MediaWatch: March 1990
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: March 1990
- More Media Money Moves Left
- NewsBites: Free Enterprise? Oh No!
- Revolving Door: New Racket for Brackett
- Networks Ignore Mendela's Unpleasant Past
- Environmentalists Get All The Time
- Other Networks on Nicaragua
- Goldberg Scolds Media
- Janet Cooke Award: NBC News: Sandinista Surrogates
Networks Ignore Mendela's Unpleasant Past
SPREADING THE MANDELA MYTH
After years of hyping Nelson Mandela as the poster child of the South African sanctions lobby, it's not surprising the press paid so much attention to his release from prison. But while coverage had plenty of volume, it had little depth. As Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales realized, "Instead of hard facts or insights, reporters competed to see who could heap the most praise on Mandela, as if to establish their credentials as right-thinking libertarians."
The media described Mandela as a "political prisoner," even as "the world's most famous political prisoner" (CBS, CNN). But the hardly conservative Amnesty International declared in 1985 that "Mandela had participated in planning acts of sabotage and inciting violence, so that he could no longer fulfill the criteria for the classification of political prisoners."
The media also failed to take a look at Mandela's leftist ideology. Instead, reporters spoke of his commitment to "one-man, one-vote." Dan Rather said, "I'd classify him moderate." A MediaWatch review of evening news coverage during the first three weeks of February found that no network labeled him a communist and only CNN referred to Mandela as a terrorist. Sam Donaldson dismissed the link between the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) during the February 4 This Week with David Brinkley: "Well, they call [the ANC] communist, but, in fact, it's nationalist. It's not communist."
Look at Mandela's own words. After his release, Mandela praised SACP General Secretary Joe Slovo as "one of our finest patriots ...The alliance between ourselves and the party remains as strong as it always was." In How to be a Good Communist, Mandela wrote, "Under a Communist Party government, South Africa will become a land of milk and honey." In 1953, Mandela addressed the need "to fight against the war policies of America and her satellites."
Reporters didn't just ignore Mandela's past, they declared he looked "like a chief of state" (Bob Simon, CBS) and "a kind of philosopher king" (Tom Brokaw). Others used religious terms. He was "an almost god-like father figure" (Carole Simpson, ABC), his name "has an almost mystical quality" (Dan Rather). ABC's Jim Hickey noted he walked "in the manner of Pope John Paul II when he visits stadiums." CBS This Morning's Harry Smith raved, "It was indeed the second coming. Pilgrims came from across the countryside to see and hear the man the South African government had all but crucified."
Why are the media selling a revolutionary as a "moderate"? Apartheid must end, but the media is failing to do its job by ignoring Mandela's full agenda.
