. we have younger reporters that are pushing us to be better on diversity and to reflect a wider range of perspectives. and yet we have this orthodoxy