MediaWatch: June 1990
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: June 1990
- The Soviet Spokesman Sensation
- NewsBites: Tax Time
- Revolving Door: ABC's Democratic Lobbyist
- Reporters Mourn Collapse of Communism
- Blaming America for a Return to the Killing Fields
- Janet Cooke Award: TIME'S Artful Dodger
Blaming America for a Return to the Killing Fields
ABC'S CAMBODIAN CRUSADE
Americans do not follow Southeast Asia very closely, which made ABC's April 26 special, From The Killing Fields, even more influential. Peter Jennings painted a simple picture: the United States, mentally trapped in the Vietnam War, has allied itself with China in support of the Khmer Rouge (which killed over one million of their fellow Cambodians between 1975 and 1978) in revenge for losing Vietnam. Jennings charged that aid passes through the non-communist resistance to the Khmer Rouge. As Jennings saw it, "the United States is deeply involved in Cambodia again. Cambodia is on the edge of hell again."
Former West 57th producer Leslie Cockburn, who also produced a Frontline segment, "Guns, Drugs and the CIA," co-wrote the special. Tom Yellin, the other writer, was a West 57th Senior Producer when the CBS show aired Cockburn's conspiracy pieces linking the CIA, the Contras and drug trafficking.
ABC's sources were no less ideologically committed. Rep. Chester Atkins (D-MA) declared, "[U.S. policy] is a policy of hatred." Jeremy Stone, the son of Marxist journalist I.F. Stone, has written many articles attacking U.S. policy on Cambodia, several of which were co-authored by former CIA Director William Colby, another source. Both Stone and Colby advocate supporting the Vietnam-installed Hun Sen regime. Jennings used Assistant Secretary of State Richard Solomon as a token advocate of the U.S. policy of supporting the non-communists while shunning the Khmer Rouge.
Jennings questions revealed an implicit slant: "Why isn't the U.S. outraged about all this?" and "Why does the United States, the Bush Administration, have anything to do whatsoever with the Khmer Rouge?" The questions implied the U.S. isn't outraged and supports the Khmer Rouge. Both points were vehemently denied after the special by politicians as ideologically diverse as Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-NY) and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Thomas Pickering, who declared, "I'm certainly appalled by what you presented tonight....We are certainly not supporting the Khmer Rouge."
Jennings view of the Marxist Hun Sen regime's military situation seems odd since the Soviets heavily support Hun Sen: "Hun Sen has the tanks which the Vietnamese left him, but he does not have much of an army....The Defense Minister knows that his troops alone, without the Vietnamese, have a real problem fighting forces supported by two superpowers: the United States and China." Jennings' conclusion revealed his worldview: "The United States is in danger of being on the wrong side of history." As New York Times reviewer Walter Goodman observed, that echoes "a phrase that might have been borrowed from Marxist texts, seems a touch dated after the anti-communist upheavals of 1989."
