MediaWatch: September 1990
Table of Contents:
Review: Lessons From Iraq
The American media are usually quick to criticize U.S. military actions around the world, but coverage of the Persian Gulf crisis offered a pleasant surprise. Because of the fast-paced, daily escalation of events, the media have had little time for "analysis" stories to interject opinion. Indeed, coverage has for the most part been straightforward.
But when reporters did have some time for "analysis," the media's conventional wisdom was again liberal. Reporters had three lessons to teach America about the Iraq crisis: (1) The Reagan- Bush free market energy policy failed, so we need government intervention; (2) Reagan's defense build-up was misspent; and (3) Arab support for Saddam Hussein is perfectly rational.
Lesson #1: We Need A National Energy Policy.
The media lesson here: involvement in the Persian Gulf could have been averted if, during the 1980s, the U.S. had continued to follow Jimmy Carter's national energy policy.
NBC's Lisa Myers: On the August 15 Nightly News, Myers asserted: "The problem is that slow and steady progress on energy conservation came to a screeching halt in the mid-1980s, which is a big reason Iraq has us over a barrel today. What derailed the conservation effort? Two things: a sharp drop in oil prices and the Reagan Administration....In some cases, Reagan actually turned back the clock, relaxing auto efficiency requirements, delaying appliance efficiency standards, scrapping research on new energy technologies."
Who were Myers' sources? Two liberal energy experts. The Alliance to Save Energy's James Wolf reiterated: "They were a disaster! President Reagan's Administration fought on the wrong side of the energy efficiency wars. They opposed every initiative to improve energy efficiency."
Myers asked: "What can the U.S. do in the short-term to significantly reduce oil consumption?" She turned to Philip Verleger of the Institute for International Economics, who told viewers: "The single most effective way would be the most painful way which is to boost gasoline prices. The price probably has to go to $1.60 a gallon." Myers concluded: "And that would just be the beginning. In the end, real energy conservation means much higher prices, smaller cars, and driving less. And history tells us it may be easier to get the Iraqis out of Kuwait than to get Americans to give up their love affair with the automobile."
On August 23, Myers' target was George Bush: "Almost daily, the President is out on a gas guzzling cigarette boat which gets one and one half miles to the gallon. Saving energy is not something he even likes to talk about." Myers claimed: "Energy analysts call the lack of action irresponsible. George Bush does not have a strong record on energy policy. When he became Vice President, the United States imported 34 percent of its oil. Today it's 45 percent."
This time, Myers did mention energy sources that have become controversial, such as nuclear power and domestic oil drilling, and allowed an energy analyst to charge: "I find it intolerable that politicians put the mating habits of the caribou ahead of human life in the gulf." But instead of attacking environmental extremists who hold energy policy hostage, Myers concluded conservation through government intervention was still the best policy: "Eighty-seven percent of Americans favor tough conservation measures. But two-thirds oppose the most effective way to force conservation, which is to raise oil and gas prices a lot."
CBS and Time: New taxes are needed to protect us "from being hostage to the whims of faraway nations," Time's Richard Hornik insisted in a August 20 article. He concluded: "Americans pay too little for energy generally and for gasoline in particular. A 50 cent per gallon gasoline tax phased in over five years would encourage conservation and raise $50 billion in revenues."
It took CBS until August 26 to call for new taxes. James Hattori summed up his Evening News story: "Experts say the one thing which will guarantee conservation and accelerated research into more efficient cars is perhaps the least likely course of action -- a tax making gasoline in the U.S. as costly as in many other countries, $2 to $3 a gallon."
Lesson #2: Reagan Undermined Our Defense.
Reporters spent much of the past decade berating Ronald Reagan's defense buildup, so NBC's Andrea Mitchell couldn't concede it worked. Without bothering to explore the impact of congressional cuts, she blamed Reagan on August 16 for all the problems associated with the Gulf deployment: "We've been training to fight a desert war for years, while buying weapons to fight the Cold War in Europe. Instead of building fast ships to move troops and equipment to the Persian Gulf, the Navy spent billions on Trident submarines and warships. As a result, the Pentagon can move only one division at a time to the Middle East....It's the legacy of Ronald Reagan's trillion dollar defense buildup. Critics say the Pentagon was thinking richer, not smarter."
Lesson #3: Support For Saddam Hussein Is Perfectly Rational.
The swift condemnation of Hussein by Egypt, the Gulf States and the Arab League dispelled much of the talk of Saddam Hussein's popularity among Arabs. But some reporters bought Hussein's "Haves vs. Have Nots" theory. On the August 7 CBS Evening News, reporter Bob Simon told viewers of sentiment among migrant workers in Jordan: "The Kuwaitis, they say, have billions of dollars invested abroad, while there's hunger here and in many parts of the Arab world....The Kuwaitis built a wall around their perfume garden, only let other Arabs in to keep it green. When Saddam Hussein broke it down he acted out the secret dream of every Arab who'd ever worked there. And the Arab world is now rising in anger against the United States."
Questioning Arab support for American involvement, he concluded: "While Americans say they're moving tonight in defense of little nations, that's not how it will be perceived or described over here. From the poor people in these little nations, Americans will hear these old phrases, old accusations: gun boat diplomacy, imperialism, the arrogance of power."
On the August 11 NBC Nightly News, Dennis Murphy echoed Simon: "Young Moslems made their choice for Saddam Hussein and a holy war against the Westerners. The chants, the emotions, the religious fervor to save Arab pride are running hot through the desert valleys here and in Amman. Westerners are seeing the people pull behind the Iraqis across all classes of society. Saddam Hussein is winning over the masses."
Four days later, NBC's Garrick Utley reinforced the theme: "Saddam Hussein is seen less and less in the eyes of most Arabs as a villain for having invaded Kuwait and more and more as the champion of an Arab cause for standing up to the West, standing up to the United States. So, as time goes by, as more American troops come into Saudi Arabia, his image of champion only grows." Interesting. On August 25, Utley warned: "If Saddam Hussein decides to become his own television salesman, he will have better personal tools of communication than the more faceless emirs and kings of the oil states we are defending. How are we to react to that? Every time he appears on our television screens we are going to have to make an extra effort to look behind the face and the words." Too bad Utley didn't tell the public and his colleagues that earlier.
