EDITORIAL: We're not gonna take it any more (10/30/94)

EDITORIAL

We're not gonna take it any more

Does freedom deter anti-Semitism? Not in the Ukraine, where it's as strong today as it was during Hitler's "final solution."

This was the text of an advertisement that appeared in The New York Times on Sunday, October 23 - the day that "60 Minutes," a highly popular news show, broadcast a segment on anti-Semitism in independent Ukraine. Called "The Ugly Face of Freedom," and reported by Morley Safer and produced by Jeffrey Fager, the piece was filled with innuendoes, half-truths and outright lies. It manifested a blatant disregard for facts, gave no meaningful context for the few bits of information provided and used dramatic images unrelated to the matter at hand for pure visual effect - or worse yet, to frighten the audience about just where this "big, bad Ukraine" is heading. (After all the backward, hateful peasants of Ukraine, CBS would have us believe, have their fingers on the nuclear button!)

The end result: Ukrainians were portrayed to an audience of more than 17.5 million households as anti-Semites, from generation to generation, and Ukraine was depicted as a place where Jews face grave danger. Mr. Safer's concluding statement, a "non-denial denial," added fuel to the fire: "The Church and the government of Ukraine have tried to ease people's fears, suggesting that things are not as serious as they might appear: that Ukrainians, despite the allegations, are not genetically anti-Semitic..."

It was a report unworthy of American journalism - indeed, unworthy of the "60 Minutes" that once was almost universally respected and much emulated. Alas, today CBS News, instead of being copied, is copying the techniques of tabloid TV. It has drifted a long way off from the days when it was the most esteemed network, the days when it was home to the most trusted man in America, Walter Cronkite.

As evidence of this we can cite not only "The Ugly Face of Freedom," but two other recent examples of the how the network now handles news.

According to a report in The Washington Post, a CBS News report aired in May left the impression that many of the legitimate Chinese students and immigrants to this country are in fact spies. Four months after the Chinese community began its protest about this anti-Chinese bias, and after the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights joined in, the "CBS Evening News" broadcast a "clarification," and CBS News President Eric Ober apologized in a letter to the Organization of Chinese Americans Inc.

More recently, the CBS network demonstrated what it considers to be news. It broadcast an interview with Faye Resnick, author of an explosive new book about the relationship between Nicole and O.J. Simpson. Even after Judge Lance Ito respectfully asked the media not to air Resnick interviews because this would harm Mr. Simpson's right to a fair trial, CBS went ahead and ran the piece on "Eye to Eye with Connie Chung," yet another of its "newsmagazine" shows. As Newsweek appropriately pointed out, if the story was indeed news, it could easily have waited until after jury selection in the case was completed. However, as Newsweek writer Jonathan Alter notes, the book "is the definition of trash." He notes, "The old CBS News didn't air trash." But just what today's CBS News thinks is illustrated by the statement issued by Mr. Ober, who said broadcasting the interview was "consistent with responsible journalism." Mr. Alter commented: "A more honest statement would have called it consistent with ratings journalism."

So just what is responsible journalism at CBS? Frankly, we aren't sure what yardstick the network uses to make that determination.

But, we are sure that "The Ugly Face of Freedom" - to which so much space is devoted in this issue of The Weekly - is not responsible journalism. It is hate-mongering. It is inflammatory. It is sensationalistic. It is racist. We can only guess about the motivations of the people who prepared that segment for "60 Minutes," but we cannot help but wonder whether the timing had anything to do with the state visit of President Leonid Kuchma to Canada, as the report was aired on the very day of his arrival in Ottawa.

Our community reacted swiftly and confidently to this biased report, by phoning, faxing and writing to CBS officials. Some organized public protests. The Embassy of Ukraine issued a powerful and well-thought-out statement. The message was loud and clear: We're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it any more! We demand a retraction and an apology; we demand that appropriate action be taken against the persons responsible for putting "The Ugly Face of Freedom" on the air.

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