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From: hijab@cad.UUCP (Raif Hijab)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Kaddafi
Message-ID: <228@cad.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 27-Apr-86 18:17:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: cad.228
Posted: Sun Apr 27 18:17:44 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 1-May-86 02:32:44 EDT
References: <2545@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Organization: U. C. Berkeley CAD Group
Lines: 35
Summary: US News Reporting

In article <2545@decwrl.DEC.COM>, williams@kirk.DEC (John Williams 223-3402) writes:
> 
> 	I would like to remind the West Germans that the US has the
> most accurate news reporting in the world. It was through the free
> press that the US was able to eliminate the Nixon threat.

The reporting is accurate most of the time. However, this does not
take into consideration the news items that do NOT get reported, or
the items that get buried in page 37 with miniature headings, or 
the heavily slanted editorials and op-ed pages. In television and
radio it is a lot worse, where Nielsens dictate two minute coverage
of complex issues, and where pressure groups determine who gets their
views heard. On many issues, in-depth analysis is nonexistent. 
Built-in bias often creates a stampede mentality that does not allow
cool heads to express reasoned conclusions.

Then there is the issue of censorship, suttle and indirect, sometimes
self-imposed and at other times resulting from pressures from the
administration or effective pressure groups. An example of this
censorship was described by Alexander Cockburn in his Village Voice
column, of when New York Times editors struck the word "indiscriminate"
from foreign correspondent Thomas Friedman's August 3, 1982 report on
the Israeli bombing of Beirut. Friedman sent a lengthy telex expressing
his outrage,

	I am an extremely cautios reporter. I do not exagerate...
	You knew I was correct and that the word was backed up by
	what I had reported. But you did not have the courage -guts-
	to print it in the New York Times. You were afraid to tell
	our readers and those who might complain to you that the
	Israelis are capable of indiscriminately shelling an entire
	city.

Alexander Cockburn's "pro-Arab" sympathies caused him to lose his
Village Voice job. He currently writes for The Nation magazine.