U.S. TV lost focus on war, says editor

New Haven Register ^ | May 06, 2003 | Mary E. O’Leary

[Chirodoc]

NEW HAVEN — A senior editor at Newsweek, Michael Hirsh, told a Yale audience recently that he was "fairly appalled" by television’s coverage of the Iraqi war. "This has not been the media’s finest hour," he said.

Hirsh, who won the Overseas Press Award in 2001, said war broadcasts from Great Britain and Canada were so different from American broadcasts that one might have thought they were covering two different wars.

He called American TV "self- absorbed" and "jingoistic" and said the natural skepticism of the media was lost after 9/11.

Hirsh was on a panel with Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, and William Wohlforth of Dartmouth College.

It was one of several teach-ins held this spring and addressed the future of multilateralism versus America going it alone.

He said he disagreed with those who feel Americans and Europeans see the world in profoundly different ways and that the European embrace of multilateralism is an expression of its weakness.

Hirsh said America created most of the international institutions now under stress and he predicted a return to some multilateralism, particularly in a strengthened role for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

"There is no inevitability to anti-Americanism," Hirsh said, who did not see any major alliances building against the United States.

All the panelists agreed that there has never been a sovereign state that has dominated the world as the United States does.

Wohlforth said a lot of the world’s problems can’t be solved by the United States acting alone, from the environment to the economy to containing disease.

Hirsh referred to President Bush’s stab at diplomacy "disastrously bad," while Wohlforth said, "It’s almost intended to offend."

The Dartmouth professor, who got his doctorate at Yale University, said he thought the "big flaw in the middle of the imperial doughnut" was the question of America’s willingness to pay for nation building in Iraq.

He said the United States won’t be able to sustain its imperial strategy if it stays preoccupied with tax cuts.

Zedillo was worried that the significant economic and political costs of the war will translate into security costs.

"Global problems need global solutions," observed Zedillo, and right now, people aren’t talking.

He said an important benchmark will be the meeting of the major Western powers in early June.

If they are not talking about getting the world economy moving again, "it will be very bad for the world and certainly for the United States of America," Zedillo said.

©New Haven Register 2003

[muawiyah]

There it is ~ the next new reason the left will advance for not having tax custs ~ that if we cut taxes we won't have money to conquer the world and run our empire.

ROTFLMAOPMPOAOAO (over and over)

[HassanBenSobar]

Anyone who uses the term 'jingoistic' is automatically branding himself an idiot.

[Sam Cree]

So Hirsh thinks that, even though the media were hopelessly pessimistic while we were convincingly winning, they still weren't "skeptical" enough?

Remind me never to buy a Newsweek.

[Shermy]

Close to a classic. Almost every line in this article is a lefty cliche about the world.

But here's an odd one.

Hirsh said America created most of the international institutions now under stress and he predicted a return to some multilateralism, particularly in a strengthened role for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Nato? I suupose this guy doesn't read French - just sticks to the Guardian.

[SpeakLittle_ThinkMuch]

I'm sure Mr. Hirsh's mother is the only person in the country who has ANY interest in what he thinks.

[The Electrician]

A senior editor at Newsweek, Michael Hirsh, told a Yale audience recently that he was "fairly appalled" by television’s coverage of the Iraqi war. "This has not been the media’s finest hour," he said.

Hmmm... And this is from Newsweek, that paragon of news sources with integrity... What was that story that they spiked because they were unwilling to tell the truth about Clinton? Does the name "Monica" ring a bell?

[roderick]

I haven't bought a Time, Newsweek or US News or viewed Dano since the mid 1980's. Why pay $ or waste time just to be lied to?

[KarlInOhio]

Where is the Barf Alert? I demand a Barf Alert!

particularly in a strengthened role for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Huh? NATO was created to prevent the Soviet Union from rolling across the North German Plain and through the Fulda Gap. Since there is not threat from the Soviet Union, there is no need for NATO. Have a decade late victory parade and then shut it down. Organizations which outlive their purpose just end up looking for trouble (see NATO's actions in Yugoslavia's successor states).

In large part, the argument for multilateralism is a question of whether France and the UN are going to be smiling or frowning at us while stabbing us in the back.

[Faraday]

NEWS FLASH! Left-wing media and academics are "deeply concerned" with President Bush's policies at home and internationally! Oh, whatever will we do?

[johnb838]

Yet another stab at relevance. They still don't understand that they need us a helluva lot more than we need them. Stop trading with us? Ha! It would be good for us to eat our own dog food for a while.

[borkrules]

Hey, Tom!

[keithtoo]

"Hirsh, who won the Overseas Press Award in 2001, said war broadcasts from Great Britain and Canada were so different from American broadcasts that one might have thought they were covering two different wars."

Yes, they were very different - except for ABC and CNN. The main difference was, that the Brits and the Canucks were WRONG, and the American coverage was ACCURATE! After all, a 3-week war aint bad.

[dinok]

I guess the press is only doing well when its bashing its own nation and siding with murdering dictators.

I wonder if in World war II Mr. Hirsh would have been speaking up against FDR going after Hitler.

[TaMoDee]

I'm with you. The problem with Mr. Hirsh is that his printed matter is 7-8 days old by the time you buy it (and stinks like old fish wrap anyways) while the TV coverage is real time. Mr Hirsh cannot take that and is green.

[geedee]

[chainsaw]

A senior editor at Newsweek, Michael Hirsh, told a Yale audience recently that he was "fairly appalled" by television’s coverage of the Iraqi war. "This has not been the media’s finest hour," he said.

I guess liberals don't like it when the truth can't be manipulated.

[blam]

"I haven't bought a Time, Newsweek or US News or viewed Dano since the mid 1980's. Why pay $ or waste time just to be lied to?"

Ditto, I swapped them all in for Insight Magazine, the editor is a FReeper. (Paul Rodriguez)

[MainFrame65]

Yet another WHINE tasting among these sub-telligentsia. They seem to think that if they all get together in their little self-congratulatory groups and conduct these circular back-pattings they can change the world back to the way they want it to be. Not any more, I think.

[Tamzee]

Liberal pouting bump

[montag813]

Hirsh was on a panel with Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization

Is this former Mexican president Zedillo? Wouldn't his expertise be better suited to being "Director of the Study of Corruption"?

[weegee]

The press never complained about Bubba's wars or the timing of his 1998 bombing strike on Iraq during his impeachement vote (his critics complained but the press defended him).

[CdMGuy]

Must be. Isn't it interesting that Yale University hires a former corrupt Mexican president to head up one of its institutes. Well, if Saddam is still alive, here is one place where he can find work.