Posted 5:10 p.m. March 5

by Patrick W. Higgins
U-WIRE (DC BUREAU)

U-WIRE) WASHINGTON – The murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and its effects on the future of war reporting was the topic of discussion for seven journalists Monday night at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Pearl was confirmed murdered by an unidentified Pakistani terrorist organization Feb. 22 — four weeks after his Jan. 23 abduction in Pakistan while investigating a possible al Qaeda link.

The panel focused on the safety of war reporters, especially in regions where reporters’ religious affiliations may increase the risk to their lives. Pearl was Jewish.

“You can’t make editorial policies based on other people’s prejudice,” said E.J. Dionne Jr., a columnist for The Washington Post, responding to a question from moderator Marvin Kalb about editors’ responsibilities to protect their journalists. Kalb said 37 journalists were killed worldwide last year alone.

Cokie Roberts, co-host of ABC’s “This Week,” supported Dionne’s claim, saying Pearl was killed because he was a reporter, not because he was Jewish. “There are reporters in danger all day every day simply because they are reporters who are just trying to tell the truth,” Roberts said.

Peter Maer, the White House correspondent for CBS Radio, further challenged Kalb’s line of questioning by contending that reporters, though faced often with the circumstances of war, constantly are trying to convince their editors to allow them to move to a more dangerous location.

“You feel a blur of adrenaline trying to protect yourself, but there’s an overwhelming feeling to get the story,” Maer said.

Responding to questions from the audience, all seven journalists agreed the videotape showing Pearl’s death should not be released.

“The tape is not a matter of censorship, it is a matter of taste,” said Ann Cooper, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Steve Roberts, a columnist and Shapiro professor at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, supported her stance, saying, “If we claim that right [to show the tape], we should have that right, but we also need to exercise personal responsibility.”

Shifting the focus of the discussion from editor’s responsibilities, Steve Roberts questioned the government’s role in the safety of journalists.

“Government policy that consciously and deliberately withholds information makes our job more difficult and certainly more dangerous,” he said.

Sensing a general consensus among all the panelists that Pearl’s death will not influence editorial policy critically in the future, Kalb recentered the debate on the issue of money vs. journalistic integrity, citing the possible cancellation of “Nightline” on ABC in favor of David Letterman’s talk show.

The Letterman show generates a reported $73 million more than “Nightline.”

Cokie Roberts criticized the younger generation as part of the problem, saying if the same number of teen-agers who watched programs like “The Late Show with David Letterman” read the newspaper and watched the nightly news, advertising returns would not be an issue.

“Every survey that’s done shows that the age at which people begin paying attention to the news gets older every year,” Roberts said.

Maer responded to Roberts’ statement, saying, “I guess it is idealistic to think that ABC would want to preserve a prestigious news service in this day and age.”

According to Steve Roberts, the “Nightline” incident is a preliminary effect of the expensive news coverage since Sept. 11.

“Big news organizations will continue to spend for the time being; they will cover the war and cover it well, but at some point the organizations will have to pay,” he said.

The panel’s comments on the lack of interest in the news among young people drew criticism from the audience, with numerous college students asking why only certain stories were published and others weren’t.

One student in particular asked why there wasn’t more coverage of the plight of women in Afghanistan, saying, “I do read the paper and I don’t listen to Howard Stern,” mocking a comment made earlier in the night by one of the panelists.

The panel responded by saying all the news is there, but people have to look for it in some cases.

The discussion was the 26th edition of “The Kalb Report,” an eight-year series hosted by Marvin Kalb, formerly of CBS News, and sponsored by George Washington University, the Harvard University Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy, and the National Press Club.