MediaWatch: April 1990
Table of Contents:
State Department Attacks
If you've noticed a distinct bias in CNN's reporting from Central America, you're not alone. Late last year, during the FMLN communist offensive in El Salvador, the State Dept. called CNN's coverage "the least objective as well as the most consistently wrong in points of fact." An early December cable obtained by MediaWatch confirms that U.S. officials in El Salvador contacted CNN about reporter Ronnie Lovler.
Embassy officials told Lovler they were disturbed with her "notable lack of balance." The cable added that in more than two weeks of coverage, Lovler "never once tried to check personally with us to get our views or input." Lovler claimed "she did not believe she was biased" and that she did not attend several press conferences "because of her lack of crew resources."
Citing glaring errors in her Nov. 30 report, embassy officials complained to International Editor Ethan Jordan. The cable ended: "Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, Ms. Lovler returned to Managua over this past weekend and Charles Jaco was brought into San Salvador to handle CNN coverage."
CNN spokesman Steve Haworth told MediaWatch: "There's no significance to when she has gone in or out of El Salvador." But privately, staffers say that Lovler was pulled out. A State source contends her bias stems from her husband: "Mario Tapia is a member of the Sandinista party and continues to be a militant."
The cable added this anecdote: "When a bus with American dependents left the U.S. AID compound Nov. 30, on its way to the airport, it passed Ms. Lovler and a CNN crew filming their departure. The Americans, who have been seeing the CNN coverage at home via local cable systems, broke out in loud and spontaneous booing."
