Posted on 03/01/2003 10:01:53 PM PST by kattracks
CBS is now downplaying the role played by former Attorney General Ramsey Clark in securing Dan Rather's interview with Saddam Hussein.
"That’s definitely an overstatement," said CBS spokeswoman Sandy Genelius when NewsMax’s Wes Vernon asked about Clark’s "clearing the path" for the controversial televised one-on-one discussion in which Rather asked soft-ball questions.
CBS's sudden reluctance to credit Clark for obtaining the interview is not surprising in view his notorious fondness for siding with anti-American foreign leaders against his own country.
Since leaving the Johnson administration where he served as attorney general, Clark has achieved considerable notoriety by associating himself with ultra left-wing causes. Most recently, as NewsMax has reported, he has fronted for the North Korean-oriented Workers World Party’s A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) in organizing appeasement demonstrations to oppose President Bush’s policy in Iraq.
Returning NewsMax’s call four days after our original inquiry as to where the idea for a Rather/Saddam interview originated, Genelius said the Iraqi strongman is "a key figure world figure right now. Pretty much every news organization on the planet has been trying to get an interview with him. So it’s not a unique idea for CBS News to interview him."
Ramsey Clark‘s involvement, according to the CBS spokeswoman, stems from "the relationship he has with the Iraqis. And he put in a good word for CBS News and for Dan."
One wonders what the good word was - did Clark assure Saddam that Rather - reportedly a close friend of Clark's, could be counted on to avoid asking tough questions. If so, Rather didn't let him down.
Since NewsMax attempted its first contact with CBS News, a dispute has arisen between the White House and the TV network over who from the administration should be allowed to go on the air and rebut Hussein's propaganda.
"We made the offer for a senior administration official, and they declined. That’s fine," Genelius told us, "Our feeling is it was inappropriate for our broadcast to have a [White House] spokesperson on the program. We felt that with the events in the world being what they are right now that a senior administration official was appropriate if in fact they wanted to respond."
The White House rejected CBS offers to put President Bush himself, Vice President Cheney, or Secretary of State Colin Powell on the air to balance Saddam. The administration asked for time to respond, but believed that putting a "senior official" on the air with the dictator would lend the dignity of "moral equivalence" to his arguments. Some have equated it with a hypothetical 1940 radio or movie newsreel program interviewing Adolph Hitler, with Franklin D. Roosevelt answering him.
Sources tell NewsMax that other news outlets (unnamed) that went after an interview with Saddam also viewed Ramsey Clark as the logical go-between.
Some critics---the Washington Times Friday and former Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R.-Calif.) at a pro-Bush rally in Washington Saturday---focused more on what Rather did not ask than the questions he actually did ask.
The Times noted the absence of any mention of 12 years of UN resolutions being dishonored by Saddam. Dornan told a crowd gathered near the Washington Monument that Rather should at least have asked about the people Saddam has killed or tortured.
"Wouldn’t that have been good journalism to ask him about that?" the former lawmaker (now radio talk show host) asked.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
The Stalinist, Clark, set up the interview for Rather. CBS admitted that much. What they did not count on, however, was the power of the new media to lay bare their own political agenda.
Welcome to the 21st century, CBS. There's a reason why we no longer trust you.
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