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.''
With less then three minutes to go in the show Peter asked if anyone had a question that was not about Cuba. I raised my hand and Jennings actually asked me to step up to the microphone. Unfortunately a rude liberal raced up to the mic in front of me and started talking before I could reach him and throw him out of the way. He did get a rather firm knee in the kidney during the middle of his question. Damn liberals keep trying to shove me around, I take advantage of those actions and raised my knee just before I made contact with the rude liberal.
I was interviewed after the show by Channel 10 News. But don't expect to see it on T.V. I told them I thought they loaded the audience and the pannel with liberals. I told them The event only confirmed my oppinion that the journalist elite are detached from the general public and proof of that was in Jennings misquoting Todd Beamer and President Bush when he repeated the most famous war cry in our Nation saying "Letuce Roll".
It was unfortunate more Freepers didn't show up they could have gotten in the same way Shetlan and I did. I know Shetlan would appreciate the extra protection. I'm no small guy but basically I'm a gimp and my physical capibilties are not what they used to be. I do my best but our Ladies deserve better then me.
We need to get more people out at these events to protect our brave Freeper Ladies who go where no one else wants to. Sincerely Matthew
How about: "Do you have any reservations at all about making an extremely good living, living in the land of the free and home of the brave, preaching to American citizens, while still maintaining your Canadian citizenship? Any reservations at all?"
BTW, I believe the reason for Jennings misquote is that he wanted to make up for his lack of education by paraphrasing Bush's quote as "Let Us Roll." Somehow he thinks that would make him sound more "educated" than Bush. Sorry, Peter. It just doesn't have quite the same meaning as "Let's Roll!"
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