• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

  • Home
  • Advertise
    • Advertise in One or All of our Magazines
    • Advertising Payment Form
  • Print Subscription
  • Digital Subscription
    • Subscribe
    • Subscriber Login
  • Contact Us

Fake News

Reporting Worldwide from Armonk: An Animated Conversation with CNN’s John Berman

June 1, 2018 by Shauna Levy

PHOTO BY CATHY PINSKY

The American media has found itself in the intriguing position of not only reporting the news, but making news themselves. Unofficially known as the fourth branch of government, their role of adding another layer to the system of checks and balances, holding the powers that be accountable and protecting free speech is more crucial than ever. At the center of it all, Armonk’s own, CNN “New Day” co-anchor John Berman gives a compelling snapshot of what it’s like living in the spotlight of the news camera.

Berman and his wife relocated from New York City to Armonk in the fall of 2011 as their identical twin boys, now fifth graders, prepared to enter kindergarten. He recalls the process, “We ended up in Armonk by chance. I’m from outside Boston and my wife’s from Vermont, so Westchester was in the right direction. Armonk was what we could afford, has great schools and is reminiscent of the small, woodsy towns we grew up in.” Berman has embraced the juxtaposition of city and country living as the assistant coach of his boys’ baseball team and an explorer of the local parks, even becoming an avid hawk watcher at the Audubon Greenwich.

A Protégé of Peter Jennings

Berman began his career in 1995 at ABC, eventually landing the head writer role for “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.” Describing Peter as a mentor, he says, “Peter was the most inquisitive person I ever met. He was inherently skeptical and had the best follow-up question in journalism, which was ‘really?’” The experience prepared Berman for his current role as anchor, where he must be prepared to cover the unpredictable, breaking news CNN is characterized for. He explains, “I don’t think I realized until I became an anchor myself, five years ago, just how much I witnessed, observed and learned at World News.”

The self-described “political junkie” is enjoying covering the current political environment, saying, “There’s really one story. It’s the White House and everything associated with it whether it’s the investigations, booming economy or the changing role of the U.S. in the world.”

Discussing today’s reporters and some of their seemingly polarizing political stances, Berman says, “I think there’s an impression that the anchors of the past generation were more detached from the stories, but I don’t know that that’s true. If you look at Walter Cronkite and his coverage of Vietnam, he was very passionate. He tested the notions on Vietnam in the same way that the media is now testing some of the assertions coming out of the White House. And, I don’t think there’s a reporter today who badgers a White House the way Sam Donaldson did. So, I think there aren’t as many differences as one may think. Perfect impartiality is impossible. What you need to be is fair. But truth is truth and fact is fact.”

Berman spoke to aspiring journalism students at Byram Hills High School last year.

Responding to ‘Fake News’

That’s not to say that the media is immune to operating under today’s microscope as Berman explains, “The true difference is that the spotlight is on us more than it’s ever been. It makes what we do even more important, which is to always ask questions and to test power. It motivates us to keep getting better and working harder. And to not back off–at all.”

In response to the current administration’s coinage of the term “fake news” and it being directed, in many cases, at CNN, Berman responds, “I think hurling the words ‘fake news’ is unfortunate and damaging. There’s nothing wrong with criticizing stories or even a news organization that you don’t like, but when you start calling a profession fake, when you start calling something that is protected in the Constitution fake, then you’re playing a very dangerous game and you have to ask why. What do the people making those charges get out of discrediting journalists? Why is it to their advantage? Why are they afraid? The media is not infallible. There are things we get wrong, but we’ll admit it. We issue corrections. In similar circumstances, I’m not sure that some of our leaders do that when it’s been proven that things they’ve said are false.”

One topic the Boston native refuses to remain impartial to, however, is sports, unabashedly saying, “It’s been easy to raise Boston fans in New York because we’ve been winning a lot.” Berman recounts a tale from 1995, when he was thrown out of Yankee Stadium for defending the rights of a Red Sox player who was “brutally attacked” by the Yankee pitcher. His assertion was met with shouting from the crowd and he was ultimately removed from the game.

While initially “mortified,” he soon realized it made for a good story and wears the experience as a badge of honor. This incident extends to all aspects of his life as he continues to remain steadfast in his commitment to report on the story and ask the questions. Peter Jennings shared an adage that Berman returns to regularly, “If your mother says she loves you, test it. Don’t trust it unless you have a second source.” And, he does that every single day, whether it’s at the Audubon, Yankee Stadium or anchoring the news desk at CNN’s “New Day.”

 

Filed Under: Armonk Cover Stories Tagged With: Armonk, CNN, Fake News, John Berman, news, report

The Fourth Estate: Covering the Trump Administration

March 6, 2017 by Inside Press

By Janie Rosman   Photos by Arjun Nadkarni

Left of Main Street Panel (L-R): Kate Stone Lombardi, Helen Jonsen, Peter Katz and Kristen Prata Browde. Moderating, Grace Bennett

Donald Trump’s administration has become expert at diverting negative attention from itself, requiring journalists to be extra vigilant when covering the 45th president.

News professionals offered suggestions about “Separating Fact From Fiction: The Role of the Media in Trump’s America” during a panel discussion hosted by the activist Chappaqua group Left of Main Street (LOMS) Friday night.

Moderated by Inside Press Inc. Publisher and Editor Grace Bennett, the lively and often chilling discussion among panelists—attorney Kristen Prata Browde, a veteran news reporter and anchor; Helen Jonsen, whose broadcast and digital credits include Forbes, WPIX, Fox5, NBC, Working Mother, FIOS1 and international outlets; Westchester County Business Journal editor Peter Katz and Kate Stone Lombardi, who has been a reporter for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, TIME, Readers Digest and other national publications—reinforced that media must double-down on its efforts to cover the 45th president.

Left of Main Street (LOMS) founders and committee members joining the panelists at the conclusion of the Town Hall forum in Chappaqua. (R-L): Committee members Jennifer Sugar Frawley, Beth Hahn and LOMS founders Cynthia Metcalf and Ann Styles Brochstein. LOMS which originated as a Chappaqua-based group advocating for Hillary Clinton, is now “an activist group advocating for progressive ideas, candidates & legislation,” Brochstein explained to the audience gathered.  “After the election we cried for a couple of days and then dusted ourselves off & decided to move forward,” she said.

 

 

Since the election, media has been accused of “not doing its job” and of helping Donald Trump get elected, Bennett said in opening the discussion. Trump’s attempts to silence the press by calling it dishonest, dismissing reports as “fake news” and silencing reporters compound the Fourth Estate’s responsibilities. The panelists jumped right in.

 “You have to keep in mind that Trump is an actor,” Katz said. “At the moment he happens to be acting the role of president, and he has surrounded himself with others who are very skilled at manipulation.”

 “We shouldn’t be loved by people we ask questions of,” Browde said. “That’s what a healthy press does. We’re channeling the questions of the public and holding them (politicians) accountable.”

News delivery changed: social media is available via cell phones, Twitter, and it influences how much the public sees, she said. A comment that once stayed on the cutting room floor is what Trump uses to his benefit.

“Most reporters aren’t intimidated by Trump when he comes after them,” Lombardi said. “I think they double down when he does. To me the danger is not that reporters get nervous; it’s that he keeps suggesting they are telling lies.”

 If reporters don’t feel the companies they work for are backing them, then they’ll back off when facing difficult situations rather than risk losing their jobs, Browde said.

 “Keep in mind that the media is big business,” Katz reminded. “Networks own stations, and stations remain on the air by virtue of the renewal of their FCC (Federal Communications Commission) licenses.”

Democratization of media means someone with a Twitter handle can be “the press,” Browde added. It also created niche media. “We’re narrow-casting options to narrower audiences. Those who watch a conservative news station and read a conservative newspaper get “something very different than you do.”

 Not only that, Jonsen added, people are surrounding themselves with others who agree with them and blocking social media news feeds of people who disagree with them.

This begs the question, What are reputable media sources? Katz suggested watching news stations whose views oppose their own will make the public better news consumers. In most newsrooms he worked in, reporters and editors left their personal viewpoints at the door, “and being impartial was sacrosanct.”

 “We (reporters) were trained not to have political beliefs and to get a balanced story,” Lombardi recalled. While reporters have their own beliefs and opinions, she said, “That’s human bias and is very different from editorial slant. It’s important to distinguish between a newspaper’s slant and the quality of its journalism.

 The difficulty with filling 24 hours a day with news is that there’s no news filter, no editor, no time to fact-check, which allows Trump to speak all things, said Katz.

 Browde agreed the media pandered to Trump the celebrity and didn’t take him seriously.

  “There’s no one around to counter alternative facts” of campaign coverage,’ she said. Because of finances, “we’ve lost a serious amount of the substance. The direct connection between the president’s thumbs and us is now a nanosecond. There is no filter, there is no gatekeeper, (and) it’s created a reactionary press.”

It also changes the public’s relationship to the president, who can Tweet something in 140 characters without anyone fact-checking. Katz agreed, adding this is the first White House to use social media as a main form of communication.

 “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd challenged Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway for citing “alternative facts” and refusing to answer his questions, and American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan stood her ground when Trump asked her to arrange a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus.

If Trump’s disrespect for journalists is bad, then his disregard for the judiciary is worse. “Unfortunately, I think he’s parroting Adolf Hitler,” Katz said. “There’s a real hazard.”

 “That is the point,” Jonsen said. “The first (act) for a dictator, a Nazi regime, is to shut down a free press. So the press needs to be that much more aggressive and call this administration out at every turn.”

 “I think the media is savvy in not following the latest Tweet and is keeping their eyes on the story,” Lombardi said. “You have to be careful as a news consumer about what you’re looking at. The way mainstream media defends itself is by continuing to put out a really good product.”

Janie Rosman has been published in print and online media, including the Journal News, Westchester Magazine, Today’s Caregiver, Inside Chappaqua Magazine, Rockland County Times, Rivertown Magazine and Westchester Parent. She chronicles the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project at Kaleidoscope Eyes (www.nykeypad.wordpress.com)

Filed Under: New Castle News Tagged With: Alternative Facts, Fake News, Fourth Estate, Left of Main Street, Media Challenges, press, Seperating Fact from Fiction, the fourth estate, Trump's America

Political Activist Group “Left of Main Street” to Host March 3 Forum on Role of the Media in Trump’s America

February 27, 2017 by The Inside Press

Chappaqua, New York–The Chappaqua-based group, Left of Main Street, will host a round table panel discussion “Separating Fact From Fiction in Trump’s America” on March 3, 2017 from 7-9 p.m. The discussion will be held in the Assembly Room at Chappaqua’s Town Hall located at: 200 S. Greeley Avenue, Chappaqua.

Participating in the discussion are journalists from television and print media, including: Kristen Prata Browde former anchor at CBS News, Helen Jonsen former TV journalist at Fox 5 and WPIX 11, Peter Katz former producer, editor and Washington Bureau Chief at ABC News, and Kate Stone Lombardi a regular contributor to the NY Times.  Chappaqua’s own, Grace Bennett, Publisher and Editor of The Inside Press, will moderate the discussion.

The influence of politically biased news on the outcome of the election will be examined as well as the role consumers play in the media. “A free and fact based press is essential for an informed and free society” said Cynthia Ware Metcalf, Co-Founder of Left of Main Street. “As consumers of news, it’s important to understand that we must hold the media accountable to report fact based news.”

Founded by Chappaqua residents Ann Styles Brochstein and Cynthia Ware Metcalf, Left of Main Street advocates for progressive issues and candidates nationwide. You can follow their activities on Facebook, Twitter @LeftOfMainSt, Instagram, and at www.LeftOfMainStreet.com.

 

Filed Under: Happenings Tagged With: Consumer of News, Fake News, Left of Main Street, Media, Media Forum, Media Panel, News Reader, The Inside Press, Trump, Trump's America

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • New Castle Fire District No. 1 Announces Bond Referendum to be Held April 25
  • Don’t Resist JUST DESSERTS at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center April 28-30
  • When There’s A Dog in Your Life
  • The View from Inside
  • Meet The Inside Press Contributing Team!
  • The Surprising Facts about Heart Attacks in Women

Please Visit

Chappaqua School Foundation
White Plains Hospital
William Raveis – Armonk
William Raveis – Chappaqua
Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival
Houlihan Lawrence – Chappaqua
Houlihan Lawrence – Armonk
Houlihan Lawrence – Briarcliff
Westchester Table Tennis
Compass: Miller-Goldenberg Team
Armonk Tennis Club
Raveis: Stacey Sporn
Compass: Natalia Wixom
Houlihan: Kile Boga-Ibric
Temple Beth El
Beecher Flooks Funeral Home
Boys & Girls Club
Briarcliff Manor Dentist – Allan Miller
King Street Creatives
Eye Designs of Armonk
Compass: Yona Stougo

Follow our Social Media

The Inside Press

Our Latest Issues

For a full reading of our current edition, or to obtain a copy or subscription, please contact us.

Inside Chappaqua Inside Armonk Inside Pleasantville

Join Our Mailing List


Search Inside Press

Links

  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Digital Subscription
  • Print Subscription

Footer

Support The Inside Press

Advertising

Print Subscription

Digital Subscription

Categories

Archives

Subscribe

Did you know you can subscribe anytime to our print editions?

Voluntary subscriptions are most welcome, if you've moved outside the area, or a subscription is a great present idea for an elderly parent, for a neighbor who is moving or for your graduating high school student or any college student who may enjoy keeping up with hometown stories.

Subscribe Today

Copyright © 2023 The Inside Press, Inc. · Log in