[Peace-discuss] free press and 'script approval'

[Ricky Baldwin]

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=381438

Robert Fisk: How the news will be censored in this war
A new CNN system of 'script approval' suggests the
Pentagon will have nothing to worry about
25 February 2003



Already, the American press is expressing its approval
of the coverage of American forces which the US
military intends to allow its reporters in the next
Gulf war. The boys from CNN, CBS, ABC and The New York
Times will be "embedded" among the US marines and
infantry. The degree of censorship hasn't quite been
worked out. But it doesn't matter how much the
Pentagon cuts from the reporters' dispatches. A new
CNN system of "script approval" – the iniquitous
instruction to reporters that they have to send all
their copy to anonymous officials in Atlanta to ensure
it is suitably sanitised – suggests that the Pentagon
and the Department of State have nothing to worry
about. Nor do the Israelis. 

Indeed, reading a new CNN document, "Reminder of
Script Approval Policy", fairly takes the breath away.
"All reporters preparing package scripts must submit
the scripts for approval," it says. "Packages may not
be edited until the scripts are approved... All
packages originating outside Washington, LA (Los
Angeles) or NY (New York), including all international
bureaus, must come to the ROW in Atlanta for
approval." 

The date of this extraordinary message is 27 January.
The "ROW" is the row of script editors in Atlanta who
can insist on changes or "balances" in the reporter's
dispatch. "A script is not approved for air unless it
is properly marked approved by an authorised manager
and duped (duplicated) to burcopy (bureau copy)...
When a script is updated it must be re-approved,
preferably by the originating approving authority." 

Note the key words here: "approved" and "authorised".
CNN's man or woman in Kuwait or Baghdad – or Jerusalem
or Ramallah – may know the background to his or her
story; indeed, they will know far more about it than
the "authorities" in Atlanta. But CNN's chiefs will
decide the spin of the story. 

CNN, of course, is not alone in this paranoid form of
reporting. Other US networks operate equally
anti-journalistic systems. And it's not the fault of
the reporters. CNN's teams may use clichés and don
military costumes – you will see them do this in the
next war – but they try to get something of the truth
out. Next time, though, they're going to have even
less chance. 

Just where this awful system leads is evident from an
intriguing exchange last year between CNN's reporter
in the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah, and Eason
Jordan, one of CNN's top honchos in Atlanta. 

The journalist's first complaint was about a story by
the reporter Michael Holmes on the Red Crescent
ambulance drivers who are repeatedly shot at by
Israeli troops. "We risked our lives and went out with
ambulance drivers.... for a whole day. We have also
witnessed ambulances from our window being shot at by
Israeli soldiers... The story received approval from
Mike Shoulder. The story ran twice and then Rick Davis
(a CNN executive) killed it. The reason was we did not
have an Israeli army response, even though we stated
in our story that Israel believes that Palestinians
are smuggling weapons and wanted people in the
ambulances." 

The Israelis refused to give CNN an interview, only a
written statement. This statement was then written
into the CNN script. But again it was rejected by
Davis in Atlanta. Only when, after three days, the
Israeli army gave CNN an interview did Holmes's story
run – but then with the dishonest inclusion of a line
that said the ambulances were shot in "crossfire" (ie
that Palestinians also shot at their own ambulances). 

The reporter's complaint was all too obvious. "Since
when do we hold a story hostage to the whims of
governments and armies?We were told by Rick that if we
do not get an Israeli on-camera we would not air the
package. This means that governments and armies are
indirectly censoring us and we are playing directly
into their own hands." 

The relevance of this is all too obvious in the next
Gulf War. We are going to have to see a US army
officer denying everything the Iraqis say if any
report from Iraq is to get on air. Take another of the
Ramallah correspondent's complaints last year. In a
package on the damage to Ramallah after Israel's
massive incursion last April, "we had already
mentioned right at the top of our piece that Israel
says it is doing all these incursions because it wants
to crack down on the infrastructure of terror.
However, obviously that was not enough. We were made
by the ROW (in Atlanta) to repeat this same idea three
times in one piece, just to make sure that we keep
justifying the Israeli actions..." 

But the system of "script approval" that has so marred
CNN's coverage has got worse. In a further and even
more sinister message dated 31 January this year, CNN
staff are told that a new computerised system of
script approval will allow "authorised script
approvers to mark scripts (ie reports) in a clear and
standard manner. Script EPs (executive producers) will
click on the coloured APPROVED button to turn it from
red (unapproved) to green (approved). When someone
makes a change in the script after approval, the
button will turn yellow." Someone? Who is this
someone? CNN's reporters aren't told. 

But when we recall that CNN revealed after the 1991
Gulf War that it had allowed Pentagon "trainees" into
the CNN newsroom in Atlanta, I have my suspicions.   


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more
http://taxes.yahoo.com/