Television: Fighting Film Fakery

The cardinal sin of any news correspondent is misrepresentation, and it applies equally to print and electronic journalists. Television newsmen have been understandably touchy about any hint of film fakery ever since CBS had to admit in hearings before the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee last June that one sequence in a controversial documentary, The Selling of the Pentagon, had been used out of context. CBS declined to supply its film files to the committee, claiming that unused "outtakes" could be kept as confidential as a reporter's notes under the First Amendment...