EDITORIAL: Shoddy journalism (revisited) (09/13/98)

EDITORIAL

Shoddy journalism (revisited)

Two years ago this week Forbes Magazine published a sensationalistic article titled "Tinderbox" in which the author, Paul Klebnikov, predicted that Ukraine was on the brink of explosive ethnic turmoil.

The so-called news feature was replete with Mr. Klebnikov's personal opinions, such as "Reintegration with Russia would alleviate many of [Ukraine's economic] problems," (sheesh, right now, even the Russians don't want to be part of the Russian economy) and unsubstantiated claims, such as "For Russian speakers economic injury is being added to political insult. The coal mines, steel mills and engineering companies of Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine may be inefficient, but they account for the vast majority of the country's export earnings and tax revenues. Where does the money go? To subsidize the poorer, Ukrainian-speaking regions of the west." He predicted that Ukraine would become another Chechnya or Bosnia, or would be overrun with "messianic" extremists as happened in Iran.

Yeah, right.

In a short accompanying article, Mr. Klebnikov wrote about Dmytro Korchynsky, the then-head of the tiny radical nationalist fringe group UNSO, as supposedly being a representative example of the general Ukrainian-speaking population. Mr. Klebnikov offered up his taxi-driver in Odesa, Sergei, as typical of the disgruntled Russian-speaking population. Sergei's biggest complaint, according to Mr. Klebnikov, was the fact that he could no longer watch Russian-language television broadcasts from Moscow. From this, Mr. Klebnikov leapt to the conclusion that "Ukrainian nationalists ... push President Kuchma to suppress Russian speakers. ... The Ukrainian language has, since independence, become dominant in television, radio and the schools."

Uh, huh.

The Forbes Magazine article, malicious speculation that tried to pass for journalism, falls into a familiar pattern: a sensationalistic piece that appears concurrently with an important political moment for Ukraine. Mr. Klebnikov's article in a major U.S. business magazine, though dated September 9, nonetheless hit the newsstands as early as September 2, the day Ukraine introduced its new currency, the hryvnia.

The now infamous October 23, 1994, broadcast of the CBS "60 Minutes" segment "The Ugly Face of Freedom," was aired throughout all of North America only days before then-newly elected President Leonid Kuchma's trip to Canada - his first major state visit to a Western democracy.

And then there was the one-two-three punch in April 1997 in The New York Times: an April 4 article about links between foreign investors and organized crime in Ukraine; April 9, about official government corruption; and April 14, about the sale by the government of Ukraine of turbines for nuclear reactors in Iran. All the articles were filled with unsourced quotes, unsubstantiated claims, speculations, innuendoes, generalizations and flat-out lies. All were shoddy journalism. All appeared several days before, or even on the day of, a major event: congressional hearings to increase U.S. funding for Ukraine; the first visit of Ukraine's Minister of Defense Oleksander Kuzmuk to the U.S.; President Kuchma's visit with Vice-President Al Gore.

The use of media as a political weapon, unfortunately, is a time-honored tradition. The purpose of planting a slanted article works like a blow below the belt in boxing: it causes pain even as you yell foul. And though these media pieces were intended as direct attacks on Ukraine, they nonetheless also stung the Ukrainian American community. No doubt there will be more in the future.

All the pieces provoked official protests from the government of Ukraine; the CBS piece, which was slanderous, provoked legal action in the U.S. The Ukrainian American community should remember these attacks. And when Steve Forbes, publisher of Forbes Magazine and presidential hopeful, begins his campaign for the U.S. presidency next term, let's remember to be sure to ask him: is your foreign policy going to be as shoddy as is your magazine's journalism?

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