By Laura Brown
 RICHARD JOHNSON/ SPECIAL TO THE TOWN CRIER Newshound Bettina Gregory said the federal government’s favorite time to release a big story is at 4:30 p.m. - preferably on a Friday before a holiday weekend. Friday night news is the least watched and Saturday papers the least read. |
Bettina Gregory told the Morning Forum of Los Altos audience April 4 that she originally wanted to write fiction, but her more than 25 years in the news business has convinced her that nothing can match the truth. In fact, Gregory stressed, the reporter’s job is always and only to report the truth, but sometimes it is hard to determine what the truth is.
Gregory, a correspondent for ABC News, recalled her first big story - the 1975 case of Karen Ann Quinlan, the first national “right to die” controversy, which in many ways resembled the recent Terry Schiavo case. Quinlan lapsed into a coma after ingesting a tranquilizer and alcohol at a party. After doctors determined that she was in a permanent vegetative state with no hope of recovery, her parents sued to have her respirator disconnected.
Gregory waited at the New Jersey Supreme Court for the decision, then raced to a helicopter for a bumpy ride to New York. She arrived in Manhattan at 5 p.m., in time to lead the 6 p.m. news. As she nervously awaited the beginning of the broadcast, anchor Harry Reasoner leaned over and said in his resonant voice, “Don’t worry, little girl, it’s only the first broadcast tonight, only 11 million people will be watching you.”
“The news media is the kick in the pants to the federal government, but they (the government) hold the cards,” said Gregory, who had assignments at the White House, the Pentagon, federal regulatory agencies and Congress.
Early in her career, Gregory said, she assumed news would be made at news conferences and speeches. But she noticed that although government spokesmen took a lot of questions, they seldom gave answers publicly.
“After the news conference, the spokesman would invite reporters back to his office, where he would provide answers ‘on background,’ meaning they could not be attributed, except to ‘a White House source.’ … The government floats these trial balloons to gauge public opinion. If it is favorable, sources begin to talk about it and finally an announcement is made after about 10 days,” Gregory said.
“Most of the wire services and the networks have a 6:30 p.m. deadline. The federal government’s favorite time to release a big report is at 4:30 p.m. - preferably on a Friday before a holiday weekend. Friday night news is the least watched and Saturday papers the least read. They give a reporter enough lead time to get something on the air, but not enough time to get interviews with those who oppose or disagree with the report,” Gregory said.
As networks increasingly rely on legal analysts, medical specialists and military experts to report segments of the news, Gregory called herself, “the last of the generalists.” She covered the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 2000, as well as the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton, the funeral of Princess Diana and the O.J. Simpson trial.
She noted that with the advent of 24-hour cable news and the videophone, “the demand for live coverage has grown way out of proportion. Now with live coverage, you report the story before you understand what the story is,” she said.
Gregory won an ACE award for her A&E channel Biography on Hillary Rodham Clinton. In response to a question about Clinton’s chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination and the election, she responded that “(Clinton) is smart, ambitious and really, really capable. But unlike Bill, she is charismatically challenged. She doesn’t have that quality that makes us feel good about ourselves.”
She said that she is “very, very” troubled by the increased secrecy in government, the erosion of the free press and the provisions of the Patriot Act, “one of the great misnomers.” She said a free society needs to allow reporters to do their work. “The administration has a right to present its best face to the public, but the job of the press is to report the truth and report inaccuracies.”
Morning Forum is a members-only lecture series held at the United Methodist Church of Los Altos. To get on a waiting list for membership, write to: Morning Forum, P.O. Box 274, Los Altos 94023-0274.
