ABC News president says depleted resources threaten First Amendment
By John Eggerton — Broadcasting & Cable

ABC News President David Westin says that news organizations can’t invoke the First Amendment unless they have “reporters out in the field doing the work that needs to be done and we have the resources to support them.”

And while ABC has announced major cuts and a restructuring of its news operation, he said news organizations needed to be committed to investigative journalism, beat reporting and long-form documentaries. He got a second on that sentiment from another network news president in attendance.

Westin was speaking to a room full of journalists after receiving the Radio-Television Digital News Foundation’s First Amendment Leadership award.

The speech came a week after ABC announced deep staff cuts in a remake of their news operation, and on the eve of a scheduled meeting with staffers in the ABC Washington bureau March 5 to talk about that remake.

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