Wednesday, April 16, 2003

CNN kowtows to and slants news for dictators

In an April 11 revelation on the New York Times editorial page, Eason Jordan, CNN chief news executive, revealed that CNN had kept its Baghdad bureau open, even after some of their Iraqi employees had been arrested and tortured and the information minister had threatened to assassinate reporters if they went to Northern Iraq.

Everyone should know by now that a free-world news service is not allowed to operate in a totalitarian country if it tells the unvarnished truth. That is why Iraqi "minders" were present at any time a CNN correspondent left his hotel, and why so many Iraqis who "loved Saddam" could be found on Baghdad's streets.

So it should not be a shock to anyone to learn that a study by the Media Research Center (MRC) finds that CNN, which is allowed a Havana bureau, is a "propaganda tool for Fidel Castro's government" and a "megaphone for a dictator."

Those of us who remember Peter Arnett reporting from a destroyed Baghdad biological weapons plant, in front of a sign reading "Baby Milk Factory," while mouthing the words approved by an Iraqi censor, shouldn't be too terribly shaken by these findings.

The MRC studied all the CNN coverage from Cuba since the bureau was opened five years ago, and found it fails to offer fair and balanced coverage of the island dictatorship. The Center studied 212 news reports and found that CNN gave "six times more air play" to Castro or communist spokesmen than to non-communists such as Catholic leaders or dissidents.

The study also found that CNN gave six times more air play to Cubans who supported Castro's policies than to the opposition. "This left American audiences with the impression that Castro's government is overwhelmingly popular among the Cuban public," the study said.

CNN denies the MRC findings, stating that in the past six months, 20 critical stories had been filed, and that Vladimiro Roca, just released after almost five years in a Castro prison for petitioning for real elections, had been interviewed. It also points proudly to coverage of the mid-May 2002 Jimmy Carter visit, which itself provided a regrettable platform for a diplomatically-attired Castro.

The MRC also claims that CNN covers Castro as a "celebrity rather than a tyrant" and shows Cuba as a charming, normal country rather than one "held in the grip of a dictatorship's secret security apparatus." Garbage in; garbage out.

Again the memory hearkens back to stories CNN reported from Soviet Russia in the 1980s, wherein the strong environmental efforts of the compassionate Communist Party were showcased from "pristine" locations where fish and fowl abounded. Now we know that Russia is more like a sewer, and that the Party never let environmental concerns stand in the way of industrial growth or military exigencies.

The MRC recommends that CNN increase its investigative journalism in Cuba, report on the welfare of political prisoners, and update the status of Cuba's independent journalists.

Another critic is the Florida-based pro-democracy group Cuba Libertad, which wrote a May 9 letter to the CNN chairman accusing the network of becoming "just another tool of Castro's propaganda machine," according to Jennifer Harper in the May 11, 2002, Washington Times. Cuba Libertad's President writes that "CNN has failed to live up to its stated commitment to provide comprehensive, fair and balanced reporting in Cuba...."

And where is CNN with the April 2003 Castro crackdown on dissidents? Missing in action again? CNN's reliance on Clintonistas in all areas of expertise is transparent at best. With the advent of Operation Iraqi Freedom, CNN viewers were treated to analysis by General Wesley Clark, who was Clinton's NATO commander. Clark was quick to disparage the Iraqi operation, probably to enhance his own presidential ambitions, which at best fail the laugh test. By groveling to tyrants, CNN has lost all credibility.

By blacking out news of Saddam's treachery, CNN now reveals it has no shame. By burying the CNN story on Page A11 in small type under an innocuous headline, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution demonstrates it shares that lack of both credibility and shame.

William Fielder

Peachtree City

[Fielder is a retired Army officer with 40 years experience in U.S. intelligence.]