Are Media Convicting Bryant Without Trial?
HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: Slam dunking Kobe. Are the media convicting basketball star Kobe Bryant without a trial? Should journalists be more restrained about an unproven allegation of sexual assault? And why are so many pundits saying that Bryant's image will be tarnished even if the charges are bogus? And "SAVAGE NATION." MSNBC fires Michael Savage for offensive anti-gay comments, but why did the network hire the fire-breathing talk show host in the first place? And should he stay on the radio? Welcome to RELIABLE SOURCES, where we turn a critical lens on the media. I'm Howard Kurtz. A pro-athlete getting into trouble. That's nothing new, but what if there's an investigation and no charges at least not yet? The media put on a full-court press this week when basketball star Kobe Bryant was arrested in connection with an alleged, key word alleged, sexual assault of an unnamed 19-year-old. Prosecutors in Eagle County, Colorado, said they were still weighing the evidence.</s>MARK HURLBERT, PROSECUTOR: Will Kobe Bryant be charged with sexual assault? Possible he'll be charged with sexual assault, possible he won't be charged with anything. Possible he'll be charged with something different. Right now, I need to review the reports and look at the evidence.</s>KURTZ: The 24-year-old Los Angeles Lakers star has gotten along well with the press ever since becoming one of the first high school players to turn pro back in 1996. He has an unblemished reputation to go with his big endorsement contracts for such as Nike and Sprite. But that hasn't stopped sports agents, advertising folks, and other talking heads from debating the damage to Bryant's career or an avalanche of negative headlines or news stories like this one in "The New York Post" saying the accuser tried to land a spot on "American Idol." So how should the media treat a superstar under a shadow? Well, joining us now in Detroit, columnist Mitch Albom of "The Detroit Free Press," who also hosts the nationally syndicated radio show and is the author of the best selling "Tuesdays with Morrie." In Denver, Mike Littwin, a columnist for "The Rocky Mountain News." And in New York, ESPN magazine's senior deputy editor, Roxanne Jones. Mitch Albom, are the media just going overboard here, practically indicting Kobe Bryant on the basis of very few facts?</s>MITCH ALBOM, DETROIT FREE PRESS: I actually don't think so, Howard. I think they've done pretty much what you would do in a situation like this. I'd answer the question of, well you know, have they misbehaved with another question, what do you expect them to do? You can't ignore a story like this. He was arrested. He did show up and talk to the police. There was some kind of charge made. So you have to report that.</s>KURTZ: Of course.</s>ALBOM: I think most of the indicting, if there is any, is on talk shows and pundits and things like that, but the straight reporting I think so far has been pretty fair.</s>KURTZ: Mike Littwin, not one person blathering on these talk show, TV, radio, you name it, knows whether these charges at this point are real or bogus. Even the accused name hasn't been published or aired. So does this give you any pause?</s>MIKE LITTWIN, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS: I mean forget innocent until proven guilty. How about at least innocent until charged? So I think there is a different standard when someone hasn't even been charged yet. And you know, in the first day, one day you start worrying about how an alleged sexual assault will affect somebody's shoe sales. I think you have a little bit of something to worry about.</s>KURTZ: Right, that took 30 seconds for that question to be asked. Roxanne Jones, what kind of grade would you give the media's coverage of Kobe?</s>ROXANNE JONES, ESPN MAGAZINE: Well, I understand Mitch's point, but I have to say I would agree with Mike that in this case in particular, everyone wants the story. We all want to know happened, but we have to keep in mind that he has not even been charged. And so with that in mind, I think everyone lumps the media together. So whether it's pundits or talk shows, radio.com, whatever it is as a whole I think it looks like we've really jumped on this story. And some of us have been irresponsible. And so I think we have really rushed to judgment in some cases. There has been some good coverage in newspapers and on TV, but some of it has been blown out of proportion at this point in the case.</s>ALBOM: A lot of it, I think, Howard has to do with the very nature of the story which is a he said, she said type of thing right from the bat. You are obligated to a certain degree as a journalist to try to keep someone's identity private in a case like this because it's of a sexual nature. The girl has gone away. You're talking about people's reputations. You're talking about a married man who just had a baby. So everybody is tiptoeing around on one hand. On the other hand, this is a superstar who if he says I'm not getting enough minutes, it's a national story, too.</s>KURTZ: Mike Littwin, I've heard more than one pundit say that this is all going to tarnish Kobe Bryant's squeaky clean reputation regardless of how the case comes out. And I'm sitting here thinking how can that be? If it turns out that the accusations have no merit, why should there be any stain other than the fact that he's gone through the media meat grinder?</s>LITTWIN: Can I give you a two-word answer, Richard Jewell. Once your name's there, your name is there. You can't put it back into the bottle.</s>JONES: Right, but Richard Jewell...</s>LITTWIN: And I think that's, you know, one of the clear lessons here. The other one is in 24/7 news, cable, cable news, you've got the story constantly. It doesn't go away for a minute. No, ask Scott Peterson. Well let me give you two other names then. I'll throw in this to Roxanne. Michael Irvin and Eric Williams, Dallas Cowboys members who were falsely accused of rape back in 1996.</s>JONES: Right, at the White House. Yes.</s>KURTZ: And in fact the accuser there ended up getting charged for making up a false story. Doesn't the press learn anything from these episodes?</s>JONES: Well, I'll give you another name. Allen Iverson. I mean, that was a more recent story. All of the counts eventually were dropped and, you know, in a sense...</s>KURTZ: This is a case in which he was accused of having taken a gun to a cousin's house...</s>JONES: Fourteen felony counts.</s>KURTZ: ...while looking for his wife.</s>JONES: Right.</s>KURTZ: And the press went wild over that, as well.</s>JONES: Right. And so, you know, we have these stories. It's not just in sports. It's in politics and in other cases. We have stories where we need -- we want to tell the story. We all try to be accurate when we're telling the story. But I think in our impatience to tell the story without all of the facts present, we get into, you know, hypothesizing and what happened. And we imagine things happened. And then we just go crazy with it. Once somebody throws something out there, as in we know pretty much -- we could identify this woman actually I think, the local press could. We already know she sang in the choir, she's a cheerleader. We've spoken to her neighbor. We know she's blonde. And so any...</s>KURTZ: Don't we know too much about her already?</s>JONES: We know -- I say, we could identify her.</s>KURTZ: I mean, is that fair?</s>JONES: We know where she works. The people at the hotel know who she is. And so -- and we really, if we say that we protect victims, if she -- if the alleged victims in this case -- there isn't even a case, there aren't any charges yet.</s>ALBOM: We also don't even know what kind of victim we're talking about here.</s>JONES: Exactly.</s>ALBOM: Under that umbrella in Colorado as I understand it, this could be anything from a mild grope to almost rape.</s>JONES: Yes.</s>ALBOM: So that's a pretty broad spectrum.</s>JONES: Absolutely.</s>KURTZ: In fact, we don't even know the details of what he is supposed to have done.</s>JONES: Absolutely. And that's where I object, Howard to some of the -- when people start going to someone's next-door neighbor, as I saw one story and say, oh, you know, I knew that girl and she would never make up a story like that. Well first of all, I think all neighbors should be eliminated from news all the time, because it's always the neighbor who goes he was such a quiet guy, and then they blow up something. But then you're at a point where you're already into deep speculation. But the problem you have when we're talking about this issue here is you can see as we're talking, there's several different categories of press you're talking about.</s>JONES: Right.</s>ALBOM: You're talking about people who are straight reporters for newspapers. I think they have done a pretty decent job of reporting the facts of this case. But if you're going to talk about every talk show or everybody who writes a story that speculates on his endorsement deal possibilities, good or bad by the way, because some have postulated that this might actually help sell sneakers in the weird world of sneakers.</s>JONES: That was ludicrous. That was ludicrous.</s>ALBOM: Now I think you're moving into an area that doesn't belong.</s>KURTZ: Let me jump in there, Mike Littwin. What was the media circus like at the scene in Colorado? And what did you make of the local paper, "The Vail Daily" holding off after getting wind of these allegations because he hadn't been charged and thereby giving up the scoop?</s>LITTWIN: A very bizarre media story. I mean, I went there I think just so I can -- to stay in a $460 hotel room.</s>KURTZ: Good reason, I like that.</s>LITTWIN: Yes. So but "The Vail Daily" knew of the story immediately, apparently and then indicted to wait. It said in the newspaper, in -- within the news story, it said that it decided to wait until the charges were official. And that could be a very, you know, ethical principled stand. Or it could simply be in Vail, you know, kind of hush-hush for the celebrity.</s>KURTZ: Right.</s>LITTWIN: I'm guessing it could be hush-hush for the celebrity, but that was the end of the hush-hush. From now there's no hush- hushing.</s>KURTZ: Right.</s>LITTWIN: Instead, you get story on espn.com that is debating whether Kobe Bryant now has street cred by being an alleged rapist.</s>JONES: Let me correct that. Let me correct that since I work for ESPN. That was a story by Darryn Rovel. It was not debating whether he had street cred. The story was whether his value will go down. And some of the sources in that story alleged that, forget about his value going down, this in fact might help it go up. We always knocked him for not being cool enough or hip enough. So it was not the reporter who put this debate out there.</s>ALBOM: But see, the very nature of that story -- the very nature of that story is wrong.</s>JONES: Right.</s>ALBOM: Because it's postulating on something that hasn't even happened yet. How can you debate whether his street cred will go up or down when you don't know if he's going to be charged? So I object to the assignment of that story.</s>JONES: Look...</s>LITTWIN: Absolutely.</s>ALBOM: The speculation of that story or the writing of that story.</s>JONES: Well actually, how can you object to the assignment of the story if people in marketing, the people who spend money on this kid, who promote advertisements, who sell sneakers are already shaking in their boots? That was the basis of this story. The discussion was already happening.</s>KURTZ: All right, let me elbow my way in here.</s>ALBOM: Shaking in his boots does not constitute a story. People shake in their boots every day in this country over...</s>JONES: The discussion...</s>ALBOM: ...something or another.</s>JONES: ...was already happening.</s>ALBOM: You don't write a story about it just because somebody's shaking in their boots.</s>JONES: This is a financial story. It's a business story. And the markets go up and down. And Darryn wrote this story. And I credit him for writing the story.</s>ALBOM: You'll have to rewrite that story a week later. You'll rewrite it a month later. You'll rewrite it two months later when the facts change. The story can be written, but it's the timing that you choose to write it. You don't write it in the first two days after something like this.</s>JONES: I think you write it when people are talking about it.</s>KURTZ: Hold on. Blowing the whistle here. Mike Littwin, one last question to you.</s>KURTZ: Does the press build up these athletes who we have this faux intimacy with to a ridiculous degree and then kind of delight in tearing them down when they either make a mistake or are accused of doing something wrong?</s>LITTWIN: I don't see you've seen the sporting press particularly going after Kobe Bryant. In fact, if anything, he might be getting more of the benefit of the doubt than you could hope for. And I think that may continue.</s>KURTZ: Because reporters like him?</s>LITTWIN: If it goes to a charge, I think you'll see many, many defenders of Kobe Bryant who don't know any of the details of what may or may not have happened.</s>KURTZ: All right, we'll have to continue this off the air. Mike Littwin, Mitch Albom, Roxanne Jones, thanks very much for joining us.</s>JONES: Thank you.</s>KURTZ: When we come back, Michael Savage fired by MSNBC. Should the shock jock have lost his weekly cable show? And what were MSNBC executives thinking when they hired him in the first place? Stay with us.