MediaWatch: March 1990

Janet Cooke Award: NBC News: Sandinista Surrogates

When someone makes a mistake he should be willing to admit it. That's especially true for those in the news media, on whom Americans rely for an understanding of world events. But look at the media's coverage of the recent Nicaraguan election. Reporters misled readers and viewers in the days before and after the Nicaraguan election, and have yet to apologize. Case in point: the recipient of this month's Janet Cooke Award, NBC's Ed Rabel, for his reports before the February 25 vote.

The Nicaraguan people overcame what was an unfair and often brutal electoral environment to elect National Opposition (UNO) candidate Violeta Chamorro as President. The stunning victory was a clear mandate for democratization and free enterprise in the be-leaguered country. But if Nicaraguans had been listening to NBC News throughout the historic campaign, the outcome may have been quite different.

NBC News largely dismissed Sandinista fraud and mass intimidation. Instead, the network told Americans that the election would be free and fair, that the Sandinistas were sure winners, and -- amazingly -- that American policies turned Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega into a popular hero.

U.S. Policies Translate Into A Sandinista Victory.

Ed Rabel made that ridiculous charge on NBC Nightly News four days before the election. "This is the man, pollsters say," Rabel began as the camera panned Ortega, "who will be elected overwhelmingly this weekend....The man President Reagan promised would cry uncle. The United States spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the Contras, the so-called freedom fighters, to do the job. They failed."

Putting the blame decisively on the U.S., Rabel continued: "The election observers say the Bush Administration may have itself to blame for Daniel Ortega's rise in popularity among the voters. The reason, they say, is the U.S. military invasion of Panama. That was a move that was widely denounced here in Nicaragua. It was a close race until the U.S. invaded."

Rabel energetically cited the mostly partisan pro-Sandinista polls that put Ortega far ahead in the race, but ignored a number of Latin American polling organizations which predicted the actual outcome. A poll released on January 27 by the Costa Rican polling firm of Borge and Associates gave Chamorro the lead, 37 to 33 percent. At about the same time, the Institute of Public Opinion in Venezuela (Doxsa) released similar numbers: 41 percent for Chamorro versus 33 percent for Ortega.

Ortega As Popular Hero.

Rabel concentrated much of his effort on presenting Ortega as a crusading, youthful figure. His Feb. 23 NBC Nightly News report read like an FSLN promo: "Daniel Ortega has undergone a dramatic transformation, taking on a fresh persona just as his government enters a brand new political era. Daniel Ortega on the campaign trail. Ortega the marathon runner. Ortega in designer jeans and wildly patterned shirts."

A Free And Fair Election.

Rabel thought so. On the February 23 Today, he noted that "behind the scenes, opponents say, there are Sandinista threats and intimidation. People being warned quietly, that they will lose their jobs or even their lives for voting against Daniel Ortega."

But Rabel dismissed the intimidation, assuring viewers that international observers guaranteed a free election: "Opponents of the government take to the streets. The Organization of American States has its team in place. Jan. 28th...former President Jimmy Carter, a key international election observer, concentrates his steely blue eyes on the excitable crowd....No rally escapes surveillance. No election ever has been so thoroughly watched." The Sandinistas, Rabel claimed, "have had the international observers looking over their shoulders the whole time." Rabel gave time to Carter aide Jennifer McCoy, who concluded: "We have seen a real commitment on both sides to carry out these elections."

In fact, most observer groups were sparsely staffed before the final days of the election. For most of the campaign, only McCoy was on the ground for Carter in Nicaragua and was not present at a December 10 rally at Masatepe where one person died and scores were injured. In his Today segment, Rabel noted "observers who saw it all produced no evidence implicating Sandinista or opposition leaders." Untrue. A bi-partisan Center for Democracy delegation (which included Democrats Peter Kelly and Robert Beckel) witnessed the event and unanimously concluded it was inspired by Sandinista mobs. At a press conference after the incident, the delegation gave footage documenting the Sandinista violence to media outlets, including NBC News.

Rabel mentioned that "the Sandinistas, by their own account, did spend millions more on their campaign than the opposition. And they had more resources at their command than their opponents." But he obviously failed to read observer reports, including Carter's, which documented the Sandinista monopoly of television, illegal use of state resources, harassment of UNO rallies, and Sandinista tactics to hold up U.S. money bound for the opposition until just before the election. Rabel's upbeat reporting led Tom Brokaw to conclude: "Now it appears that Ortega could win the Nicaraguan presidency in a fair and square election."

Rabel just couldn't believe the Nicaraguan people might think as little of the Sandinistas as Ronald Reagan or George Bush did. Indeed, by election day, it was a fait accompli for Rabel: "Polls won't close here for another thirty minutes, but the widespread belief that the Sandinistas will prevail has shifted thinking far beyond the ballot box." Even before the Sandinistas won (or lost), Rabel was telling us: "The topic of the day is: how will a freely elected Sandinista government be treated by the United States?"

Producer John Siceloff defended NBC's coverage: "In the whole body of our reporting, you will find the subjects of threats and use of government resources." He noted that a story filed in January discussed the holdup of funding bound for UNO. Siceloff claimed NBC owed no apology for calling the election wrong: "A large measure of our wrong call was admittedly due to the polls. It's not a question of an apology. We reported on polls and when polls were wrong we reported on why they were wrong." But twenty seconds in a February 27 report in no way made up for weeks of misreporting.

Washington Post Ombudsman Richard Harwood said it best on March 4: "When Ed Rabel of NBC relied on 'widespread belief' to support his election analysis, he might have been asked what is 'belief'?" Could Rabel's 'belief' have been his wishful thinking? As for an apology, Harwood wrote: "NBC will pay no price for that blunder...Do not expect Deborah Norville and Ed Rabel to don dunce hats and stand in the corner during tonight's production of NBC News." Too bad.

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