On the Quest for fairness, honesty and accuracy (19/11/2005)

On the Quest for fairness, honesty and accuracy

By Bonnie James A GOVERNMENT is shooting itself in the foot when it tries to cover up facts, as it won’t be able to keep the lid on truth for very long, noted television journalist Richard Quest has said. “There are many governments that believe these days that they can keep the lid on. They may be able to do it for a while, but it won’t last very long,” he stated in an interview with Gulf Times. Quest, one of CNN’s most high profile news and business anchors and correspondents, on his first visit to Qatar, was the master of ceremonies at the ‘Reach Out To Asia’ fund-raising drive’s inaugural charity gala dinner on Wednesday night. “The US and British governments would have us believe one particular point of view on weapons of mass destruction. But the truth came out,” he recalled while substantiating his point. As another example, Quest, who began his career as a BBC news trainee in 1985, pointed out that the British government has hated at times the coverage of the BBC. Referring to the ‘battle’ the BBC had with the British government over the Hutton inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly, Quest observed that it doesn’t get much bloodier than that. “But the truth came out,” he maintained. The popular television personality urged the media in the region to find good stories and tell them honestly. “You have seen something that is interesting, somebody behaving badly, and you just tell the story. That is what people want,” he said. Quest stated he can say pretty much anything he likes on CNN as long as it is truthful, honest and fair, and the best stories he loves doing are that those concern Time Warner, which owns CNN. “When there is a bad story about Time Warner that is great fun, because you can put the boot in to your own company. “There is nothing they can do about it, because we have absolute journalistic separation between the company and the journalists,” he explained, while observing this may be a problem in this part of the world. Quest was of the view that television journalism is thriving in the Arab world. “There is opportunity, there is competition, and Al Jazeera and all these Arabic networks have gone a long way towards developing their own style of journalism.” Anybody can say the things that please the bosses or the governments. “But, the achievement is to report something that is fair, honest and accurate. And if it upsets somebody, so be it,” he said. Asked about the accusation that CNN is a pro-American channel, Quest rejected it totally and declared that ‘those who are saying so don’t like what they hear us saying, and because we have not put their point of view alone’. “In the US, we were criticised for not being American enough, and in the Arab world we are criticised for being too American. And what both the people are really saying is we were not on their side and went down the middle,” he remarked. Quest pointed out that there is a difference between being biased and being ‘americentric’ or as the BBC would be, ‘Britcentric.’ A US network with its headquarters in Atlanta, CNN has excellent access to the US government officials. “It is natural that we will use our strength there to report what is happening in the US. The BBC does the same thing with the British government,” he said. Quest recalled that CNN was excoriated in the US because of its coverage of the Monica Levinsky issue. “The US government constantly berates us for not being American enough. In the Iraq war we were being criticised because we were too even handed. People who accuse us usually want us to be on their side only,” he maintained. Quest, who joined CNN in 2001, wondered his network should be biased. “What is in it for us? We are a world-wide, world-class network. What is the point of upsetting our viewers in different parts of the world? It doesn’t make sense.” Though there are new networks to share CNN’s ‘cake’, Quest says ‘the cake has grown’, there are more viewers and everybody is getting more viewers. He has no doubt that the same phenomena will happen with Al Jazeera International when it is launched. It will increase the number of viewers, if history is any guide. “And we have always noticed that when big stories happen, we see people coming back to us again and again and again,” he said. Quest claimed that CNN is still the number one, among a total of 65, 24-hour networks around the world. “We were the first and we will be the first. We will compete for every viewer, in every market, in every country, every hour.” Asked if there were any stories he would love to do, Quest said he has always wanted to do the Rio Carnival and the Paris-Dakar motor rally, stories that may seem odd. “I am also desperate to be on the first flight of the (Airbus) A-380 when it first carries passengers,” said Quest, who reported live on the launch of the super jumbo from Toulouse in France earlier this year. The popular TV personality is doing two features on Qatar for CNN. One is on the Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence and the 15th Asian Games, and the other on the changing role of women, focusing on how women are now playing a larger role in the business world. “It is very important that they will not be adverts for Qatar. I am not here to do the work of the Qatari Tourism Authority, but to do a solid piece of journalism that looks at these two events,” he added.