|
Media Matters
April 11, 2003
NPR News in Iraq: Getting the Full Story?
By Jeffrey A. Dvorkin
Ombudsman
National Public Radio
For the past three weeks, NPR has reported on one of the most dangerous stories in recent memory. For many listeners, it has been accomplished with intelligence and bravery. For many listeners the reporting by Anne Garrels in Baghdad has been exemplary and courageous:
"Thank You Anne!"
From Bill Beach:
Somebody give this truly amazing journalist a Pulitzer Prize, already!
Ms. Garrels' reporting from Baghdad has been the most professionally
delivered and revealing presentation we have observed throughout the Iraq conflict. She has earned the respect and sincere admiration of us all! Stay safe, Ms. Garrels, and thank you for your bravery!
From Roy D. Adams:
It's not a small matter to be a reporter embedded with a fighting unit, but it takes another level of bravery to be an unembedded, unprotected reporter in a place like Baghdad, right now. Anne's reporting has not been a show of bravado. We can hear the tiredness, the concern, even at times the fear that she feels. But she keeps on reporting at the highest level of quality. If NPR nominates their reporters for awards, Anne should sweep the field.
From Elizabeth O'Donnell:
I do hope that NPR is planning to nominate Anne Garrels for a Pulitzer for her reporting from Baghdad. In fact, nominate her for every award open to a journalist. She has made the war real for me and has proven that women have the same guts as the men.
Garrels' outstanding reporting is part of a team of reporters sent to the region: Steve Inskeep, Jackie Northam, Guy Raz, Mike Shuster, Nick Spicer and Ivan Watson were there along with John Burnett and Eric Westervelt -- two NPR reporters who accompanied U.S. military units.
The field reporting has been balanced by interviews done with experts and with other journalists in the region, in Europe and in the United States.
Unreported Issues
But not all the listeners agree that they got the entire picture.
As with any story that galvanizes the national agenda, strong opinions about this war and the coverage of the story have flooded into NPR.
Some listeners wish that NPR had been more deliberately "on side" in pointing out the political aspects of the war. These listeners have a strong antipathy to the war and to the Bush administration.
Other wish NPR had been "less negative" or "less critical" in its coverage. If it is any indication of the coverage, I have received approximately 3,000 emails on this issue over the past three weeks. They have been running around 3:2 from listeners who oppose the war compared to those who support the war effort.
But on specifics, listeners have mentioned two stories in which NPR seems to have failed to follow up.
Weapons of Mass Destruction... or Pesticides?
First, there was a John Burnett story that reported that US military intelligence believed that chemical weapons had been found.
Burnett's story first aired on Morning Edition on Monday, April 7:
I just heard from a top military official here with the 1st Marine Division who says that he received information today over the intelligence net that commanders all throughout this theater read the first solid confirmed existence of chemical weapons by the Iraqi army. He says a relatively large amount, perhaps 20 medium-range rockets, were found with warheads containing sarin, a nerve gas, and mustard gas, which is a blister agent. They had not been fired. They were captured, he said, by the 101st Airborne, which was going in behind the Army. This would have been somewhere southwesterly of Baghdad outside of the actual capital.
Many other journalistic organizations repeated the allegation and credited NPR with breaking the story. But later that day, the Pentagon backed off and would not confirm the report. NPR reported that there was some confusion between the discovery of rockets and the discovery of a number of metal drums that turned out to contain pesticides.
NPR clarified that difference in a report filed by Jennifer Ludden on All Things Considered that same day:
SIEGEL: Hmm. Now there are reports that the U.S. may have found -- and I stress 'may have found' -- chemical weapons. What do you know about that?
LUDDEN: Well, earlier today, NPR's John Burnett was told by a senior Marine Corps commander that U.S. forces had discovered a number of rockets with warheads containing chemical weapons. That report has not been confirmed by the Pentagon. However, U.S. officials have cited the discovery of suspicious chemicals apparently in 50-gallon drums that are in a warehouse along the Euphrates River southwest of Baghdad. They're not calling it a smoking gun. They say the contents of the barrels are being analyzed, and it could be days before it's known what's in them.
But neither Morning Edition nor All Things Considered went back to the story. That left a lot of listeners with the impression that NPR was eager for the scoop, but less eager to stay on the story. NPR left its largest audiences wondering what happened.
No WMDs? 'Not Yet'
The second issue for many listeners was the question of whether Iraq ever had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the first place. It's a legitimate question and one that was asked by Daniel Schorr in a commentary on All Things Considered on April 9:
One can imagine that President Bush and his staff are sweating this one out. If the war ends without the discovery of any significant stockpile of banned weapons, there'll be some deep embarrassment. The government will have a lot of explaining to do about why it disrupted the United Nations inspection process and split the Western alliance to launch this destructive war.
Some listeners objected to Schorr's cold-water comments on a day when Iraq had been freed of the Saddam regime and there was celebrating in the streets of Baghdad.
But Linda Wertheimer on All Things Considered the day before the Schorr commentary spoke to citizens in St. Charles, Mo., many of whom expressed the same concerns:
MR. SCHNEIDER: Part of me says, 'Well, yes, but they will find them. Whether they were there before we went in or not, they will find weapons of mass destruction.' And I know how cynical that sounds, but at the same time, this is a monumental effort. And for us to come out and finally have to say there were no weapons of mass destruction -- I think that would be a major loss of face, if you will, in the world and in this country.
But some listeners also ask that NPR take that concern to prominent members of the administration. They note that NPR has not yet been able to ask -- or answer -- that question. NPR came closest when Juan Williams interviewed Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz on Morning Edition on April 7. Although the interview focused on administration plans for in a post-Saddam Iraq, Williams never asked the question about WMD, much to the astonishment of many who heard the interview and hoped to hear the answer.
Listeners may contact me at 202-513-3246 or at ombudsman@npr.org.
Jeffrey Dvorkin
NPR Ombudsman
|
