The Mrs. and I had the opportunity to attend a fascinating program on journalism featuring former Nashville Tennessean publisher John Seigenthaler and Chattanooga Times Free Press publisher Tom Griscom. Last night's discussion was part of a fundraising event for the East Tennessee Historical Society and we attended as the guests Factchecker and his lovely wife LB.

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Mr. Seigenthaler was previously an assistant to Robert F. Kennedy and worked on his presidential campaign. He is also the founder of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University and a founding editor of USA Today. Mr. Griscom was previously President Ronald Reagan's communications director and before that press secretary for Sen. Howard Baker.

Sen. Howard Baker introduced the two speakers, noting that he knew he had his Senate election won when the Tennessean endorsed him because it was their first ever endorsement of a Republican that he recalled.

Both Mr. Griscom and Mr. Seigenthaler talked about the past, present, and future of journalism and newspapers. Both seem to agree that print's days may be numbered and that the future of newspapers is online. Neither, though, has the magic formula for creating a successful online news operation.

Mr. Seigenthaler cited a statistic that 35% of adults get their news online, but that only 2% of seniors use online news sources and it's 45% among younger readers. He said the challenge is to create a website that is as magnetic, attractive, and compelling as blogs. He said that attracting journalists who can write for the new medium will also be a challenge, and that they have to be "complete journalists" who can do it all -- writing, reporting, photography, and video -- and wonders which journalism schools are turning them out.

Mr. Griscom said that his vision of the future newsroom is an editor and a core group of journalists and investigative reporters backed up by freelancers who supplement their income by doing other work. He noted the business benefits of reducing FTEs (full time equivalents) in terms of salaries and benefits. He acknowledged KNS editor Jack McElroy, who was in the audience, for leading the way on this approach.

Mr. Seigenthaler said we will likely see more consolidation, such as one Washington bureau or one pool of international reporters serving multiple outlets. Mr. Griscom noted the recent Tennessee newspaper content sharing agreement as an example of this. Mr. Seigenthaler also observed later in the conversation that most newspapers in trouble are in two-newspaper towns, and that newspapers in cities with only one newspaper are, in general, making money.

Regarding alternative, "new media" online news sources, both Mr. Griscom and Mr. Seigenthaler believe that credibility is what differentiates traditional news operations. They both emphasized that this must be a newspaper's value proposition as they make the transition to online.

This led to some lengthy discussion about the reliability of online news and information sources, particularly Wikipedia. Mr. Seigenthaler has some personal experience with this that eventually changed Wikipedia's policy. It began when a respected business colleague called him up and said "google your name, hit the Wikipedia link, and sue the bastards." (Google it for yourself, it's an interesting story.)

He also cited the example of comedian Sinbad, who is alive and well but has died or been killed at least twenty times on Wikipedia. What if, Mr. Seigenthaler asked, a reporter doing a story about Sinbad happened upon the Wikipedia page on the wrong day and didn't bother to check their facts?

Along those lines, Mr. Griscom said he is concerned about the attitude that "if it's published it's true." He said he has people who work for him whose "world is on their iPod" and when he asks how they researched the facts for a story they tell him "Google." His advice for journalism professors is to teach students how to write something that is believable because what the newspaper prints has to be credible. He said the rush to publish is a factor, and that you "ought to be first but you have to be right."

Regarding so-called "citizen journalism," Mr. Seigenthaler said that technology is making other people journalists and that journalism "can happen anywhere any time there is a citizen with their cellphone open" recording video. In this case, he said, there really isn't any question about credibility because what the subject said is recorded and generally undisputable. He wonders, though, if we are heading to a "totally open society with no privacy or boundaries" and whether this is a good thing.

This led to discussion about the First Amendment and whether the framers of the Constitution could have envisioned the complications introduced by modern technology. Mr. Seigenthaler said that all they were given to work from was the Gutenberg Press and that they "knew it could be dangerous but that government control of it would be more dangerous."

He expressed concern, however, about new laws (ed. note: Communications Decency Act Section 230) that protect online publishers from claims of libel and defamation for content published by a third party. He said that in print, the writer, the editor, and the publisher can be sued, but online only the writer is held responsible. His concerns no doubt arise from his own Wikipedia experience.

The question of reinstituting the Fairness Doctrine also came up. Going against the party line, Mr. Seigenthaler doesn't feel it's needed because "people know what's fair and what isn't." He said people have the final say because they can just turn it off or change the channel. He joked, however, that when Rush Limbaugh comes on his radio he changes the channel and gets G. Gordon Liddy.

He said that when he started the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt people were calling to ask what they were doing to get Rush Limbaugh off the radio. He suggested that these folks were perhaps missing the point of the First Amendment, and that going down that path would lead to calls for also getting Keith Olbermann off the air. At another point in the discussion, though, he noted that his son (former NBC anchor John Seigenthaler) had left the business because TV news was "moving more towards opinion and less toward news."

Towards the end of the discussion, Sen. Baker noted that "we can't do without news" and that it will change but he's not sure where it's going. He expressed concerns about network news being "dominated by the requirement to be outrageous," and wondered how news organizations stay in business being thoughtful and respectful and avoiding the extremes. Another questioner noted that the media seems to target two markets, "the gullible and the cynical."

Mr. Griscom said that the challenge is to build something online that is "worth paying for." It will have to have exclusivity and depth, it can't focus on "commodity stories," and the value proposition is credibility and trust. He believes it will have to be a subscriber model in some form, and that newspapers are watching what Rupert Murdoch is doing with the Wall Street Journal and micropayments. Mr. Griscom had noted earlier in the conversation that unique visitors to newspaper websites are thirty times the number of subscribers.

As an example of journalism's "Neanderthal attitude," Mr. Seigenthaler asked "why didn't we see craigslist?" It "should have been ours," he said, and wondered if the media has the judgment to successfully promote their online content.

The discussion was sprinkled with humorous anecdotes, for example Mr. Seigenthaler recalling how the Tennessean and the Nashville Banner "couldn't even agree on the time of day" when Daylight Savings Time was still controversial, or Mr. Griscom's tale about hiding in the bushes to intercept the Washington Post when he knew there was going to be an unflattering article about Sen. Baker. Sen. Baker joked that he always wondered why the paper had such unreliable home delivery.

It was a fascinating, informative, and entertaining evening of discussion, and there was a lot of living Tennessee history in the room at the East Tennessee Historical Society.

SEE ALSO:

• Jack Lail photo and video

• Cynthia Moxley blogs (!) highlights including list of notables in attendance.