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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Greg Bluestein, Erin Chan

Aired June 08, 2003 - 07:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SANJAY GUPTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, over the past several weeks, the credibility of journalists has become increasingly scrutinized. The burgeoning plagiarism scandal at "The New York Times" has forced numerous retractions, the resignation of two "Times" executives and further public skepticism of media accuracy. It was already there, but even more so maybe now.
We wanted to view the fallout through the eyes of two aspiring journalists. Erin Chan studies journalism at Northwestern University and is now an intern at "The Times." And Greg Bluestein is joining us here in CNN studio. He's a student at the University of Georgia and a summer intern at "The Atlanta Journal Constitution."

First of all, thanks to both of you for joining us.

GREG BLUESTEIN, JOURNALISM STUDENT, UNIV. OF GEORGIA: Thank you.

GUPTA: All right.

ERIN CHAN, JOURNALISM STUDENT, NORTHWESTERN UNIV.: Thank you, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Yes, Erin, let's start with you. You basically are going to have the same internship that Jason Blair had at one point at "The New York Times." Tell us a little bit about some of your first reactions when you first heard the allegations of plagiarism and fabricating stories?

CHAN: Yes, it's going to be a similar internship. And I was extremely surprised. I actually start at "The Times" in two weeks. And I think all of my classmates and I were shocked that something like this happened to any journalist. So that any journalist was -- did something like this. And we were appalled, frankly.

GUPTA: Yes.

CHAN: I have confidence in the staff of "The Times." And I'm still incredibly excited to go there in a couple of weeks.

GUPTA: Well, good. And Greg, a question for you as well. You're at "The Wall Street Journal" now doing your internship there. One of the things people talked about is just the immense pressure of interns and young reporters to produce stories. Talk about your experience here. You think some of that pressure may lead to the disastrous consequences that we saw with Jason Blair? BLUESTEIN: Well, I just returned from "The Wall Street Journal." And like there's plenty of pressure. We are, as you know, interns in the bottom of the food chain. We have to work very hard to work our way up. But it gives no excuse for outright plagiarism, or not plagiarism, but outright actions like those in Mr. Blair's. There is no excuse for that kind of action.

GUPTA: You know, both of you, Erin, you first, recent polls say that only 36 percent of the people polled believe that the media actually get the facts straight. Those numbers really didn't go down after the Jason Blair thing. In fact, the numbers were up 32 percent in December of 2000. A lot of people just don't believe the media gets it right at all.

Talk about that, especially as you're about to enter into this particular field? Erin?

CHAN: Well, I'm a student at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. And ever since we matriculate, we are taught ethics. We have to take history and issues of journalism and law and ethics. So it's instilled in us, a sense of morals in journalism and a sense of ethics.

So I think it -- every individual needs to be assessed on his or her own ability. And it's sad that the public feels this disconnect with journalists, but I think that should spur us to work extra hard to gain their trust, to double check and recheck our sources, and to keep meticulous records and continue communication with editors.

GUPTA: And Greg, are you equally optimistic or is it a bit frustrating at times to hear that despite all the hard work the journalists put into their story, sometimes that the numbers remain so low in terms of public confidence?

BLUESTEIN: Sure, it's frustrating, but it underlines the importance of ethics classes and how every journalism student should take ethics classes. In ethics classes, we learn things that we would never imagine, you know, play such a big role in journalism and in reporting and, you know, writing and with any aspect of journalism. And sure, of course, it's frustrating, but it just underlies, as I said, the importance of taking these ethics classes.

GUPTA: And Erin, what sort of things do you think need to be done now? I mean, is this a problem that can be corrected from your vantage point from your young sort of new vantage point to this field? What needs to be done over the next few years or few months to try and correct these sorts of problems?

CHAN: Well, I think you will always have a few journalists who, unfortunately, will do things like this. It has happened through the centuries. I don't think that it should be pinpointed on young journalists, as all young journalists want to be stars. And we're going do anything to get it.

No, I think that 99.9 percent of journalists, including young journalists, are incredibly hardworking and want to be accurate, and want to tell the truth. I think there needs to be increased communication with editors and reporters throughout the entire reporting and writing process. And there needs to be a sense of accountability, and also increase in communication with the public.

GUPTA: Okay, and Greg, let me give you this final question, sort of an interesting. Rick Bragg got into a little bit of trouble, a lot of trouble at it turns out, for not giving credit to an intern for one of the stories that he had recently written. Talk about that. Is that, you know, what's your perspective on that? Is that something that you see happening as well, not getting the credit, that is?

BLUESTEIN: Not so much. My internships, they've been very, very gracious to me. They have given me all the credit that my stories deserve. They've given me bylines if they're necessary. But I have friends who have had some the kind of problems, where they don't get the same kind of credit. But in general, and my (unintelligible) would be not to give up on us as interns. We're here. We work very hard. We just want to be where you are today, take your job one day. But I mean, that's what we're here for.

GUPTA: Taking our jobs one day, absolutely. And certainly not giving up on you. Thank you both very much.

CHAN: Thank you.

GUPTA: A little bit of optimism there. We appreciate that very much. Thank you. Thank you for joining us.

CHAN: Thank you.

BLUESTEIN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired June 8, 2003 - 07:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, over the past several weeks, the credibility of journalists has become increasingly scrutinized. The burgeoning plagiarism scandal at "The New York Times" has forced numerous retractions, the resignation of two "Times" executives and further public skepticism of media accuracy. It was already there, but even more so maybe now.
We wanted to view the fallout through the eyes of two aspiring journalists. Erin Chan studies journalism at Northwestern University and is now an intern at "The Times." And Greg Bluestein is joining us here in CNN studio. He's a student at the University of Georgia and a summer intern at "The Atlanta Journal Constitution."

First of all, thanks to both of you for joining us.

GREG BLUESTEIN, JOURNALISM STUDENT, UNIV. OF GEORGIA: Thank you.

GUPTA: All right.

ERIN CHAN, JOURNALISM STUDENT, NORTHWESTERN UNIV.: Thank you, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Yes, Erin, let's start with you. You basically are going to have the same internship that Jason Blair had at one point at "The New York Times." Tell us a little bit about some of your first reactions when you first heard the allegations of plagiarism and fabricating stories?

CHAN: Yes, it's going to be a similar internship. And I was extremely surprised. I actually start at "The Times" in two weeks. And I think all of my classmates and I were shocked that something like this happened to any journalist. So that any journalist was -- did something like this. And we were appalled, frankly.

GUPTA: Yes.

CHAN: I have confidence in the staff of "The Times." And I'm still incredibly excited to go there in a couple of weeks.

GUPTA: Well, good. And Greg, a question for you as well. You're at "The Wall Street Journal" now doing your internship there. One of the things people talked about is just the immense pressure of interns and young reporters to produce stories. Talk about your experience here. You think some of that pressure may lead to the disastrous consequences that we saw with Jason Blair? BLUESTEIN: Well, I just returned from "The Wall Street Journal." And like there's plenty of pressure. We are, as you know, interns in the bottom of the food chain. We have to work very hard to work our way up. But it gives no excuse for outright plagiarism, or not plagiarism, but outright actions like those in Mr. Blair's. There is no excuse for that kind of action.

GUPTA: You know, both of you, Erin, you first, recent polls say that only 36 percent of the people polled believe that the media actually get the facts straight. Those numbers really didn't go down after the Jason Blair thing. In fact, the numbers were up 32 percent in December of 2000. A lot of people just don't believe the media gets it right at all.

Talk about that, especially as you're about to enter into this particular field? Erin?

CHAN: Well, I'm a student at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. And ever since we matriculate, we are taught ethics. We have to take history and issues of journalism and law and ethics. So it's instilled in us, a sense of morals in journalism and a sense of ethics.

So I think it -- every individual needs to be assessed on his or her own ability. And it's sad that the public feels this disconnect with journalists, but I think that should spur us to work extra hard to gain their trust, to double check and recheck our sources, and to keep meticulous records and continue communication with editors.

GUPTA: And Greg, are you equally optimistic or is it a bit frustrating at times to hear that despite all the hard work the journalists put into their story, sometimes that the numbers remain so low in terms of public confidence?

BLUESTEIN: Sure, it's frustrating, but it underlines the importance of ethics classes and how every journalism student should take ethics classes. In ethics classes, we learn things that we would never imagine, you know, play such a big role in journalism and in reporting and, you know, writing and with any aspect of journalism. And sure, of course, it's frustrating, but it just underlies, as I said, the importance of taking these ethics classes.

GUPTA: And Erin, what sort of things do you think need to be done now? I mean, is this a problem that can be corrected from your vantage point from your young sort of new vantage point to this field? What needs to be done over the next few years or few months to try and correct these sorts of problems?

CHAN: Well, I think you will always have a few journalists who, unfortunately, will do things like this. It has happened through the centuries. I don't think that it should be pinpointed on young journalists, as all young journalists want to be stars. And we're going do anything to get it.

No, I think that 99.9 percent of journalists, including young journalists, are incredibly hardworking and want to be accurate, and want to tell the truth. I think there needs to be increased communication with editors and reporters throughout the entire reporting and writing process. And there needs to be a sense of accountability, and also increase in communication with the public.

GUPTA: Okay, and Greg, let me give you this final question, sort of an interesting. Rick Bragg got into a little bit of trouble, a lot of trouble at it turns out, for not giving credit to an intern for one of the stories that he had recently written. Talk about that. Is that, you know, what's your perspective on that? Is that something that you see happening as well, not getting the credit, that is?

BLUESTEIN: Not so much. My internships, they've been very, very gracious to me. They have given me all the credit that my stories deserve. They've given me bylines if they're necessary. But I have friends who have had some the kind of problems, where they don't get the same kind of credit. But in general, and my (unintelligible) would be not to give up on us as interns. We're here. We work very hard. We just want to be where you are today, take your job one day. But I mean, that's what we're here for.

GUPTA: Taking our jobs one day, absolutely. And certainly not giving up on you. Thank you both very much.

CHAN: Thank you.

GUPTA: A little bit of optimism there. We appreciate that very much. Thank you. Thank you for joining us.

CHAN: Thank you.

BLUESTEIN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com