MediaWatch: August 1990

Janet Cooke Award: A&E: Woman in War

When the Arts & Entertainment (A&E) cable network premiered Women in War in February and March of this year, host Pat Mitchell declared the reports on Northern Ireland, Israel, El Salvador and urban America would highlight women's "uncommon courage and commitment to make their voices heard from the front lines." A&E, owned by ABC, NBC and Hearst, was so pleased with the shows it rebroadcast them in July.

In the case of El Salvador, Mitchell found "courage and commitment" in the women fighting for the communist FMLN. The half-hour segment heaped praise on the rebels and attacked the democratically elected government of Alfredo Cristiani, earning Mitchell and A&E the August Janet Cooke Award.

Attacks on the Government. Mitchell, a former Today correspondent who now appears on CBS Sunday Morning, gave this overview of the origins of the revolution: "The landowners, or oligarchy, also control the government and military, who suppressed any signs of unrest among the peasants. The violence of the suppression is usually attributed to paramilitary groups known as death squads. In retaliation, the rebels armed themselves and began an offensive against the government." Mitchell continued: "The apparent impunity of the government and the military leaves little room for moderate responses, especially from those who would change the social and economic fabric of El Salvador."

Mitchell denounced the 1989 elections: "With Alfredo Cristiani as President, and with the backing of the oligarchy, this election was seen as a widening of the chasm between the political extremes that perpetuate the war." The war is rooted "in an economic system that benefits a small elite at the expense of the poor majority." She noted that ARENA, Cristiani's party, "won the elections in '89 by 30 percent of the electorate."

Actually, the elections reflected an outpouring of support for Cristiani from people of all walks of life. Of 1.8 million voting-age people, 1.3 million were registered and 900,000 cast ballots, a higher turnout than in recent U.S. elections. ARENA garnered 55 percent. More would have voted if the FMLN had not carried out sabotage and deadly intimidation to disrupt the balloting. Mitchell ignored these death squads.

Praise for Communists. Mitchell conceded the FMLN is backed by "Cuba, Nicaragua and the Soviet Union," but she never called them communist. It didn't matter what the rebels fought for, as long as they were women. Mitchell hailed FMLN Comandante Ana Guadalupe Martinez for her motherly nature: "Ana is a mother and that has strengthened her resolve to continue the fight." Martinez agreed, declaring "the combination of love for my children and the love for the people, is what obliges me to continue."

Mitchell's adulation for the FMLN's front groups was unbounded: "COMADRES, the Committee of Mothers of Political Prisoners, the Disappeared and Assassinated....[was] the first group on the streets protesting the repression of the Salvadoran government and military." Mitchell raved, "Still they march for peace with social justice. Recently, when some of the wounded rebel fighters, in need of further medical care, were evacuated to the metropolitan cathedral, COMADRES fed and cared for them."

Last Nov. 15, The Washington Post's Douglas Farah gave a different picture of these women. During the FMLN offensive, he noted: "Heavily armed women who have worked in the offices of various human rights offices long accused by the government of being front groups for the rebels appeared and greeted their acquaintances. 'We are no longer front groups,' said a woman. 'Now we are the FMLN.'"

The leftist labor union's head also captivated Mitchell: "Elizabeth Velasquez...chose the labor movement as her part of the struggle. As a young factory worker she emerged quickly as a leading voice for reform. She's now one of the directors of FENASTRAS, the coalition of labor unions in El Salvador....The socialist restructuring of the economy that the union proposes meets expected resistance from the government and there are violent confrontations between police and FENASTRAS marchers." Mitchell concluded by noting a November bombing killed Velasquez, "one of the most powerful voices on the frontlines, silenced forever."

The U.S. Department of Labor, however, reported FENASTRAS is allied with the FMLN and the communist World Federation of Trade Unions: "It distributes disinformation critical of the government of El Salvador and supportive of the FMLN guerrillas."

In a letter to MediaWatch, the Charge d'Affaires of the Salvadoran Embassy, Jose Luis Trigueros, complained: "By failing to point out that the FMLN is a self-declared Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group that is trying to violently overthrow a democratically elected government, A&E is betraying the public's trust."

In a conversation with MediaWatch, Mitchell denied there was any political agenda behind Women in War: "I didn't go there with a political agenda. I don't have one now. I am in the business of making documentaries for women and minorities. We're just trying to give a voice to those people who are not heard in the mainstream....I don't have a political opinion about any of these places."

Mitchell featured only one ARENA party legislator because "We went to ARENA, to the national legislature....We got absolutely no cooperation from them. We made a conscious effort to hear from as many different voices. What we found were women from what you would call the left and which are clearly to the left politically. They are the ones who came forward and talked with us."

But didn't Mitchell believe these women were members of communist front groups and didn't she have an obligation to say so? "It's totally immaterial what I believe. I didn't go there to prove my beliefs or even state my beliefs. We pointed out the direct way in which they are servicing the poor, the needy, the disenfranchised." A&E officials refused to discuss the show. So little concern for accuracy is a sad indictment of a network dedicated to presenting historical and contemporary documentaries.

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