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USA Edition | Today Is Thursday, September 9, 2010 |
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On behalf of all who do the people’s business by demanding to know what’s being done by those who seek to govern a free nation, Newsroom Magazine honors CBS Senior White House Correspondent Bill Plante.
Bill Plante
America’s White House Correspondent
I have no vested interest in being ‘liked’ by the people in the White House. That would, admittedly, be different if CBS weren’t the so-called mainstream media. If we were one of the smaller outfits that cover this place, we’d have to maintain relatively good relations to get anything. But they’re going to deal with us – whether it’s me or a colleague – in any case.
Bill Plante, Senior White House Correspondent
CBS News Washington
Washington
“From the back streets of Chicago to the jungles of Vietnam and the pressure pit of the White House; he has been and remains a beacon of quality journalism.”
Dan Rather
Former Managing Editor
The CBS Evening News
Bill Plante is among the very best broadcast journalists in our nation. Not just today, but of all time.
He has, in his nearly five decades in network news, helped to define his profession, hold accountable the powerful, and fulfill the journalist’s constitutional role in preserving the American democracy.
If Plante’s roots are in the Golden era of television news, his journalistic chops are firmly rooted in now. He has been tested by the best — most recently Ari Fleischer, Scott McClellan, Tony Snow, Dana Perino and Robert Gibbs. No matter who’s in power, Bill Plante is about getting to the truth others seek to obscure, spin, or desperately conceal.
His mantra goes largely unstated, but were it put into words it would have the sound of “Skip the bullshit and tell me what’s really going on.”
No wonder those who have worked with Bill Plante are said to regard him as part steel, part inquisitor, tightly focused, and immensely competitive. Those who know him best, we are told, trust him the most.
He has more than a few imperfections — at least to the degree he does not suffer fools — even on his best days. He is skeptical of everything he is told, scarred by his ongoing battles to find truth where there is little, and oblivious to all that is said and done to misdirect his attention. On the day Karl Rove left the White House, even as Rove was being lauded by President George Bush, Bill Plante shouted out what he thought to be a more prescient question: “If he’s so smart, how come you lost Congress?”
Some may have thought his question impertinent, or self-serving, or evidence of an immense ego when none are true. Being skeptical of what is uttered by the rich and powerful, and weary of the theater of the absurd staged by politicians, is the essence of probative journalism. In our freedom rooted democracy journalists are obligated to speak truth to power on behalf of free citizens. On this Bill Plante does not yield.
He accepts the challenge — that our honorable profession alone is entrusted to seek light in the darkness of ignorance, to seek truth in the face of injustice, and to remind the elected it is the people’s power they wield, not theirs.
When later asked if he wasn’t being rude in the presence of power, Plante replied,
Here’s the point — it’s important that we ask questions even if some people don’t believe that they’re appropriate. They don’t have to answer them . . . but we have to ask them. Did I have to ask that question? That’s a point of legitimate argument.
Few in his profession are as generous, or willing to offer a helping hand to those aspiring to become prudent, credible, relevant and responsible journalists. Bill Plante pays forward to his profession by mentoring those who follow in his footsteps — although he is wizened enough to know that few might be motivated to attain his level of engagement, or determination to get to the truth of matters large and small.
Mastering His Craft
“I’m absolutely and totally in favor of openness, even if it makes us look bad.
The public is entitled to see what we see – and, increasingly, they do because of live coverage.
If that means they see me or hear me asking what they think is an impertinent question, that’s fine.
I’ve got no problem with it.”
Bill Plante
August 16, 2007
Bill Plante was raised in rough and tumble Chicago where he earned his bachelor’s degree in humanities at Loyola University. Then he left for New York where he studied political science at Columbia University. Then came the call from CBS.
By the time Plante hired in later that year, Walter Cronkite was in his second year as managing editor of the CBS Evening News. CBS may have thought itself the citadel of network news that summer, but NBC still led in the evening news ratings with a highly competitive hard-news broadcast fronted by David Brinkley in Washington and Chet Huntley in New York.
Even as Plante settled in at CBS, his country was embroiled in an unpopular war that would eventually consume Lyndon Johnson’s presidency.
Plante served four tours of duty in Vietnam. Some of what he witnessed during those years was the gaping disconnect between what those in power said and what was really happening. Many of his CBS colleagues also covered that war. Some, including Charles Kuralt and Morley Safer enjoyed long careers at CBS.
By the time Plante arrived, CBS News had a new vision about its mission and its role. The keeper of the flame for the next ten years was Richard S. Salant — a lawyer hell bent on making of himself a principled, disciplined newsman.
Talent abounded at CBS News in those days. Even a short list of Plante’s contemporaries would include Bill Leonard, Roger Mudd, Dan Rather, Daniel Schorr, Morton Dean, Howard K. Smith, Bernard Kalb, Harry Reasoner, Tom Fenton, Ike Pappas, Barry Serafin, Eric Severeid, Ed Bradley and Richard Threlkeld.
Standing For Something Beyond Self Interest
His colleagues say Bill Plante is driven by a personal commitment to the constitutional role his profession serves in protecting his nation from those temporarily in power. He carries that mantle well.
When Public Eye writer Matthew Felling wondered what role journalists played at the White House and what sort of questions were appropriate, Plante replied,
Our asking questions should not be dependent on what the White House thinks the mood or the tone of an event should be. And the fact that they say ‘no questions’ or don’t allow time for questions really has nothing to do with it. They don’t have to answer, but I think we need to preserve and aggressively push our right to ask.
Journalists Who Matter Curry Not Favor
Journalists, Bill Plante wants us to know, work for freedom and against ignorance. Our profession, his career reveals, is neither to officiate or anoint, nor to curry favor among the powerful, but to reveal what is real, truthful, probative, relevant — and what isn’t.
For some such notions are seen as old fashioned, but Plante pays critics of responsible journalism no heed — for he has always seen the press as advocates for the people, persistent watchdogs, and the only constitutional check on those who seek to govern. On this he has said,
The whole idea of an independent press as guaranteed by the First Amendment is that it would serve as a watchdog and check on the power of government.
When Bill Plante Speaks, America Listens
Few broadcast journalists have had a more varied career within the industry than Emmy award winner Bill Plante. From covering the State Department to Presidential campaigns, from Senior White House Correspondent to anchor for the CBS Sunday Night News, from the Civil Rights movement to Vietnam, Plante has played an important role in reporting the major stories of the last four decades.
Plante’s international reporting has been recognized by the Overseas Press Club Award for his work covering the India-Pakistan War. But when it comes to his journalist skills and professional standards, his former colleague Dan Rather says of Plante,
No reporter I know is more deserving of a journalistic excellence award than Bill Plante.
Being a network television reporter, and White House correspondent is a demanding job — part skeptical journalist and part spokesperson. Bill Plante has endured for nearly five decades at CBS News because he is a master at both news development and news reporting — both radio and television.
Emmy Awards are about television values not journalistic excellence. Bill Plante is living proof that being a television personality and journalist are not inherently at conflict.
Plante won Emmy’s for his coverage of the death of Princess Diana as well as Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election campaign — a story of presidential power and politics. Plante earned an Emmy for investigative reporting in 1972.
Eyewitness To History
When asked of Plante’s legacy to his nation and his profession, former colleague Dan Rather said,
He is a sterling example of what an American journalist should stand for and be – determindly independent, tough when necessary, accurate, fair and always a gentleman. And he has been for a long while.