Guide Under Fire

CBS attacks an attacker

TV Guide, the nation's largest weekly (circ. 17.5 million), has long been known as something of a cheerleader for the industry it covers. For the past few years, however, TV Guide's editors have been trying to introduce a brand of muckraking to their pages. Last May the magazine exposed what CBS News later acknowledged were journalistic violations in a network documentary, aired in January 1982, that assailed the Viet Nam War conduct of General William Westmoreland. Last week, however, TV Guide found itself fending off charges of inaccuracy and unfairness, made by CBS, among others, against an article in its Jan. 22 issue.

In a survey titled "Rating TV's Investigative Reporters," Staff Writer Mark Ribowsky, 32, asserted that 60 Minutes co-workers of CBS News Correspondent Ed Bradley regard him as "shallow" and "impossible"; Ribowsky also accused Bradley of "logging few hours on location" and "demanding a writer's credit for superficial script editing." Bradley denied the charges, and specifically claimed that he spent nearly half of last year out of New York City reporting stories. Said Bradley to TIME: "It was a bunch of lies." The purported criticisms from colleagues, all made in unattributed quotes, were contradicted in separate letters to TV Guide by: Executive Producer Don Hewitt and Correspondents Harry Reasoner, Morley Safer and Mike Wallace; David Burke, a former 60 Minutes producer now working for rival NBC; and 16 staffers at 60 Minutes, who said that Ribowsky did not interview any of them.

CBS was not alone in complaining. ABC Senior Producer Richard Kaplan contended that Ribowsky had misattributed to Kaplan some disparaging remarks about ABC Correspondent Bettina Gregory; TV Guide admitted, in a footnote to Kaplan's letter published two issues later, that he was right. Nonetheless, insists TV Guide National Editor David Sendler, "We stand by our story." The magazine did not, however, stand by Ribowsky; he was dismissed. Explained Sendler: "There were internal problems with his journalism." Ribowsky blames TV Guide researchers for the misattribution, and insists that the reporting about Bradley was accurate. Says Ribowsky: "They hired me to put a tougher edge on their stories, and when I did it they cut the limb off." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.