Brian Williams on CSPAN

...Never have I ever felt commercial pressure; they know we’d howl from the mountaintops at our company if anyone ever interceded. I’ve never seen a story spiked because they’re a big advertiser.

--Brian Williams, 10 September 2004

Did NBC's Brian Williams actually say this? Yes - at the national convention of the Society of Professional Journalists. I've transcribed the relevant portion of the panel below. The transcript is my own, so any errors are entirely my fault.

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Society of Professional Journalists
2004 National Convention
New York City
10 September 2004

Video available at:
http://www.c-span.org
Click on “American Perspectives”

Raising the Torch (SPJ Program Title)
The Past, Present, and Future of Television News (CSPAN Program Title)

Betsy Ashton, moderator
Walter Cronkite, CBS News
Brian Williams, NBC News

(At about 1:03:36)

Question:
I’m Ryan Sullivan, I’m from Wheeling, West Virginia, I’m a student at Bethany College. My question is, in countries like England, where there’s a television tax, and they’re not so much worried about advertising – I mean, obviously that’s a reason for how these things work together, everyone’s talking about that – my question is, do you think eventually not just the big three networks, but all television news would eventually listen to the nation if they no longer wanted non-entertainment news, because that’s what I’m afraid might happen. So my question is, because what the viewers are watching is what the advertisers are more worried about putting on.”

Betsy Ashton, moderator
Who’s your question for?

(Crosstalk)

Walter Cronkite:
That’s not a new problem. Ever since the first newspaper was published with advertising, this has been a question, of course, of the balance between the income source - the principal source of income - and editorial judgment. And that depends entirely on the individual operation; a good newspaper, a good broadcasting operation, clearly permits the news department to make the decisions that need to be made as we defend the principles as exemplified by everything we do here in – if you don’t mind my showing how old I am – our fraternity of Sigma Delta Chi.

(Laughter)

That’s what we’re about, is perpetuating and trying to ensure that we as journalists live up to the principles of good journalism. And it is necessary, if we’re going to do that, that we have strength within the editorial department, to be sure that despite any pressure from the publisher, or the owner of the broadcasting operation, we can hold our own in demanding, if you please, demanding that the news department is permitted to do its job according to our principles. And I maintain that this is what a real journalist will do, male or female, 18 years old or 85 years old, living up to the principles of good journalism that we’ve learned. If we stick together, we can enforce, in most newsrooms, we can enforce our principles by simply staying together, standing together. Not one person being fired, but the entire newsroom walking out, if you please. It takes courage, it takes a lot of courage; it takes a lot of guts to do that when you’re talking about your income. When you’re talking about an industry where the number of available jobs is not that great, it takes a lot of guts. But that’s what we news people are about, for heaven’s sakes, is the guts we’ve got to do our jobs.

(Applause)

Brian Williams
I’d like a piece of that answer, too. I couldn’t agree more, you’ve got to walk into work every day willing to walk out. There are companies I won’t enumerate today that I wouldn’t work for if they were the last employers left in what is alleged to be our business. I would do something else for a living – while I can’t imagine that prospect, but…

Walter Cronkite
We can be mining engineers!

Brian Williams
That’s right. (Laughter)

I tell journalism students two things: it matters who you work for – don’t take that first job if it means compromising your core and your ethics, and they do matter; and number two, I tell them, because I’ve seen the contrary, if you felt your pulse accelerate when you walked into your first newsroom, then welcome. If you can’t imagine doing anything else for a living, that’s who we want in this business. Two other points: never have I ever felt commercial pressure; they know we’d howl from the mountaintops at our company if anyone ever interceded. I’ve never seen a story spiked because they’re a big advertiser. And finally, there’s no commercial pressure in this vast universe we keep talking about, I think not enough is said about a guy who never makes the list of great journalists in America, but should, Brian Lamb. What C-SPAN has done is nothing short of revolutionary in the information business. One of the great tragedies is he’s not going to do Booknotes any more, which is a living guide to young journalists in how to conduct an interview. He is in every respect, I believe, a journalist, because he is a pure gatherer of fact. And I just hope he gets his due when we sit back and count up the great visionary achievements in the – especially in the – over-the-air visual media of the past several years.

[Emphasis added]

Betsy Ashton, moderator
One note: C-SPAN is taping this program today, and I am told the tape is being shipped back; they will receive it on Monday. It is for a program called American Perspectives…

Brian Williams
Then I’m very happy I said that.

(Laughter)

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