`CUT-AND-PASTE' JOURNALISM LEADS TO ANOTHER GAFFE

The year of the journalistic mea culpa hit yet another low Sunday
night when Don Hewitt, the esteemed executive producer of 60 Minutes,
went on air to apologize for a phony report.

In 30 years, it was the first time Hewitt, the man who invented the TV
news-magazine genre, appeared in such a role on screen.

And, while the transgression for which he apologized is worrisome
enough, even more troubling is what it says about the effect of
competitive pressure on television journalism in this era of
wall-to-wall news-magazines.

The false report, which aired June 1, 1997, was about a Colombian drug
operation and included the claim that the Cali cartel had opened a new
smuggling route through London. Dramatic footage showed one person
identified as a courier swallowing what was said to be 60 fingers of
latex gloves filled with pure heroin. Viewers then saw film of the
courier on a plane and were told that the courier slipped through
British customs with the load of heroin.

"Was all that on the level?" Hewitt asked rhetorically Sunday night in
his apology.

No, it was all faked, he told viewers. The person identified as the
courier, as well as two other persons identified as a "loader" and a
"drug kingpin," were, in fact, actors hired to play those roles. The
"secret location" at which an interview with the kingpin was said to
have taken place was actually the hotel room of a documentary filmmaker.

The filmmaker is key, because he does not work for 60 Minutes, and he
was the one Hewitt was laying the blame on Sunday night.

The footage in the 60 Minutes report came from a British documentary
titled The Connection, that was made by Marc de Beaufort for Britain's
Carlton Communications, a production company, to air on the ITV
network. The phony pictures and reporting for which 60 Minutes
apologized came from de Beaufort's film.

What 60 Minutes did in June of 1997 was air portions of the film with
an introduction and narration by correspondent Steve Kroft, along with
interviews of de Beaufort and a Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

CBS News got the footage from The Connection free from HBO, which
bought American rights to the documentary and aired it several times
on its Cinemax premium cable channel.

What HBO got out of the deal was a chance to promote the film with a
60 Minutes audience of 20 million viewers: free advertising for Cinemax.

Viewers still might not know of the fraud if not for the British
newspaper, The Guardian, which challenged the film's authenticity in
May.

As Hewitt told viewers Sunday night, "Alerted by a member of the
production staff of the documentary, The Guardian called it a fake.
And, after a lengthy investigation, Britain's Carlton TV said
substantially the same thing. The bottom line: We, you and television
viewers in 14 other countries were taken in. To make amends we felt
obligated to lay it all out in detail and ask you to please accept our
apology."

Why was 60 Minutes using the freebie from HBO in the first place? One
reason was pressure from CBS brass in the wake of increased
competition from other networks' newsmagazines to produce more
original pieces during the summer months instead of going to reruns.

NBC's Dateline, which was enjoying great ratings gains and expanding
into extra nights, does original stories year round by and large.

The other pressure from CBS brass -- even though 60 Minutes is the
greatest prime-time money-maker in the history of network television

- -- is to contribute even more in the way of profits.

The Connection was free. Just slap on an introduction by Kroft,
interview a DEA agent and de Beaufort, and you've got a red-hot segment.

Using a staff producer to fully check out the film would not be nearly
as on the-air quick or cost-effective.

As the mad cloning of newsmagazines continues, with 60 Minutes II next
month joining five weekly versions of NBC's Dateline and three of
ABC's 20/20, viewers are going to see more cut-and-paste journalism.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady