IT’S
THE FORMAT, STUPID…
Get a respectful interviewer, in this case
Lou Dobbs, to ask Walter Cronkite some direct questions and you’ll
get some blunt answers and some much-needed truth and
perspective. Stick Greg Palast on Politically Incorrect
with Bill Maher and the usual array of comedians, models and
wingnuts, and you’ll see the BBC’s premier
investigative reporter’s work on the Florida election fiasco
get blown off by the host…
Monday, April 8, 2002
Lou Dobbs of CNN’s Moneyline has been
practically the only one hammering away at the Andersen-Enron
story lately, so I’ve been keeping some tabs on Dobbs’
commentary. But Dobbs further piqued my interest when I
heard that Walter Cronkite would be on Monday (4/8) to discuss
coverage of the “war against terrorism.” Having
grown up with Cronkite, it’s always a treat to see him and
remember what class he brought to journalism. On top of
that, Greg Palast was scheduled to show up on Politically
Incorrect later on Monday night. That Cronkite and Palast (one of
the few real investigative reporters left) should show up on TV
on the same day seemed to me to be an amazing occurrence to be
cherished in these days of corporate-controlled messages coming
out of “newsrooms.” …Or so I thought…
Before getting to Cronkite, Dobbs tackled
the Middle East. After a brief introduction in which Dobbs
outlined the ramifications of Powell’s Middle East mission
(could it spell renewed respect for the U.S. as “peacemaker”
or allow for the rebuilding of a coalition against the “war
on terror” if successful?), Henry Kissinger, who remains one
of the most boring people to ever appear on TV, showed up as
Dobbs’ Middle East expert guest. (I would have been
far happier to see the most recent Secretary of State, Maddy
Albright, on calling a spade a spade, instead of this retread
from thirty years ago.)
Dobbs asked what a future Palestinian state
would look like. According to Kissinger a Palestinian state would
be on the West Bank in the area they hold now, but he doesn’t
think going back to the ’67 borders is realistic at this
stage. Dobbs brought up the fact that there hasn’t
been a suicide bombing in 8 days, and Kissinger, in what appeared
to be his attempt at a joke, said that this indicated that those
who planned attacks “were otherwise occupied with defending
themselves.”
Dobbs’ last question was about what should be expected from the Bush Administration in terms of “intensity”. Maybe I’m too sensitive at this point, but he asked what I interpreted to be a leading question which, I thought, referred to Bush/Kissinger’s comments blaming Clinton for the current Middle East flare-up. Kissinger weaseled around, croaking out that he never did anything intense without first doing a lot work beforehand, but did say that there would be intensity in the initial stages of any negotiations, then certain “intense points” as things unfolded.
Compared to the Kissinger interview, the
next story on shareholders’ Enron suit and the charges
against the nine banks (with Dobbs saying the shareholders were
suing for actually very little money) was downright titillating.
Dobbs went back to more war coverage with a
report on an assassination attempt earlier in the day on the
interim Defense Minister in Afghanistan. Then he reported that
U.S. forces are now engaged in “Operation Mountain Lion”
and digging around more caves. It seems we’ve moved from
reptiles to mammals, so I’m guessing that the next operation
might be named after birds. Or perhaps crustaceans?
Finally, it was time for Walter Cronkite!!
Dobbs opened with comments about the lack of coverage in this
war. Cronkite talked about Viet Nam and how it was a new
type of guerilla war, which caused trouble for the U.S. military.
Afghanistan, he said, is a “war in the shadows” and is
also very difficult and new for us since we really don’t
know who’s involved at any given moment. But, he said
bluntly, “We should be there to cover it.” Dobbs
asked if the current situation is “changing how we view the
world.” Cronkite said it certainly “makes us
think about our status in the world and how people view us.
The chances for future terror attack here at home has to worry us…
if it doesn’ worry us, we’re blind.”
Dobbs then commented, “After 7
months, to this point, no U.S. journalist has accompanied U.S.
soldiers into combat…how do you feel about that?”
Well, Cronkite didn’t mince any words. “It’s
wrong, it’s against the democratic principle. We not only
have right to know, we have a duty to know. We need independent
people, not attached to army, to report back to us.”
Dobbs continued by describing Cronkite’s
WWII reporting, including how he parachuted into the Netherlands,
and the dangers of his Viet Nam experiences and asked Cronkite’s
opinion about the military’s excuse that operations are too
“dangerous” for reporters. Cronkite jumped on
this, saying “It’s a phony argument, absolutely a
phony argument so they can continue to do their work in the dark.
…They’d like to be not bothered by the press covering
their operations…but they owe it to us, the people have the
right to know …in WWII, there was a censorship system that
worked… We can be accredited and be right with them all the
way…”
Dobbs then asked if Cronkite was “surprised”
about how during the last 30 years, the press has been less
adversarial. “Yes, I sure am,” he replied. “I
can’t understand why they aren’t screaming out loud. I
wonder, and I hate to wonder in a way that sounds conspiratorial…I
wonder if the news organizations are having troubles with their
budgets… they know how expensive it is these days…I
wondering if they’re saying ‘it’s so expensive, we’re
getting along alright with briefings from the Pentagon and from
the field…it’s good enough for the people…’”
Then he basically said news organizations weren’t living up
to their responsibility if that was their approach.
It wasn’t flashy, but it was sure was
good to see Cronkite getting some respect and telling some truths
that needed to be told! And I had to wonder how election
night might have been far different if a straight shooter like
Cronkite had been on to counter the likes of an NBC crowd who was
being told how to call the results from behind the scenes by the
Jack Welch-John Ellis team. (And, by the way, where are those
tapes that Rep. Waxman has been trying to get hold of?}
Dobbs finished off with a report on Merrill
Lynch’s suspect stock ratings and an interview with the
Governor of Nevada who thinks his state has an uphill battle in
fighting the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site. All in all,
Dobbs’ Moneyline spent less time on stocks and money and
more time on news uncomplimentary to the Administration and Big
Business than most of the “straight” news shows I’ve
seen lately…
Cronkite’s appearance whet my appetite
for later when Greg Palast appeared on Politically Incorrect. I
was particularly interested in how the panel was “weighted”—would
Palast have to face off against three blondes from Republican
think tanks? And what snide remarks would be coming from Maher?
As it turned out, there were no blonde
Republican babes. Palast shared the platform with Bob Odenkirk, a
comedian; Floyd Brown, head of the Young Americas Foundation and
manager of the Ronald Reagan Ranch; and Roshumba, a model and
“correspondent” for Entertainment Tonight.
It’s too bad people like Greg Palast
have to waste their time on shows like this. I don’t
recall anything worthwhile coming out of the comedian’s
mouth and Roshumba…well, all she could really offer was how
she was in NYC on September 11—over and over again.
Maher opened by showing Palast’s book,
“The Best Democracy Money Can Buy” and asked, “What
about the book?” Floyd, the Reagan rancher started off
with, “I think America is the greatest country on earth…This
is another left wing conspiracy book…big business doesn’t
own America.” He was met with some hoots and groans
and lots of cross talking and the complete degeneration of the
conversation.
Palast managed to get in the zinger that
“$4 million bought a fixed election in Florida” and the
crowd cheered. Fending off Floyd, Palast continued, “I’m
stuck reporting in Britain, because my reports can’t get on
TV here…They hired a Republican company to hit voters, black
voters… Why don’t we auction off elections?”
Roshumba said that “Yes, the election
was ‘incorrect’ but this is America so it’s all in
balance…One election doesn’t determine what America is
all about…” Apparently she hasn’t witnessed the
pushing through of the Bush agenda and the destruction of many
Clinton initiatives even though there is really no mandate to do
so…
Palast managed to say that American TV
bosses “Keep my reports off American television because the
American public would not accept that the election was rigged…”
to another round of applause.
Floyd went into a riff during which the word
“kook” was uttered, and Palast responded with “I’m
the official reporter for the BBC, so if you want to call me a
kook, that’s OK.”
Then it was time for Maher to regain control
of the show by doing a gratuitous Al Gore smear—“Al
Gore lost the election because, let’s face it, he tried to
end charisma as we know it….” He then continued by
blowing off the election—“We went through all this with
Alec Baldwin…We get it…”
Maher tried to redeem himself by going into
a tirade about George Bush. “You said George Bush was
auctioned off…he was very inexperienced, had only been in
office for 5 years. They created a person…’a reformer
with results.’ Oh yeah, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, George
Bush--oh yeah, they are the real reformers.”
Palast tried to illustrate how Bush was
created with “his daddy’s money, daddy’s
connections. If his name was Smith…Where do you think he
went to work? He went to work for Khashoggi, the last guy his
father pardoned…isn’t that creepy, don’t you
think?” The audience apparently agreed and applauded
loudly.
After a break Roshumba went back to the
issue of the lost black votes and tried to offset it by pointing
out that Bush had appointed Rice and Powell. Palast said
that this was not the point. “The point is they knocked off
thousands of black voters.”
At this point Maher again blew it off by saying, “This is so September 10…we’ve moved on.”
…Moved on to his random airport check
in Las Vegas and profiling.
Palast related a profiling story about an
Islamic woman who was targeted and is now being charged with
felonies because she said “yes” to an Islamic meal…
Palast had a good line with “The next
suicide bomber is not going to dress like Lawrence of Arabia…If
the profiling is racial we’re in danger when we get on that
plane…it’s not racial…” trying to explain
that we had to get the people who are paying for these acts and
trying to get through the other panelists’ thick skulls that
we would be missing the boat if passengers were profiled solely
on the basis of race.
Roshumba came out in favor of profiling
because she had been in New York on September 11. “Where
were you on September 11?” she asked each panelist…Maher
cut her down, exclaiming “SO WHAT!!” Floyd said
we needed profiling “because they are all Arab,”
obviously having missed the point of Palast’s earlier
comments.
The conversation then careened on to the definition of terrorism, which Palast described as any act targeting civilians. Maher said the U.S. did it, too, citing Dresden and Sherman’s March to the Sea. Roshumba, flashing her E.T. journalistic skills, made her most important point of the night by saying that “We should all kiss and make up.” Floyd said the problem in the Middle East was Arafat. Palast tried to bring in the Saudis. Underneath all the cross talk just before the break, Palast got out the statement that “The real Don Corleones in this are the Saudis.”
It was a very frustrating show to watch.
Palast managed to throw out a few nuggets and the audience was
clearly behind him, but with no organized discussion about what
was in the book, Palast’s efforts were fragmented at best.
On top of that, he had to contend with Floyd the Reagan rancher,
the silly Roshumba, and the comedian who was simply taking up
space. To see this top investigative reporter fighting to
get a word in was disheartening, to say the least. To hear
Bill Maher essentially blow off Palast’s work on the rigging
of the Florida election must have been especially galling for
Palast.
I wonder what Walter Cronkite would have
thought if he had seen this miserable display? And a more
sobering thought…if he had been a guest on Politically
Incorrect or even a Crossfire, would he have been blown off,
too??
Copyright 2002, Gloria R. Lalumia
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