MediaWatch: February 1991
Table of Contents:
Jennings Just As Wrong
PANNING PAST THE PODIUM SPEAKERS
Peter Jennings added to ABC's misinformation on the February 7 World News Tonight by again claiming: "There is no support for Saddam Hussein here." In the report, ABC aired 16 shots of anti- war activists, most from 12-day-old footage, without identifying one of them, including in-studio interviewees. Jennings was busy emphasizing that "at every anti-war demonstration they carry the flag high." But ABC Washington affiliate WJLA aired protesters burning the flag in Lafayette Park on the 19th. Jennings also asserted that "American troops in the Gulf have their support," ignoring the protest speakers who called the troops "fodder for U.S. imperialism." Like Judd, ABC producer Juliet Cassone admitted to MediaWatch there was an anti-American faction, but dismissed the idea of covering them: "We were looking for mainstream demonstrators."
One way the networks stuck with "mainstream" demonstrators: in all the evening news stories about the major anti-war protests on January 19 and 26, not one story included a soundbite from an actual podium speaker. The first shots of podium speakers from the 26th came in ABC's February 7 report.
The network's focus on large anti-war marches in Washington, New York, and San Francisco did not match the larger reality. Only three percent of Americans polled by Times Mirror had attended an anti-war protest, but nine percent said they had marched in support of the war effort. One exception to the network trend: CBS. It ignored the January 19 anti-war protest. Instead, the Evening News covered pro-Bush rallies.
