RE: [iwar] [fc:CNN.Chief.Orders.'Balance'.in.War.News]

From: Mohammad Ozair Rasheed (ozair_rasheed@geocities.com)
Date: 2001-11-01 20:18:45
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Very interesting. :)

Regards,
Ozair

-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Cohen [mailto:fc@all.net] 
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2001 11:18 AM
To: Information Warfare Mailing List
Subject: [iwar] [fc:CNN.Chief.Orders.'Balance'.in.War.News]


CNN Chief Orders 'Balance' in War News
Reporters Are Told To Remind Viewers Why U.S. Is Bombing

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 31, 2001; Page C01

The chairman of CNN has ordered his staff to balance images of civilian
devastation in Afghan cities with reminders that the Taliban harbors
murderous terrorists, saying it "seems perverse to focus too much on the
casualties or hardship in Afghanistan."

In a memo to his international correspondents, Walter Isaacson said: "As
we get good reports from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, we must
redouble our efforts to make sure we do not seem to be simply reporting
from their vantage or perspective. We must talk about how the Taliban
are using civilian shields and how the Taliban have harbored the
terrorists responsible for killing close to 5,000 innocent people."

As more errant U.S. bombs have landed in residential areas, causing
damage to such places as a Red Cross warehouse and senior citizens'
center, the resulting television images have fueled criticism of the
American war effort. This has sparked a growing debate, which began with
the Osama bin Laden videotape, about how the media should handle
stage-managed pictures from Afghanistan.

"I want to make sure we're not used as a propaganda platform," Isaacson
said in an interview yesterday.

"We're entering a period in which there's a lot more reporting and video
from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan," he said. "You want to make sure
people understand that when they see civilian suffering there, it's in
the context of a terrorist attack that caused enormous suffering in the
United States."

While some CNN correspondents are concerned about having a "pro-America"
stamp on their reports, all the networks are clearly sensitive to
charges that they are playing into enemy hands. After national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice asked the network news chiefs not to show bin
Laden videotapes live and unedited, MSNBC and Fox News did not air the
next one and CNN showed only brief excerpts.

Jim Murphy, executive producer of the "CBS Evening News," said of the
CNN
instructions: "I wouldn't order anybody to do anything like that. Our
reporters are smart enough to know it always has to be put in context."

Murphy said he doesn't believe "the danger is extremely high that
showing what we know, and covering what the other side purports, is
really going to change the mood of the nation. We know a terrible thing
happened, it will take time to deal with and mistakes will be made along
the way. That's war."

NBC News Vice President Bill Wheatley took a similar tack, saying: "I'd
give the American public more credit, frankly. I'm not sure it makes
sense to say every single time you see any pictures from Afghanistan,
'This is as a result of September 11th.' No one's made any secret of
that."

But Fox News Vice President John Moody said the CNN directive is "not at
all a bad thing" because "Americans need to remember what started this.
. . . I think people need a certain amount of context or they obsess on
the last 15 minutes of history. A lot of Americans did die."

To be sure, the cable networks, with their American-flag logos, carry
hours of speeches and briefings each day by President Bush, Donald
Rumsfeld, Tom Ridge, Ari Fleischer and other administration figures. Few
viewers complain about this coverage being one-sided.

Taliban leaders are courting world sympathy, especially in the Islamic
world, by playing up the bomb damage, even as Pentagon officials dismiss
Afghan claims of 1,000 civilian casualties as wildly exaggerated. And
the issue is hardly a new one. CNN took considerable criticism during
the Persian Gulf War over correspondent Peter Arnett's reports of damage
from Baghdad.

Isaacson's memo said the network, in covering Afghan casualties, should
not "forget it is that country's leaders who are responsible for the
situation Afghanistan is now in."

Said Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism: "It
sounds as though they're worried about people being mad at them more
than about providing the information that is useful."

But Rosenstiel said the networks face a real dilemma, which is "how do
you communicate information that some in your audience might perceive as
sympathetic to the enemy? . . . If people get so mad at you that they
tune you out, you're also failing."

In a second memo, Rick Davis, CNN's head of standards and practices,
said it "may be hard for the correspondent in these dangerous areas to
make the points clearly," so he suggested language for the anchors:

" 'We must keep in mind, after seeing reports like this from
Taliban-controlled areas, that these U.S. military actions are in
response to a terrorist attack that killed close to 5,000 innocent
people in the U.S.' or, 'We must keep in mind, after seeing reports like
this, that the Taliban regime in Afghanistan continues to harbor
terrorists who have praised the September 11 attacks that killed close
to 5,000 innocent people in the U.S.,' or 'The Pentagon has repeatedly
stressed that it is trying to minimize civilian casualties in
Afghanistan, even as the Taliban regime continues to harbor terrorists
who are connected to the September 11 attacks that claimed thousands of
innocent lives in the U.S.' . . .

"Even though it may start sounding rote, it is important that we make
this point each time."

But aren't viewers who don't live in caves well aware of the Sept. 11
backdrop?

"People do already know it," Isaacson said yesterday. "We go to Ground
Zero all the time. We cover the memorial services. We cover people's
lives that have been touched. I just want to make sure we keep a sense
of balance."

Howard Kurtz hosts CNN's weekly media program.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company


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