ABC Producer Wonbo Woo talks Ethics

Wonbo Woo, a producer with ABC's World News with Charles Gibson, spoke in my Media Ethics class this morning. Woo is visiting the J-school as part of the Hearst Professional-in-Residence program.

"Good news is subjective," Woo said. He strives for balance, fairness and accuracy in his daily work. But, he said, it's difficult to know what makes for a balanced story.

He wondered, for example, if a soundbite from a pro-choice advocate should be included in a story about a mother and daughter who spoke out against abortion for religious reasons. From his perspective, the focus of the piece would switch from the lives of these two women to the abortion debate if he included the opposing viewpoint.

When he has just 2 minutes to tell the story, he must be extremely selective about what makes it into the final piece. Pitting someone shouting "Yea" against someone shouting "Nay" may be an effective way of catching the audience's attention, but Woo said it isn't an appropriate way to accomplish his goal.

"Part of my mandate is to help people understand each other better," he said. He especially enjoys working on tight focus pieces that are about characters. He said that they humanize people.

In a time when ratings are as important for news shows as they are for sitcoms, Woo said that some level of idealism is necessary in the business. He hopes that novice journalists hold on to that idealism so they can fight for the stories that may not increase ratings or please advertisers, but are important to tell.

One disturbing trend he's seen is entertainment that resembles news such as ABC's made-for-TV movie "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America" and the controversial docudrama "Path to 9/11". He worries that the average viewer doesn't make much distinction between news and entertainment.

This sounds oddly reminiscent of the Halloween 1938 "The War of the Worlds" broadcast.

--Felicia Russell