Accepting his Fred Friendly First Amendment award this afternoon at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Club, CBS News anchor and managing editor Scott Pelley delivered an impassioned speech about the sorry state of journalism in 2013.

“Our house is on fire,” Pelley said of the business at large. “Never before in human history has more information been available to more people. But at the same time never before in human history has more bad information been available to more people.”

Pelley took “the first arrow,” recalling his own mistake over some of the early reporting out of Sandy Hook Elementary in December. Then he recounted early errors after the Boston Marathon was bombed. “We were attacked by terrorists on that day, and amateur journalists became digital vigilantes.”

Pelley joins 19 other TV journalists including Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Ted Koppel, and, last year, Martha Raddatz, as Fred Friendly honorees. He told the crowd, which included his CBS News colleagues past and present, that “disruptive technologies” are partly to blame.

“Twitter, Facebook and Reddit: that’s not journalism. That’s gossip. Journalism was invented as an antidote to gossip.”

Pelley also took on the chest thumping that goes on in local and national newsrooms around the nation every day.

Read more

The Cleveland kidnapping, the Boston bombing, The Benghazi hearing, the Jodi Arias verdict.

It is a big week for TV news, and as a result some big scoops are at risk of falling through the cracks.

This morning “CBS This Morning” had a pair of scoops: an interview with a Secret Service agent suspended after the now-infamous outing in Cartegena, Colombia (watch below). “CTM” also had a story about a $45 million bank heist executed by hackers.

NBC News meanwhile is touting an interview Ann Curry conducted with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime Minister of Turkey, who insists that their intelligence indicates that Syria has used chemical weapons on its own people. The interview was conducted this afternoon, and it made news in Turkey. Whether it gets substantial coverage stateside remains to be seen.

CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan made quite the impression on South Korean news anchors for her recent interview with President Park Geun-hye. On ChosunTV, the anchors praised the “famous American news reporter” for familiarity with all things Korean, including knowing the proper way to shake the President’s hand, which Bill Gates doesn’t know, apparently. Watch (at about the 1:25 mark):

Three women, missing for years, and presumed gone forever. A dramatic rescue, with a very–memorable–rescuer.

For TV news bookers, particularly those on the network morning shows, it is a dream come true. The surprising story broke late last night out of Cleveland, as Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were freed, with some help by Charles Ramsey, whose 911 call and interviews spread around the Internet like wildfire.

One morning show source says that “the race is on” to try and book the girls, as well as Ramsey, who may require a seven second delay should he appear in a live interview.

On TV last night, the story played out primarily on CNN, which covered it almost non-stop since it broke in the 8 PM hour. CNN ended up going live until 1 AM covering the story. Fox News first broke in at 9:47 Pm during “Hannity, and continued covering it during the 10 PM hour with “On the Record”, with MSNBC also providing some coverage during “The Last Word,” according to TvEyes.

This morning the story led the morning shows, and is dominating the coverage on cable news.

After the jump, video of an interview with Ramsey conducted by the local ABC affiliate.
Read more

“CBS This Morning” co-anchor Norah O’Donnell is profiled by the New York Post. Suffice it to say, hosting a morning show means that she has a very long and busy day. Yet the first place she checks for news when she wakes up is… Twitter?

Not surprisingly, O’Donnell is an early riser. Up by 3 a.m., she spends her first hours online, scanning Twitter to catch up on the latest news that broke overnight. She arrives at the office no later than 4:30 a.m. for hair and makeup, tapes the show’s intro and speaks with affiliates around the country starting at 6 a.m. until the show goes live at 7. After the show goes off the air at 9 a.m., she spends the next 45 minutes or so conducting affiliate interviews and report updates for Midwest and West Coast viewers. She spends the rest of the day formulating story ideas, conducting interviews and filming packages until she heads home in the afternoon. She tries to keep afternoons relatively free to be with her kids when they get out of school. “And by 5, I’m ready to have a glass of wine!” she laughs.

In a programming stunt tied to Mother’s Day (and May Sweeps) “CBS This Morning” will feature segments every day next week highlighting “Eye Opening Moms.”

Every day the show will feature interview’s with notable mothers and daughters, being interviewed together. If you are keeping track, “Today” will be going on a cross-country road trip for sweeps May 20-24, while “Good Morning America” is betting on a “Dancing with the Stars” boost.

Below are the guests booked so far for “CTM.”
Read more

A story reported by Harry Reasoner on “60 Minutes “60 Minutes” 26 years ago inspired an individual named Paul Tudor Jones. On Sunday’s edition of the program, Jones and the charity he founded is getting the “60 Minutes” treatment.

Here is Reasoner’s original 1986 story:

Sunday, Scott Pelley talks to Jones about the Robin Hood Foundation, which has given away some $1.25 billion since it was founded.

Scott Pelley is the recipient of Quinnipiac University’s 20th annual Fred Friendly First Amendment Award.

The “CBS Evening News” anchor will be presented the award, given annually to a journalist who has “shown courage and forthrightness in preserving the First Amendment,” on May 10 in New York City.

“For a CBS News correspondent, the Fred Friendly Award is especially humbling,” said Pelley said in a statement. “Fred taught us courage, fairness and humility in equal measure. He helped invent our industry and set the mark for all who follow.”

More from CBS after the jump. Read more

As is tradition here at TVNewser, we present to you our sixth annual list of who’s-speaking-where-and-when at America’s colleges and universities (in alphabetical order):

CBS’s Sharyn Alfonsi: University of Mississippi-Meek School of Journalism and New Media (MS), May 11

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour: The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (MD), May 23

ABC’s Dr. Richard Besser: University of South Carolina School of Medicine (SC), May 10

FNC’s Shannon Bream: Liberty University (VA), May 11

NBC’s Tom Brokaw: Loyola University New Orleans (LA), May 11

ABC’s Katie Couric: Randolph-Macon College (VA), June 1

ABC’s Josh Elliott: Quinnipiac University-The School of Communications and the School of Health Sciences (CT), May 19

NBC’s Richard Engel: Fordham University (NY), May 18

MSNBC’s Howard Fineman: University of Louisville-Brandeis School of Law (KY), May 11

FNC’s Bill Hemmer: Miami University-Farmer School of Business (OH), May 12

After the jump: Where Lemon, Raddatz, Scarborough, BriWi, and others will be speaking.

Read more

While much has been made of the mistakes that were reported during the aftermath of the Boston bombings, the general consensus among media watchers has been that two journalists stood out for their accuracy and informative reports: NBC’s Pete Williams and CBS’ John Miller.

Miller gets a lengthy profile from the AP on how he got so much right. The short version: experience working for law enforcement agencies, and exceptional sources.

“Sources are people you meet on other stories and you develop them into sources of information,” he said. “I’m calling friends, and I’m asking them, ‘What’s happening here?

For his part, Miller said, “I am reluctant to criticize authorities.”

“My interpretation of when they need to be (criticized) and somebody else’s might be different,” he said. “If you’ve been there and you know how that works and what it’s like, and how easy it is to take potshots from the outside, your criticism is more measured, your analysis of what is worthy of criticism and what isn’t is slightly different.”