Award Recipients

CNN's Tom Johnson 1999 Paul White Award Recipient.

CABLE GUY

Tom Johnson has taken CNN to the top of the cable news world. Learn more about the man from small-town Georgia who left the newspaper business and the White House to run a cable powerhouse. To honor Johnson's lifetime achievement, RTNDA will present him with the Paul White Award at RTNDA99.

By Lucy Himstedt for September 1999 Communicator

In his hometown of Macon, GA, he's still Tommy Johnson. In Atlanta and beyond he's Tom Johnson, chairman, president and CEO of the CNN News Group. CNN is a brand you see and hear everywhere you turn--in the airport, on the Internet, in homes near and far, or in your car--and Johnson has been at the helm for almost a decade now.

Harley Bowers, who retired as sports editor of the Macon Telegraph in 1996, says that when he arrived in Macon in 1959, Tommy Johnson was already at the local newspaper as a high school stringer. He laughs when he says Johnson tells people Bowers taught him everything he knows. In a way that's true, though.

"Harley taught me the importance of getting the story right. Whether it's the spelling of a high school quarterback's name or something else, get it right. When people ask me today, 'Is this ready to go to air?', whether it's an eight-and-a-half-month investigative piece or something else, I always say, 'Are we certain we got it right?' I think it's the fundamental question you ask yourself in this profession as journalists, across the board. Do we have it right, and if we don't we shouldn't put it on the air." Johnson's resolve was tested a year ago with the Tailwind incident--more on that later.

It's obvious there is a great deal of respect and admiration between Harley Bowers and Tom Johnson. In Bowers' estimation, "There couldn't be anyone who better fits the word 'integrity.' Of all the people I've met--sports heroes and all--I don't have respect for anybody more than I do Tom Johnson." And that's saying a lot. Bowers wrote about sports for 56 years before he retired in 1996.

John Krueger, who is now editorial page copy editor, was in the Macon Telegraph sports department back then. He says he has observed Johnson's career and says no doubt being a Maconite had an influence. He describes those from Macon as "real down-to-earth people, hard-working. I think he has a good set of values in his upbringing from growing up in Macon."

Johnson says that's true. "The most important influence in my life was my mother (who still lives in Macon), and if there is a theme that I work and live by it is one that she instilled in me really early. 'If you work hard and do right you can accomplish almost anything in life.' She was a continuing source of support for me from my earliest years all the way through. And so I have worked hard and attempted to do right all of these years."

Working His Way Up
Johnson's attempt to do right was noticed all the way to the White House. It was from the Macon newspaper that Johnson went on to Washington, where he was in the first class of White House Fellows in 1965. That led to another position in Lyndon Johnson's press office.

By the way, despite misconception by some early on, the two are not related. LBJ agreed that Johnson's upbringing was important. His reason for choosing Johnson from some 3,100 applications to join his White House staff was because of Johnson's "Georgia character, which means more to me than your Harvard degree[s] and your journalism training." The Macon newspaper paid for both of those Harvard degrees, though, and because of that, Tom Johnson felt a tremendous loyalty to the paper and those who supported him.

But Lyndon Johnson wanted him, too. So in 1966 LBJ wrote to Macon Telegraph owner and publisher Peyton Anderson: "Tom feels a strong moral commitment to return to Macon because of everything you have done for him. I am proud of the way he feels, but I also believe that he has a great opportunity here to make a significant contribution and to grow…If you feel you can spare Tom Johnson, his country and his president need him." Anderson released him from his obligation. In a letter to Tom Johnson, Anderson wrote: "I don't feel you can ignore the opportunity you have been offered. As you do great things, we will share in the accomplishments.…"

Throughout the White House years, Johnson says he reminded himself and others of the need for accuracy and accountability that he had learned in those early newspaper days. In fact, he keeps a strong reminder of that in the form of a picture in his office. In it you see LBJ pulling Johnson by the lapels of his overcoat. Between them stands then-Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin. The newspaper caption the next day said something about the president conferring with aide Tom Johnson. Johnson says in fact, what the president was telling him was, "If you don't get the goddamn photographers to stop shooting, I'm going to take him back inside." It's all about accuracy, Johnson says--on either side of the sound bite or quote.

His White House boss, LBJ press secretary Bill Moyers, says accuracy has always been a Tom Johnson trait. "Most important of all--and this was so when he was inside the White House and it is so now that he is one of the formidable figures in American news--he cares about the truth, which is not necessarily the same as caring about the news. He is just as committed to getting it right as he is getting it first."

Johnson stayed with LBJ until the end. When the former president died, it was Tom Johnson who told the nation through Walter Cronkite, as he relayed the message by telephone during the CBS Evening News. Johnson later wrote an article for the Macon paper. "As I stood beside his grave, I was grateful that Peyton Anderson gave me the opportunity to serve this president," he wrote.

Finding a True Calling
Johnson says he found love at first sight at the Macon paper. "I was introduced to news at age 14 at the Macon Telegraph and found it to be interesting work and became addicted to it very early and never really thought about doing anything else. I discovered my professional passion--journalism--in Macon. I developed this overwhelming desire to excel; maybe it was something about growing up on the wrong side of the tracks. I think I first become aware of my identity when I saw my very first byline in the Macon paper. That was the editor saying this story was good enough to put his name on it. I said, 'Gee, I've done something that was worthy of a byline.'"

There have been two big loves of Johnson's life and he found them both in Georgia. News was one. The other, his wife Edwina, he found at the University of Georgia.

"Certainly convincing Edwina to marry me was my proudest moment. She had been going with an All-American guard, the captain of the football team, a guy who went on to become the head coach at Auburn." (He's referring to former Auburn head football coach Pat Dye.)

"I had met [Edwina] in economics class. I thought she was the cutest, and she was involved in athletics, and she was involved in this and that. I thought she was sort of Miss Popularity. She didn't pay me any attention when I first saw her," Johnson recalls. But eventually, she had broken up with Dye, and Johnson had done the same with his high school sweetheart. It took a while for things to click. "I took her out a couple of times, it was going nowhere. Later we reconnected while in college and it's 35 years now going on."

In his office there is the picture you might expect: the beautiful, posed portrait of Edwina. It was obvious Johnson was proud of that one, it's on his desk. But the pictures he pointed out to me and talked most about were recent ones of her biking for long distances. "Edwina became quite an independent woman during this, and because I am a workaholic she has been able to develop interests. The most recent [is] long-distance bicycling trips to raise funds for AIDS and AIDS-related projects. She's really had many passages in her life ranging from world travel to mountain climbing to photography, calligraphy, book binding; she's been an athlete much of her life."

While Edwina was learning new skills, their children also were noticing Johnson's absence. He says it really hit home one day with his daughter Christa. "I had a big wake-up call after missing one more of my daughter's soccer games and other events at the school," Johnson recalls. "She couldn't have been more than 9 years old [at the time]. I was publisher at the Los Angeles Times, and she said 'Don't forget that you're a daddy, too!' Sort of out of the mouth of babes. It really shook me and I realized then that I had been away too much in my pursuit of the White House, Austin, Dallas, Los Angeles, whatever, and I tried to become more involved. I do acknowledge that too much of me has gone into my work after all these years. I have let my work define myself more than it should and I realize nobody should define their self-worth solely by their work."

So what did he do about it? While still in Los Angeles, a dying friend made a suggestion during their last visit together, a suggestion Johnson followed. He made a list.

"I did write a note to myself for my most private goals that I wanted to achieve, places I wanted to go, things I wanted to do outside of work," Johnson says. "I put it in my billfold, didn't show it to anybody else, and I pull it out occasionally to just remind myself that I always wanted to balloon, and I've done that twice. I've always wanted to learn to ski, to snow ski. Thanks to a friend, I took that up in my 40s. I'd always wanted to see some of the wonders of the world. I wanted to see the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall, the Pyramids, and I've done that." Some are much smaller pleasures like catching a five-pound bass. He did that, too. He still adds to the list on occasion.

Caring for People
Johnson knows how vulnerable life is. It's one of the things that most worries him about the people who work for CNN. He talked about the tough decision of whether to stay or go from Baghdad as the first assaults of the Gulf War were underway.

"I was extremely worried about potential loss of life of Peter Arnett and Bernie Shaw and John Holliman. I said [to Ted Turner], 'We have received warnings--a direct call from the chairman of joint chiefs, from the press secretary, and from President Bush--warning me to get our people out,' that they would be in grave danger."

Johnson told Turner there were three choices: move them to the outskirts of Baghdad, move them out completely, or stay. He says Turner was emphatic in his response. "Tom, you will not overturn me on this. Those who volunteered to stay can stay, and those who want to come out can come out. I will take responsibility on my own conscience or share it with you." And that's the policy they adopted.

On his bookshelf he keeps constant reminders of such dangers: a shattered piece of glass from an armored vehicle in which a CNN crew was attacked in Sarajevo, along with photos of the vehicle and an injured technician, David Allbritton.

"CNN is a family," Johnson says. "As we dispatch people into war zones--and particularly in a situation like Yugoslavia where CNN has been portrayed by the Serbs as 'a factory of lies,' where we have had direct death threats against Christiane (Amanpour)--I worry greatly about the safety of our people who are in Belgrade as bombs are falling. I live with the continuing concern about my people."

Those who know Johnson know how true that is. CNN/US president Rick Kaplan says, "There's no question that Tom Johnson cares…not just about what we do, but who's doing it. Ask anyone at CNN, he genuinely cares about the people. I think the thing that stands out to me is his heart."

ABC News executive vice president Shelby Coffey worked with Johnson at the Los Angeles Times. He says it's true personally as well as professionally. When Coffey moved to Los Angeles, he was concerned about his teenager son. "[Tom] would say not to worry, that he would turn out well." Coffey says Johnson genuinely liked his son, and took a real interest. And Coffey remembered, "[My son] wrote Tom a letter after college and asked for guidance on what path to take." Most people, Coffey says, would perhaps have made a quick phone call. But not Johnson; he did more. "Tom hand-wrote a four-page letter. As busy as he is. That will mean something to my son the rest of his life."

Make no mistake about it, though. He's a tough guy, too. Johnson was honored by RTNDF in 1995 with its First Amendment Leadership Award, given annually to a business or government leader who has demonstrated a lifetime devotion to freedom of the press and its highest standards of journalism.

Moyers, for whom Johnson worked as deputy press secretary to LBJ, introduced him at the banquet. In the introduction, Moyers said that despite the turmoil in the LBJ presidency, Johnson retained the respect and loyalty of both of his masters: the press and the president.

"He did so," Moyers said, "not only because of his unfailing integrity and good manners, but because even in the thick of things he never suspended his native faith in the First Amendment; in the belief that journalism serves the public good, despite the clay feet of those who exercise it and the grief of those on whom it is practiced."

Johnson believes as strongly in that today. "We cannot be lap dogs....I think that in some communities and some areas the press has become a voice for the chamber of commerce or a voice for the business establishment or special interest group," he says. "And then others have become attack dogs, ready to attack at anytime. It's a watchdog role that we all have and I have not been able to think of a better way to describe it."

Fighting Through a Tailwind
Sometimes that watchdog role leads to over-zealousness. CNN learned about that the hard way last year with the Tailwind story, which focused on a 1970 Special Forces action in Laos.

"That was the most disappointing chapter of my professional life and I take full responsibility for the mistake," Johnson says. "We didn't get it right, and as a [result] we put in place another set a checks and balances, including a new executive vice president of standards and practices and a new standards and practices group; I am one of three members."

Johnson says that Tailwind has changed the way CNN does journalism. "I think that we have strengthened our procedures so that it is much less likely that another [situation] like this will occur," he maintains. "I can't say that it won't, but we have re-learned the importance of getting it right. I just think that in trying to unearth information about an action that there was not sufficient checking of those who said it didn't happen and too much reliance of those who said it did."

A noted First Amendment attorney, Floyd Abrams, was brought in to investigate. Johnson says no one more than he wanted to hear that CNN's report was true and could be supported. That didn't happen.

"After that investigation concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to take the story to air, we quickly retracted the story, apologized and gave the retraction the same prominence we gave the original report," Johnson says. "I also took some of the personnel actions that I thought were completely required as a result, and offered my own resignation because I felt a deep sense of personal responsibility."

Ted Turner did not accept the resignation. Johnson says there's a lesson for all of us in this. "If you make a mistake, admit it, correct it and take whatever action is necessary to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Many people would tell you it's that Georgia upbringing that is responsible for that philosophy. Throughout his career, Johnson has kept an eye on his roots. When he and his family moved to Los Angeles he was quoted as saying his home state has "a proper emphasis on the right values, values such as sharing, cooperation, thoughtfulness, faith, kindness, caring, honesty and integrity."

When Moyers introduced Johnson at the RTNDF Banquet he called him "a son of the South." He says that description is right on the mark. "This is a gentleman to the bone. Perhaps the most important thing I can tell you is that for all his accomplishments, Tom Johnson, if he could talk about it, would tell you that the best thing he's done in his life is to make it possible for his mother to live in a comfortable home down there in Macon, where the Johnsons were as poor as field hands, and just as hard-pressed."

ABC's Coffey agrees. "He absolutely is a real person. I think one of the things you would find is how many people like and admire Tom; not only throughout the paper and broadcast industry, but [in] how many people he got to know as business leaders and social friends. He has a real capacity for friendship."

But to the Macon Telegraph's Bowers and others from home--and even to himself--CNN's news boss is still just Tommy Johnson.

"I'd like to think that I've never forgotten where I came from and the people who enabled me to get to where I am," Johnson says. "In Macon I will always be Tommy Johnson. I guess I've seen too many people who forget where they started and the people who enabled them to get where they reached. I keep the ruler I was given at the Macon Telegraph on my desk as a constant reminder of that."

--Lucy Himstedt is vice president and general manager of WFIE-TV in Evansville, IN.