-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.smh.com.au/news/0111/18/world/world2.html
>>>So much for "fair & balanced", eh, what? Inconvenienced
Americans compared to everyone else ... Where's Fox?
A<>E<>R, RR of the N<<<
}}}>Begin
Are Americans getting the full picture?
A picture released by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
shows special forces troops riding mules alongside Northern
Alliance militiamen (fourth and sixth from right). Critics claim the
US press has become too reliant on information from official
sources, such as photos of special operations and air attacks.
Photo: AFP
Jingoistic, sugar-coated, superficial - those are just some of the
criticisms levelled at US television networks' coverage of the
conflict in Afghanistan in recent days - and not just by the foreign
competition.
Columnists for newspapers as diverse as the conservative Wall
Street Journal and the liberal New York Times have deplored what
they describe as the networks' shallow and soft-focus reporting.
The Journal's Tunku Varadarajan has attacked the superficial
analysis offered by CNN's "parachute" journalists, while the Times'
Caryn James lamented US television's knee-jerk pandering to the
public mood.
Weighing into the US cable stations and networks for their "myopic
view", James criticised editors for caving into patriotism "rather
than informing viewers of the complex, sometimes harsh realities
they need to know".
"If a priority of America's war on terror is holding a global coalition
together, it helps to know, without sugar-coating, what the rest of
the globe is thinking," she wrote.
At a media industry conference this week in Barcelona, Spain, the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC's) news chief said he
was startled by the contrast between US and European small-
screen coverage of the 40-day-old war.
"It's like watching two different wars," said Tony Burman, executive
director of Canada's national public broadcaster.
"The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) has focused very
much on the humanitarian issues in the region ... the human
dimension", while NBC, ABC and CBS had anchored their reports
"almost exclusively" around Pentagon briefings, he explained.
"There seems to be a real reluctance on the part of the US
television media to dwell on the human impact," he said.
Burman also noted that the "uncritical, hyper-patriotic" reporting
differed remarkably little between the three national networks, who
he felt were all toeing the administration line.
"They're in lockstep with the administration ... and there's no
distinction between the networks, which is unusual in a competitive
environment."
Bill Wheatley, vice president of NBC News, brushed aside the
accusations.
"(Our) coverage of the war isn't slanted in any way," he said. "Our
focus, quite properly, has been on the American war effort and
that's what our viewers expect."
US television coverage needed to be seen in the context of
September 11 and the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the
Pentagon which claimed some 4,500 lives, he pointed out.
As for objectivity and balance: "We haven't shied away from dealing
with the fact that there has been collateral damage ... and not
everything in the war has gone well," said Wheatley.
Nevertheless, some dissatisfied viewers are turning to foreign
media, notably the BBC, the CBC and Qatar-based Arabic channel
Al-Jazeera for their information.
One of those is Claire Namenko, a 53-year-old antiques dealer,
who lives in Detroit, Michigan, a city not far from the US-Canadian
border where many Americans can receive Canadian channels that
carry CBC programming.
"It's more complete ... more objective," she said, explaining her
preference for the CBC.
"You hear more about what the rest of the world thinks about the
war, and you get fewer soundbites from US officials."
There's no way to judge whether the US audience for the CBC or
BBC has increased since September 11, because neither channel
qualifies for ratings in the US.
But both broadcasters claim to have picked up viewers, around
September 11 and then again with the beginning of the US-led air
campaign against Afghanistan.
Another 26 small US channels have signed up for BBC's daily half-
hour news program since September 11, and the corporation's
commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, is selling its war expertise in an
advertising campaign featured in Newsweek, Time and the New
York Times magazine among others, according to BBC Worldwide
spokesman Josh Weinberg.
The message?
"There are 191 countries in the world. How many does your news
cover?"
AFP
Copyright � 2001. All rights reserved.
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