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Pentagon a Legitimate Target?; "More Inclined" to Believe U.S. Than Iraq; Diversity Before Accuracy; Wash Post Labeling Disparity 2) ABC News President David Westin refused to say the Pentagon was not a "legitimate target." At a Columbia University event last week he demurred: "I actually don't have an opinion on that." He argued: "For me to take a position this was right or wrong, I mean, that's perhaps for me in my private life...perhaps it's for my minister at church. But as a journalist I feel strongly that's something that I should not be taking a position on." [Web Update: Westin: "I Was Wrong"] [2] 3) CBS's Lesley Stahl decided she's "more inclined to believe my government" than the Iraqi regime.
ABC's This Week opened on October 28 with
Al-Jazeera video of injured Afghan kids as Sam Donaldson passed along how
the Taliban claims ten civilians were killed in the particular U.S.
bombing. A few minutes later, wrapping up an interview with Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Roberts argued: Rumsfeld maintained the U.S. military has been "enormously forthcoming" with the media but that it's not practical or safe to have reporters parachuting into Afghanistan. But, in contrast to Roberts's thesis, ABC
reporters have hardly contradicted Taliban propaganda when they had free
access to an area to report what they wanted, such as in Pakistan. Recall
this dispatch from ABC's Dan Harris in Pakistan which aired on the
October 23 World News Tonight, picking up after he showed Al-Jazeera video
of where 93 were supposedly killed by the U.S. in Afghanistan: Do you really think if Harris were given open access to Afghanistan we'd get reporting all that much different?
Westin maintained that "our job is to determine what is, not what ought to be." He elaborated: "I can say the Pentagon got hit, I can say this is what their position is, this is what our position is, but for me to take a position this was right or wrong, I mean, that's perhaps for me in my private life, perhaps it's for me dealing with my loved one, perhaps it's for my minister at church. But as a journalist I feel strongly that's something that I should not be taking a position on." Westin was responding to a questioner in the audience who, picking up on Westin's observation in his address to the group that thousands of innocent civilians were killed in the attack on the World Trade Center, inquired: "Do you believe the Pentagon was a legitimate military target, even if the missile was not?" (I believe by "missile" the questioner meant the planes hitting the World Trade Center.) Westin replied at the October 23 event which C-SPAN played on Saturday night, October 27: "The Pentagon as a legitimate target? I actually don't have an opinion on that and it's important I not have an opinion on that as I sit here in my capacity right now. The way I conceive my job running a news organization, and the way I would like all the journalists at ABC News to perceive it, is there is a big difference between a normative position and a positive position. Our job is to determine what is, not what ought to be and when we get into the job of what ought to be I think we're not doing a service to the American people. I can say the Pentagon got hit, I can say this is what their position is, this is what our position is, but for me to take a position this was right or wrong, I mean, that's perhaps for me in my private life, perhaps it's for me dealing with my loved ones, perhaps it's for my minister at church. But as a journalist I feel strongly that's something that I should not be taking a position on. I'm supposed to figure out what is and what is not, not what ought to be." Another item to file under "journalist first, American second." And Cokie Roberts wants Donald Rumsfeld, who was in the Pentagon at the time of the attack, to give ABC News more access to the battleground? Why would anyone trust them if their boss considers Pentagon staffers the legitimate target of a sneak attack? [Web
Update [4]: -- On October 31 ABC News e-mailed to the MRC this statement
from ABC News President David Westin:
Friday's Access Hollywood, a program carried
by NBC-owned stations and syndicated in other markets, featured a preview
of Stahl's then-upcoming October 28 60 Minutes interview with Iraq's
Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz about Iraq's role in terrorism. Access
Hollywood played a clip of Aziz denying that Iraq provided the anthrax as
he called the idea "ridiculous." To the Access Hollywood
reporter Stahl then commented: File that under American first, reporter second -- but just barely.
The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes dissected the new guidelines for an online "Daily Standard" article posted on Friday which was plugged by James Taranto's "Best of the Web" column for OpinionJournal.com [5]. An excerpt from the October 26 piece by Hayes: Imagine the Outcry if a newspaper editor permitted a Catholic priest to revise -- before publication -- a reporter's story about a pro-life rally. Or if a columnist called in a tobacco executive to edit an article about the hazards of smoking. Or if a publisher gave an advertiser the opportunity to rework a piece about his industry. Spontaneous panel discussions would break out across the country in response to these outrages. Mass Communications professors and retired reporters would gravely fret about the future of journalism. A loud chorus of media critics would condemn the miscreants. The journalist would almost certainly be fired. But such a transgression occurred shortly after last month's terrorist attacks, and because it was done in the name of "diversity," the editor was celebrated by his colleagues. Richard Luna, managing editor of the Salem, Oregon, Statesman Journal, invited Salem-area Muslims to edit the pages of his newspaper for any offensive content. No one criticized Luna, but if anyone had, he could have pointed to guidelines issued by the Society of Professional Journalists in his defense. Earlier this month, the group published guidelines for journalists who hope to avoid racial profiling and stereotyping in their reporting. The SPJ guidelines are absurd. They come perilously close to calling for racial and religious quotas in both news photography and composition, and they focus so obsessively on avoiding "offensive" words and phrases that truth and accuracy seem like secondary concerns. And if the guidelines read like a public relations project from the American Muslim Council -- a Washington, D.C., lobbying group that works "toward the political empowerment of Muslims in America" -- there's a good reason: The group helped develop the new diversity standards. SPJ guidelines instruct photographers to "seek out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds when photographing Americans mourning," and "seek out people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds when photographing rescue and other public service workers and military personnel." What's more, they should use visual images to "demystify veils, turbans and other cultural articles and customs." According to the guidelines, now is the time for journalists to "make an extra effort to include olive-complexioned and darker men and women, Sikhs, Muslims and devout religious people of all types in arts, business, society columns and all other news and feature coverage, not just stories about the crisis." The same goes for analysts. "Seek out experts on military strategies, public safety, diplomacy, economics and other pertinent topics who run the spectrum of race, class, gender and geography." The guidelines also warn against using misleading qualifiers. "Avoid using word combinations such as 'Islamic terrorist' or 'Muslim extremist' that are misleading because they link whole religions to criminal activity. Be specific: Alternate choices, depending on context, include 'Al Qaeda terrorists' or, to describe the broad range of groups involved in Islamic politics, 'political Islamists.' Do not use religious characterizations as shorthand when geographic, political, socioeconomic or other distinctions might be more accurate." But these concerns about qualifiers must be, well, qualified. "When writing about terrorism, remember to include white supremacist, radical anti-abortionists and other groups with a history of such activity." The guidelines also instruct journalists to "use spellings preferred by the American Muslim Council (AMC), including 'Muhammad,' 'Quran,' and 'Makkah,' not 'Mecca.'" No doubt, the most disturbing item on the SPJ list is guideline #12, the directive that gives cover to editors like Salem's Richard Luna. "Ask men and women from within targeted communities to review your coverage and make suggestions."... The best thing that can be said about the SPJ guidelines is that they will likely be ignored. They should be, because they raise more questions than they answer. Do we need a Muslim or "olive-complexioned" quote on this Iditarod story? Can we run this photo even though we can't determine the "religious backgrounds" of the people in it? Is it acceptable to use "radical anti-abortionist" in this story about "political Islamists?" If the hijackers claim to have died in the name of Allah, can we omit their religion? Does anyone know of a lower-middle-class white female with expertise on troop movements in Mazar-e Sharif?.... END Excerpt To read the Hayes article in full, go to: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/408vsxdt.asp [6] The guidelines were issued on October 12 to match resolutions passed at the SPJ's convention a week earlier. An excerpt from the press release about them, "SPJ Offers Guidelines for Coverage to Counter Ethnic and Religious Profiling": ...."Journalists need to cover all aspects of a complicated and emotional situation in a fair and accurate way," said Sally Lehrman, a medical technology writer and chair of the committee. "The repetition of certain images and wording can unintentionally lead to racial profiling and the hate crimes that come with it." The guidelines elaborate on two resolutions adopted Oct. 6 by the delegates to the SPJ National Convention that urge journalists to strive for ethical and informative coverage of all the communities throughout the United States and the world.... "The resolutions and the guidelines reflect the first principle of the SPJ Code of Ethics, 'Seek truth and report it'," said SPJ President Al Cross, a political columnist for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal. "Some of the pertinent points covered by that principle say that we should not stereotype, misrepresent, oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context, and that we should give voice to the voiceless, avoid imposing our own cultural values on others, and tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience boldly, even when it is unpopular to do so."... The SPJ Ethics Code encourages journalists to tell the story of the diversity of the human experience boldly even when it is unpopular to do so.... For the press release in full, go to: go to: http://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=39 [7] For the full text of all the guidelines, go to: http://www.spj.org/diversity_profiling.asp [8] [Web Update. Steven A. Smith, the Editor of the Salem Statesman Journal, sent this letter to Weekly Standard Pubisher Terry Eastland. Rich Luna, the paper's Managing Editor, requested that the MRC post this as his response to the Weekly Standard article cited above: "Mr. Eastland: In response, the Weekly Standard's Steve Hayes drafted this reply to Eastland: "See Candace Heckman's email to me below.
She was the editor present for the SPJ diversity panel and Curt's first
editor on the piece. Her email is self-explanatory. "Steve: I, too, attended the diversity panel during which Richard Luna said he let people into his newsroom to check staffers' work. As he spoke, some people, I included, wrinkled their foreheads, while others in the audience were quiet, attentive and passive in facial expression, as to say, 'hmm, that's a way to do it.' I was so disturbed, I told Curt to go back and talk to him about it to make sure we understood him correctly."]
The count of 16 for Early does not even include another two labels in the headline. And two of those liberal tags on Warner were attributed to claims of his Republican opponents, the third was a reference to an era, not to him, and the fourth came in a quote from a friend: "Mark never was ultra-liberal. He exhibited pragmatic social consciousness." Though the Post managed to squeeze in four times as many labels for Republican Early as Democrat Warner, both profiles were nearly identical in length at just under 3,000 words. Below are excerpts from both articles to show the labeling, with all the labels in ALL CAPS so they stand out. Since the article contained so few labels on Warner, who unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate as a liberal a few years ago, we'll start with reporter Carol Morello's October 26 front page story, headlined: "Warner Blurs Political Labels." The subhead: "Candidate Addresses Issues, Including Taxes, His Way." The labels: -- Wilder, who later endorsed Warner, said after the debate that the exchange revealed a core Warner vulnerability: In his attempt to shake the tag that he's just another LIBERAL taxer, he may come off as standing for nothing in particular. -- The Earley campaign mocks Warner's image on a Web site, www.whichwarner.com [9]. It reads, in part, "Once again, the voters of Virginia should ask themselves 'Which Warner' they are voting for -- the truck-racing, bluegrass-listening, gun-shooting good ole' boy Warner or the Warner who is just another LIBERAL politician that will do or say anything to win." -- "He had an interest in politics and a desire to serve," said Keith Frederick, his freshman roommate at George Washington. "There was a lot of discussion at the time whether the Great Society had failed or succeeded. There was a backlash, given the Nixon era, against limousine LIBERALS. Mark never was ultra-LIBERAL. He exhibited pragmatic social consciousness. The discussion was, 'How do we do this right?'" END Excerpts To read the profile in full, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/metro/va/elections/A53115-2001Oct25.html [10] Now for many more excerpts from the Post's October 25 front page profile of Early by Michael Leahy. "CONSERVATIVE Earley Employs More Moderate Tone," announced the headline. The subhead: "Campaign Less Focused on RELIGIOUS RIGHT." -- Beneath the photo appeared an exhortation meant to represent the fetus's thoughts -- "I can't vote but you can" -- followed by an excoriation of the senator, who hadn't been tough enough for SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES and evangelical Christians on the abortion issues of parental notification and consent. The brochure featured an endorsement of Earley, authored and distributed with the candidate's blessing by the antiabortion organization on whose board of directors he served... -- The fervid antiabortion messages of his early political days, less distinct now as he courts moderate voters in the governor's race, have led Democratic opponents to charge that he is a stealth candidate flying under political radar, trying to avoid close identification with the RELIGIOUS RIGHT. -- "Mark's always under control and pretty reasonable," says a longtime foe, state Del. Jay W. DeBoer (D-Petersburg), who can't remember ever seeing Earley angry. "It's a different image than a lot of [RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVEs] have....He has a nice look, you know?" -- Earley's style benefited from having watched a string of quixotic losers among Virginia's RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVES: He has learned what not to do in a campaign. -- His campaign is a contrast to that of his fellow RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVE Oliver North, who reveled in being incendiary during his 1994 U.S. Senate bid and, in the end, self-immolated. -- Abortion, the issue that as much as any other sparked his political birth in Chesapeake, has accounted since for the fierce loyalty he enjoys from Christian Coalition leader Pat Robertson and cadres of CONSERVATIVE evangelicals. -- The importance of RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVES in his ascendancy was never clearer than in 1997, when he won the Republican nomination for attorney general in a primary that drew only 8 percent of registered voters. The mobilized CHRISTIAN RIGHT proved a decisive bloc for Earley -- or, as Robertson puts it, "With a turnout that small, we had a disproportionate influence for Mark." -- His advisers dismiss as irrelevant his long bond to Robertson while acknowledging its possible cost, particularly in a close statewide general election where CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVES' influence will necessarily be dampened by a larger pool of centrist voters. -- With Earley's assent and Driscoll and her husband, Frank, at the reins, the society sent out the 1987 campaign brochure displaying the fetus photo. It was part of a well-orchestrated campaign by RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVES that included door-to-door volunteers, bent on taking down Democrat William Parker. -- His subtle charms were never more evident than in an audience with Virginia's AFL-CIO leaders. "Mark said he supported the key points of our [agenda] at that time," recalls Daniel LeBlanc, nowadays the president of the Virginia State AFL-CIO. "And so, even though he was a Republican CONSERVATIVE, we took a risk and supported him." -- Some of Earley's alliances were short-lived. As a state senator under fire from CONSERVATIVES, he reversed his positions on major labor issues. After first co-sponsoring a bill that would have permitted unions to collect an "agency fee" from nonunion members, he next renounced it, explaining his change this way: "I didn't understand fully what the bill did." -- He has abandoned, too, the CONSERVATIVE cause of school vouchers. But on the issues dearest to the Christian RIGHT, he has been steadfast, pushing successfully, among other things, for a moment of silence in the public schools and parental notification before minors' abortions. It was his deft persistence on the parental notification bill that drew Kincaid to him. -- Kincaid, a co-founder of the SOCIALLY CONSERVATIVE Family Foundation, saw Earley as the rare ideological purist who could win. "I was attracted to someone with brainpower and oratorical persuasiveness who could build a consensus on issues that normally polarize," Kincaid recalls. -- Along the way, he played a key role in shepherding the welfare reform and juvenile justice bills of then-Gov. George Allen, earning a reputation as a CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVE who could play the legislative game, deftly so. -- He says this ever so courteously, as if a listener could be pardoned for not seeing what he does. The eyelids droop. The blue eyes settle on a tree. He is a portrait of ease; it is what has brought him this far, closer to the prize than any RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVE. END Excerpts For the profile in full, go to:
Just when you thought we were all in this together. -- Brent Baker [12]
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Stop
us before we spread more Taliban propaganda. ABC News regularly runs Al-Jazeera
video of supposedly U.S.-caused civilian casualties in Afghanistan, airing
it more often by my observation than either CBS or NBC, but it's not
their fault Cokie Roberts suggested on Sunday. She blamed the spreading of
the video images, which so help the Taliban cause, on the lack of access
U.S. journalists are allowed by the Pentagon.
David
Westin, Cokie Roberts's boss, doesn't think the World Trade Center was
a legitimate military target but refused to say the same about the
terrorist targeting of the Pentagon building, headquarters of the
Department of Defense. Appearing at a Columbia University Graduate School
of Journalism event last Tuesday shown on C-SPAN over the weekend, the
President of ABC News demurred: "The Pentagon as a legitimate target?
I actually don't have an opinion on that." [See Web Update below]
A small
concession from CBS's Lesley Stahl who has decided she's "more
inclined" to believe the U.S. government than the Iraqi regime.
Diversity
and quotas in reporting, and above all nothing which would offend a
Muslim, before accuracy? Guidelines issued a few weeks ago by the Society
of Professional Journalists (SPJ), recommended to journalists that
"when writing about terrorism, remember to include white supremacist,
radical anti-abortionists and other groups with a history of such
activity" and to "ask men and women from within targeted
communities to review your coverage and make suggestions."
Both
major party candidates for Governor of Virginia are trying to portray
themselves as moderates, but only one has the assistance of the Washington
Post in his quest. Last week in front page profiles of Republican Mark
Early and Democrat Mark Warner, the Post employed various conservative
tags 16 times, including "social conservative," "religious
conservative," "religious right" and "Christian
right" to describe Republican Early and his supporters, but only
applied four liberal labels for Democrat Warner.
Insult
of the weekend. Liberal columnist Jack Germond on Inside Washington:
"I think the real cruel and unusual punishment is the terrorists have
to be locked up in a closed room for twelve hours with John Ashcroft. Now
that's really mean."