Posted on 02/07/2002 4:06:12 PM PST by PJ-Comix
One more story about whether Paula Zahn is sexy, or how the bags under Greta Van Sustren's eyes vanished, or the size of the pistol in Geraldo Rivera's pocket, and Peter Jennings might scream.
''I find it a bit tedious,'' the longtime ABC News anchor said Wednesday of the burst of journalists-as-celebrities news coverage touched off over the past few months as Fox News and CNN raid one another's talent barns.
''I recognize that those of you who write about TV have to write something every day,'' Jennings said. (Observe the endless chain: Viewers blame everything on TV, which in turn blames TV critics, who in turn beat their dogs savagely.) ``But I'm always amazed at how much heat the cable [networks] are able to generate in the daily press.
``We as a nation are inclined too much to personality. And personality can get in the way of the news, though I think often the public is able to separate the two.''
Jennings will be in Miami on Friday to host a ''town meeting'' before an invited audience at Miami-Dade Community College's Wolfson Campus on the news media's coverage of Sept. 11 and its aftermath. WPLG-ABC 10, which is sponsoring the meeting, will broadcast it live from 8 to 9 p.m, and will show it again Sunday at 11:30 a.m. The panel will include Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie, Cuban activist Ninoska Pérez Castellón, local radio commentator the Rev. Victor Curry, WPLG reporter Michael Putney and Herald Publisher Alberto Ibargüen.
CARRYING A GUN
The taint of celebrity journalism reached all the way to Afghanistan, Jennings said, where the much-traveled pioneer of TV hot-doggery Rivera, newly arrived at Fox News, announced he was not only carrying a gun on assignment but would kill accused terrorist Osama bin Laden with it if he got the chance.
''I had a number of questions about why he felt the need to carry a gun,'' Jennings said. ''It is contrary to the general ethics of journalism. But, it's true, there were some reporters who did it in Vietnam.'' (There's even a famous photo of Peter Arnett, then with The Associated Press and later a star correspondent at CNN, carrying an automatic weapon on a patrol with American soldiers.)
''But the fact he felt the need to tell us he was carrying a gun got him larger-than-life treatment and perhaps obscured his ability to tell us the story he was there to cover,'' Jennings continued. ``Geraldo Rivera has often seemed to be, or wanted to be, larger than life, and it hasn't helped his reporting.''
Rivera's problems aside -- he was also caught offering an ''eyewitness account'' from a battlefield he never visited -- Jennings believes one of the biggest obstacles to news coverage of the war in Afghanistan was lack of access for reporters.
''There was pretty much freedom of access across the board in Vietnam, you could work wherever you wanted,'' said Jennings, who served two short tours covering that war.
``The military came to resent the consequences of that. Now the press is always having to fight for access to military operations. In this war and the Gulf War, the military was determined to keep reporters at arm's length.
``Actually, this war was easier than the Gulf War. That was limited to a very defined area where it was simply impossible to go without U.S. military cooperation. But reporters could and did go to Afghanistan under their own steam.
``There are no rules about the relationship between the military and journalists. But the country would be better served if journalists had had greater access to the military effort.''
HEARING CITIZENS
Not all Americans agree with that, Jennings concedes. He's hosting town meetings in Detroit and Atlanta this week as well as Miami to hear what ordinary people think, and answer some questions about the media that were raised by the war.
''The relationship between the public and media has been a bigger issue since Sept. 11,'' Jennings said. ``There is a lot on their mind about our behavior -- a lot of questions about our behavior. Our relationship to national security. Our relationship to patriotism. Our relationship with the government. What we have done, or not done, in terms of explaining [the U.S.] relationship with the rest of the world.''
Jennings is at his irritating WORST when he gets on his high horse and lectures us on what patriotism should mean. Have you ever heard him blathering on this topic? He has some memorized routine about how we MUSTN'T confuse patriotism with nationalism. He also does a silly sermonette about how there isn't really an American culture because we are too "diverse." Please, Peter! Go back to Canada and spare us the pompous sermonettes.
He should know all about a country being too diverse, as Canada can't even decide what language to speak, and segments of the provinces still threaten to break off at any time.
Since he knows his popularity has dropped in the polls, he's just out campaigning, trying to "act" a bit more concerned than usual, so his poll numbers will go up, and his ABC bosses won't axe him.
Perhaps he should own up to it and say:" O.K. My Liberal tendencies DO obscure my ability to tell the stories I'm supposed to cover",instead of talking about Geraldo carrying a gun.Oh, you want Gun Control too,huh Petah?I agree w/ the above poster,Make sure you say "NO ONE LIKES YOU!"Please do that for the FReepers in L.A. Thank You!
And how many defenseless journalists were killed in Afghanistan?
''There was pretty much freedom of access across the board in Vietnam, you could work wherever you wanted,'' said Jennings ...
There were hundreds of reporters in Afghanistan. They were free to go wherever their courage would allow. No guts, no glory. Jennings chose the cowardly, safe route; Geraldo took a different approach.
BTW, on the local radio today, they were hyping up Peter's visit to Miami. I will definitely be taping this show tonight and hope that things at the "Town Meeting" do NOT go according to ABC's pre-planned course.
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