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http://www.spj.org/quill_issue.asp?ref=233
Asleep at the switch
Journalism�s failure to track Osama bin Laden
Simon Marks
It has become fashionable in the weeks since Sept. 11 (�Nine- Eleven�
in the clipped cadences of cable news-speak) to discuss the monstrous
failure of U.S. intelligence that led, in part, to the attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The phrase �asleep at the
switch� has become a mantra used to describe the inability of the
FBI, the CIA, and the Department of Defense to catch Osama bin Laden
before his Al Qaeda organization perpetrated their deadly deeds.
But consider this: On June 23, the Reuters news agency distributed a
report headlined �Bin Laden Fighters Plan anti-US attack.� The lead:
�Followers of exiled Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden are planning a
major attack on U.S. and Israeli interests.�
Two days later, it was United Press International�s turn to spread
the alarming news. In a dispatch dated June 25, the agency informed
its subscribers that �Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden is planning a
terrorist attack against the United States.� The following day,
another UPI report (�Bin Laden Forms New Jihadi Group�) described the
formalization of ties between bin Laden�s Al Qaeda and the Egyptian
branch of Islamic Jihad.
Unless you�re a maven of the Reuters and UPI wire feeds, the chances are that you
didn�t see any of those reports. A search of the country�s major newspaper and
broadcast network Web sites reveals that barely any consider
ed the stories worthy of publication.
That�s hardly surprising. At the time, the news industry was gorging itself on the
disappearance of Washington intern Chandra Levy, the alleged drinking habits of
Presidential daughter Jenna Bush and the latest 100-point
drop by the Dow. Let the record show that, in the context of the U.S. media before
Sept. 11, news of bin Laden�s plans to launch an attack against American citizens
didn�t even make it into �News in Brief.�
When the history of U.S. journalism at the turn of the century is written, it is to be
hoped that the summer of 2001 will be noted as the profession�s historic low point.
Ten years after the fall of the Soviet Union, news
coverage of events overseas had dwindled to a point where the world�s leading
terrorist mastermind didn�t warrant a mention on the nightly news � even when he was
directly threatening American citizens.
For the best part of a decade, the country�s broadcast networks in particular sought
to marginalize international news. NBC, CBS and ABC closed costly overseas bureaus,
fired staff specializing in global affairs and eager
ly embraced a domestically focused news agenda.
They justified their actions by opportunistically blaming the American public for a
lack of interest in global affairs. In April 1997, CBS News President Andrew Heyward
told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that �it�s just a f
act of television ratings life that almost without exception it�s very difficult to
score a number with international news.� NBC News Vice President Bill Wheatley told
the same newspaper that �a lot of foreign news after
the Cold War seemed to be less vital ... more complicated, less directly linked to
many Americans. How do you cover the former Soviet Union and make sense of it?�
Today, of course, the networks� infatuation with domestic news has come to a
screeching halt. Suddenly, �Osama bin Laden� doesn�t seem such a hard name to
pronounce, �Al Qaeda� no longer appears to be an alien concept, an
d the networks have found a way of covering Afghanistan.
And yet, the manner in which many of them have chosen to cover this epoch-changing
story reflects the deep crisis provoked by the cutbacks they made in their global
resources over the past decade. The first war to be cove
red by three competing, round-the-clock news networks is being reported by
correspondents who � for the most part � are inarticulate in the language of
international affairs and global diplomacy.
Consider the output of MSNBC, the 24-hour news channel operated by NBC News. Since
Sept. 11, the network�s Ashleigh Banfield has come to define the new style of global
crisis coverage. At 33, the former local news anchor
from Dallas is the rising star of network news, charged with helping her network reach
increasing numbers of younger viewers. Her first act upon arriving in Islamabad was to
change her hair color from blonde to brown, the
n purchase a seemingly endless supply of Pakistani scarves and robes.
She told The New York Times that she�d done this to remain �under the radar� in
Pakistan and proceeded to file a large number of reports in which bemused citizens of
Islamabad watched Banfield � very much �above the radar
� at this point � touring their city with a camera team in tow. �These people are very
poor� she informed viewers in hushed tones during one report, gesticulating at a group
of Pakistani homeless behind her.
MSNBC has never satisfactorily explained why Banfield dyed her hair to stay �under the
radar.� Reporters Amy Kellogg with Fox and Hillary Brown of ABC both appeared to feel
perfectly secure keeping their blonde locks and
western clothing. Short of uttering the colonial-era phrase �the natives are
friendly,� Banfield could not have done much more to patronize both her Pakistani
hosts and her audience.
Patronizing the audience is rapidly becoming the �modus vivendi� for America�s
broadcast networks. Experienced anchors like CNN�s Judy Woodruff are ordered to
�loosen up� by bosses who � just days before Sept. 11 � chose
to relaunch CNN Headline News as a network focusing on �lifestyle and entertainment
news.� Some of the nation�s finest broadcast writers � Tom Aspell of NBC, Jim Wooten
of ABC, Alan Pizzey of CBS � find themselves losing
the battle for network airtime as a new breed of young correspondents, recruited
directly from the country�s local news outlets, rise to the fore.
Youth is �in.� Experience is �out.� For a generation of war correspondents who learned
their craft in Korea, Vietnam, Biafra, Latin America and the Gulf, the Bush
administration�s �war on terror� represents one final, fle
eting day in the sun. The future belongs to the raw talents who are encouraged � in
some cases even instructed � to cover war as if it�s a travelogue.
It is not their fault that they lack the gravitas to report the subtleties of global
events. Reporters who spend 24 hours a day living and breathing the Chandra Levy story
cannot also stay abreast of the geopolitical circ
umstances in Central Asia. Besides, even in the face of the most compelling global
news story of our time, the U.S. networks have continued to maintain a policy of
limiting the information they present to their viewers.
For example, in mounting its war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the Bush
administration successfully won permission to station U.S. forces on air bases in the
former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is today r
uled by a deeply repressive, neo-Stalinist regime, and yet viewers have been offered
virtually no coverage of that nation�s appalling record on human rights and open
society reform.
Similarly, the Bush administration�s new, positive relationship with Russian President
Vladimir Putin has been held up to very little critical examination, despite the
Russian leader�s questionable commitment to democracy
and his vow to introduce a �dictatorship of law� in Russia.
These stories and others have found no time on America�s broadcast and cable networks,
despite being compelling matters of global import. After a while, a network that can�t
figure out how to �make sense� of the former So
viet Union doesn�t even bother to try.
There have been some notable exceptions. ABC�s David Wright, CNN�s Matthew Chance and
Nic Robertson are three correspondents whose work has shone brightly since the
conflict began. Each of them has brought erudite maturit
y to their reporting, calmly and skillfully explaining the events that they�ve
witnessed. ABC�s John Miller has continued to win deserved plaudits as the one network
correspondent who has consistently and doggedly tracked
bin Laden�s footsteps.
Public television has relied heavily on the global resources of Independent Television
News (ITN) of London. But in London, too, overseas news coverage is under threat. On
Nov. 22, at the very moment battles were raging f
or control of Jalalabad and Kunduz, Steve Anderson, the head of news for Britain�s
independent television network, opined that �the jury is still out on this question
[of whether viewers want more foreign news]. I don�t d
etect a notable clamor in the British audience to find out what�s happening in Sri
Lanka.�
At a time when the public is more eager for information about global affairs than it
has been since the end of the Cold War, the nation�s broadcast networks have never
been less prepared to answer the call.
It cannot be known whether widespread reporting of bin Laden�s June 25 threat against
U.S. interests might have prompted alert citizens to question the activities of the 19
hijackers plotting the attacks on the World Trad
e Center and the Pentagon. It cannot be known whether greater public scrutiny of Al
Qaeda might have led to demands within the U.S. government for more intelligence
information. It can, however, be stated with certainty t
hat in the months leading up to Sept. 11, U.S. media organizations were simply
disinterested in telling their readers, viewers and listeners about the activities of
bin Laden and his followers.
Many lessons can be learned from this historic abnegation of journalistic
responsibility.
One can only hope that the networks and their corporate owners will now continue to
embrace a global news agenda. But don�t be surprised if they seize the earliest
possible opportunity to turn away from the world and brin
g us instead unrelenting coverage of Congressman Gary Condit�s re-election campaign.
Simon Marks is president and chief correspondent of Feature Story
News, an independent broadcast news agency. He�s spent much of the
past decade covering the former Soviet Union for �The News Hour with
Jim Lehrer� and various public radio programs, and he hopes he�s made
sense of it.
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