Asking for Trouble

"Fear has increased in every newsroom in America," said CBS's Dan Rather during a discussion of "The Press and the Election" at Harvard University. That's fear of "a torrent of e-mails and phone calls" complaining about media coverage of controversial issues. Rather said journalists might think, "when you run this story, you're asking for trouble. ... Why run it?" NBC's Tom Brokaw mentioned the Media Research Center and said conservatives "feel they have to go to war against the networks every day." ABC's Peter Jennings added, "I hear more about conservative concerns than I have in the past. ... I feel the presence of anger all the time."