PBS Frontline: 'News War: Secrets, Sources & Spin'

Producer Raney Aronson was online Wednesday, Feb. 21, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the second part of the PBS Frontline film "News War: Secrets, Sources & Spin." The film looks at the recent history of American journalism, from the Nixon administration's attacks on the media to the post-Watergate popularity of the press, to new obstacles presented by the war on terror.

Frontline's "News War: Secrets, Sources & Spin" airs Tuesday, Feb. 20, at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings).

Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.

Raney Aronson has been the producer, director and writer of four full-length Frontline documentaries, "The Last Abortion Clinic," "The Soldier's Heart," "The Jesus Factor" and "The Alternative Fix," as well as three Frontline/World stories based in India and Hong Kong.

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Charlottesville, Va.: Government sources spread misleading information about weapons of mass destruction and al-Qaeda in Iraq, then gave out the identity of Valerie Plame all to press our country to go to war. The source itself is the biggest part of these stories -- if the press has a duty to inform the people, shouldn't the duty be even greater to inform the people exactly who, how and why when a government official manipulates the truth to control our actions?

Raney Aronson: Yes, we think the press does have that obligation -- in fact, in our first film we talk at length about how the relationship between reporters (in Washington, but also in sports reporting and other areas) and their sources has become too cozy, too inside -- and has harmed our reporting. Some editors of big newspapers have gone so far as to say that reporters are not allowed to use confidential sources -- others, such as Len Downie of The Washington Post and Bill Keller of the New York Times have said that in light of what has happened over the past few years, their bar for allowing anonymous sources in the newspaper is higher. This is an important discussion for reporters and their editors to have to make sure that issues like the run-up to the war in Iraq are not repeated.

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Washington: Has there ever been a more acrimonious relationship between the press and the government than we see today? (I've seen the first two parts of the series and I have to say Frontline never fails to get the story -- keep up the excellent work.)

Raney Aronson: That's a great question and one we asked repeatedly as we reported on this story. I think the answer is not quite black and white -- but we do believe that we have not seen such a contentious relationship between the administration and the press since the Nixon era. If you look at the relationship between the press and the government, it's always acrimonious -- look at President Clinton's annoyance with the press because of the Lewinsky scandal. But what¿s different about this administration is that early on they articulated to reporter Ken Auletta that they really do not believe that the press has a check-and-balance function -- and Mark McKinnon (Bush¿s long time media advisor) confirmed this on-camera with us as well. I think the difference is that while Presidents in the past may have felt that way about the press, they would be very political in how they talked about the press¿s role etc. and would never say that -- whereas this administration has been very open about their feelings about the press and have said repeatedly that they are disappointed in the mainstream media¿s actions, especially when it comes to publishing national security secrets.

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Washington: At one point in the documentary, you quote someone saying that there has been a pronounced shift in policy towards more aggressively pressuring the media since the departure of Ashcroft as Attorney General. Is there anything about Gonzales that leads you to think this is part of a strategy he has embarked on to chill the free press? Do you think somewhere there are minutes to a meeting or a classified memo where Gonzales and team sat around and said, in essence, "this is how we're going to do this from now on"? Or do you think it's more organic than that -- the natural behavior of a state under stress in a time of war?

Raney Aronson: Another terrific question! We searched for documentation or anything that would give us "proof" of such a shift, to no avail. We do know that Mark Corallo, who was in Ashcroft's public affairs office, claims there has been a shift in the policy as compared to the Ashcroft era. We asked the current Justice department if there has been a change and they denied that, saying Corallo no longer is inside the DOJ, so he doesn't actually know what's going on with these new subpoenas. Many people say that it¿s not so much the current Attorney General¿s attitude but the ruling in the Judy Miller case that opened the door -- if you watch Hour One of the series on our Web site you can see the impact of that court decision on reporters and their privilege to protect their sources.

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East Lansing, Mich.: Part II of the series talks about the change in public support of journalists who reveal government operations/programs. The Internet abounds with popular Web sites on government cover-ups or the "real truth" of what the government is doing. It seems that the public craves the "truth" about the government but some don't like it when the mainstream media starts exposing what our government is doing -- what do you make of this?

Raney Aronson: Well, that¿s a complicated question -- but I'll take a shot at answering it. I think that John McLaughlin -- formerly of the CIA -- made a good point at the end of the second hour (and there's so much more discussion of this so-called gray area on our Web site) -- that basically it is time for a discussion to be had about where America wants to be on this very issue. I also think an especially interesting study was one quoted by Tom Rosentiel to us from the Project in Excellence in Journalism -- the study essentially said that immediately after 9/11 Americans were more in favor of the government keeping their programs secret and classified in the fight on the war on terror -- versus their right to know about those programs. Now, interestingly, that sentiment has shifted -- now, more Americans want information about what their government is doing rather than allowing the government to keep secrets.

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Bend, Ore.: Do you plan to interview Barton Gellman and other reporters on the actual effectiveness of the NSA/SWIFT spying programs in Parts three or four? Also, more details on link analysis/data mining (i.e. what it is and the IT infrastructure it requires), including interviews with IT people, would be very helpful. Once I read about what the Pentagon Papers actually contained (e.g. analysis from the guys who ran the WWII bombing campaigns), arguments like those from Pat Buchanan really are empty. Many thanks for an excellent series!

Raney Aronson: I wish we could have three more hours to discuss all of these very issues! But we do have a very rich Web site with this discussion -- so you can go there to read more. Part Three of our series looks at the economic future of the news, and Part Four is about the Arab Media and journalists in Iraq.

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Washington: Seeing as you are using the online discussion forum to discuss your program, I will ask you, how do you see the Internet and online journalism affecting traditional media?

Raney Aronson: I really hope you can catch next week's show -- a big part of that film looks at that very issue! It's airing on February 27th at 9 p.m. EST on PBS.

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New York: The Washington Post report on conditions at Walter Reed has clearly demonstrated the value of a free and unencumbered press, and has been a wake-up call to Washington regarding the press's watchdog role. Do you think now that there might be a good chance of passing a federal law protecting press sources? Thanks.

washingtonpost.com: Swift Action Promised at Walter Reed (Post, Feb. 21)

Raney Aronson: That was such a terrific story by The Post -- and I hope that reporting like that and others has an impact. The debate over a federal shield law for journalists has gone on for years now -- interestingly part of the issue over why some believe we don't have a shield law has to do with the journalistic community not being able to define who a journalist is! So in other words journalists can't decide on who deserves the protection and so it gets stalled along the way.

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Washington: I am sorry I missed your program but I wanted to ask your thoughts about the media conference held recently, I believe in Memphis. Bill Moyers gave a powerful address to the group painting an Orwellian picture of the MSM today that threatens the people's access to information relevant to our lives as opposed to huge amounts of distracting information about Anna Nicole etc. Your thoughts on Moyers' comments?

Raney Aronson: It's a good question -- I read Moyer's speech but was not there in person. I think that he makes some very strong points and many similar issues are actually addressed in Hour Three of this series, "What's Happening to the News" -- in which the producers and Lowell Bergman look at the mainstream media and what is considered news these days. I hope you get a chance to watch...

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New York: Raney -- there were lots of government officials alleging that great damage has been done to the national security by press revelations, but I don't recall Lowell Bergman asking for specifics. I would like to know exactly what has been compromised. Was anyone asked this question? Thanks.

Raney Aronson: Thanks for your question -- if you go to our Web site you'll see Lowell push them further for details -- especially in the interview with John Miller and John McLaughlin. Essentially what McLaughlin says is that you can't prove the harm done, but he believes (and so do many others inside the intelligence community) that disclosing these secrets does do harm -- by alerting the terrorists to our secret programs and methods (especially, he argued, the second NSA story). But this is a great debate -- Keller and the reporters believe that the terrorists know what we're up to and that they didn't reveal anything that would harm national security.

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New York: Raney, the filmmaker who currently is jailed for refusing to give up film footage -- any idea how he is doing in prison? Also, isn't there some question as to whether he is considered a journalist? I have nothing but sympathy for this guy, aside from the merits of his argument. Thanks.

Raney Aronson: Yes, there is definitely a question about whether he's a journalist -- for all intents and purposes the courts treated him as such -- but there was no actual ruling asking that question. In the end we decided he was a journalist because he reports on issues, posts those stories on his Web site, and also has sold some of his footage to local television stations.

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Freising, Germany: I've noticed that as time passes, the general interest in discovering hidden truths behind recent conflicts abates quite rapidly. There's always the old saying, "If you don't learn about mistakes of the past, then you're doomed to repeat them in the future," but sometimes I wonder if mankind still is doomed to repeating past mistakes. Your thoughts?

Raney Aronson: It's an interesting question -- too hard to answer properly in an online chat! But, I do think that many people are asking this very question as they challenge the adminstration's intelligence about Iran. The good news is that I do believe harder questions are being asked, and reporters are being put under much more intense scrutiny by their editors as stories get published about this very issue.

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