The Young Members Committee of the National Press Club hosted a panel discussion the other week on "Getting and Keeping Your Dream Job." Seth Gitell, national editor of the Forward, wandered in and called up THE SCRAPBOOK to relate the experience. The marquee speaker, it turns out, was none other than April Oliver, the TV producer fired by CNN earlier this year for the "Tailwind" report -- aired on June 7 and retracted on July 2 -- which claimed falsely that U.S. Army Special Forces employed nerve gas on a mission to eliminate defectors during the Vietnam War.
First to speak were a public-relations man, a magazine reporter, and a producer for a broadcast wire service. All told straightforward tales of professional advancement and offered their young listeners standard encouragement. Then Oliver -- who warned that she had to choose her words carefully because of pending litigation -- took the floor to read prepared remarks.
"I really did think I had a dream job in Washington," she said of her work at CNN. "I felt my job was one of the few places in journalism where we didn't feel ratings pressure." Once she started researching the Tailwind story, though, she encountered nothing but obstacles. Doors slammed in her face. "I was the wrong age. I was the wrong sex. I even received a death threat," she said. "It's an age-old tactic of warfare: Kill the messenger."
Yeah, right. It's an age-old tactic when reporters screw up a story: Blame anything and everything but their own poor judgment. And speaking of judgment, where was the press club's? After Oliver finished, the panel's moderator observed, "We can all face this situation at some time. To know the actual story" of Oliver's experience was helpful. Some aspects of the "actual story," however, were ruled out of bounds. The moderator cut off audience questions about the journalistic integrity of Oliver's treatment of Tailwind, saying, "Tonight, on the merits of the report, I'd really like it if you can keep it limited to your dream job," and adding, with surreal irrelevance, that Oliver "is a mother of a very young child right now." Now that's a real dream job.