Associate Professor Mike McDevitt, left, talks with Tom Costello, right, and Advisory Board member John Winsor after the lecture. (Photo by Matt Nager)

News audiences are "smarter, more perceptive and engaged than ever before," NBC News correspondent Tom Costello ('87) said in the inaugural John E. Holden Journalism Lecture at CU in February.

Because information is free, in large supply and available in Niwot at the same moment it's available in Rockefeller Center, reporters in mainstream media outlets are under a relentless microscope, Costello said.

"The world is now watching and dissecting our every word to a far greater extent than ever before," he said.

"Which all means we have got to play it straight. And if we do, the audience will follow, knowing we will not shade the truth or add a right turn or left turn to the piece."

Costello's speech was funded by John E. "Jack" Holden ('48) and his wife, Marguerite "Peggy" Holden, a CU School of Pharmacy alumna.

"More than ever before, there is no room for partisanship, bias or laziness on our side of the business," Costello said. As highly opinionated people, journalists' "duty is to keep out opinion," he said. It is "your name, face, voice, bylines" that are on the line.

Because the media are so highly scrutinized, the audience pays attention to what is being presented to them, Costello said, adding that reporters' reputations as balanced news distributors are under constant analysis.

Jack Holden, left, Dean Paul Voakes, and Peggy Holden. The Holdens donated the funds to establish the lecture program. (Photo by Matt Nager)

The "audience is smarter and more engaged," he said. "The world is watching every word we say or print and dissecting every word we say or print."
The percentage of Americans watching the evening news has dropped from 69 percent in 1981 to about 38 percent today, Costello said. Nevertheless, 27 million people continue to watch the evening news, making it the most powerful television news available, he said.

"The name of the game is to stay alive and move forward," Costello said.

"As broadcasters our job is to broadcast," he said, adding that the role of a news director is to challenge every story. "It is probing. It is challenging. And I welcome it."

Costello, recently named NBC's national transportation reporter, spent seven years at CNBC as the network's senior correspondent. He gained national recognition as the network's NASDAQ correspondent covering the stock market's 1999-2000 rally and subsequent crash as well as the market's recovery after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He began his career as an intern at KUSA-Channel 9 in Denver and later returned as a reporter for the station.

Costello said CNBC has the "toughest rules" regarding fairness and accuracy. "Deadline pressures are intense," he said, adding that it is important to "get someone to challenge your beliefs." He said entire chat rooms were dedicated to picking apart every word he reported about an upgrade or downgrade of a stock.

CNBC forbids anyone holding an editorial position from owning individual stocks, he said, but that owning mutual funds is OK.

Foreign policy and the war in Iraq have received a lot of coverage in the past few years, Costello noted, and they are constant targets of criticism. Some say there is not enough coverage of the war's harsh reality, and some say there is too much blood and death and not enough good news, he said.

"Journalism is hard," Costello said; the risks and dangers are high for those covering Iraq.

"You don't go there hoping to report bad news or more deaths. You go there hoping to report the biggest news in 50 years," he said.

Costello spoke to an audience primarily of aspiring journalists. His message to them was not to give up and to remember that they came to SJMC for an education, "to learn a discipline and the craft of journalism."

Lecture series benefactor Jack Holden said he and his wife enjoy helping the School.

"We were fortunate in life and wanted to return some of the things we learned to enhance the School of Pharmacy and the School of Journalism," he said.