Marc Nathanson
04.28.2007
International Journalists Becoming More Anti-American at State Department Conference (24 comments )
April 25,2007, Washington, DC. At the Second Annual Edward R. Murrow International Journalist Program sponsored by the State Department and the Aspen Institute, 187 young foreign journalists from around the world came together at the Loy Henderson Auditorium at the United States Department of State and listened to seasoned American journalists discuss Iraq and the Bush Presidency.
The vast majority of these journalists were critical of the Administration and the foreign guests were even angrier at the American journalistic community for not being more critical of the Bush White House and its policies toward the invasion of Iraq.
When asked to show hands in the third session as to how many of the audience thought that US reporters were doing a good job covering the Iraq war, only 5% of the international visitors raised their hands. At a seemingly shock to State Department officials, 95% of the audience were critical of America's press corps coverage of the war.
After introductory remarks by Dina Habib Powell, Assistant Secretary of State for Education and Cultural Affairs and Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy, the first panel of American journalists came to the stage at the massive auditorium with simultaneous translation services into Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French and Spanish.
...(snip)...
The next panel moderated by Charles Firestone of the Aspen Institute featured me, John Miller, former ABC reporter and now FBI chief spokesman, Gerald Seib, Washington Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, Jake Siewert, Former Clinton Press Secretary, and Gordon Johndroe, chief spokesman for the Bush Administration's National Security Council. The topic was "Government- Press Relations". The audience was very angry with the American government policy toward the Middle East and toward foreign journalists. The audience criticized US reporters living abroad, not getting the real story and digging enough. Seib made an impassioned defense of American foreign correspondents and the risks they take to get a story and mentioned his close friend, Daniel Pearl.
The last panel featured CNN Washington Bureau chief, David Bohrman and Barbara Cochran of the Radio/TV News Directors Association with foreign journalists from Zimbabwe, Egypt, Hong Kong, South Korea, Iceland and Nepal.
It was an interesting day and there has clearly been a shift in attitude toward the United States and the American journalists by the foreign press. It's not just the Bush White House that overseas reporters are critical of but the whole American press corps for not being tougher and more critical of the Administration. We must remember these 187 young journalists were nominated for the Edward R. Murrow Fellowships by the local US Ambassador. I would assume that they are more pro-American than some other local reporters who were not nominated. They get to travel for three weeks in America and go to journalism schools-- all paid for by the Sate Department. Nevertheless, I was surprised by how hostile almost everyone of these bright young reporters were toward the United States government and now this anger has carried over to a disrespect for our press. Nevertheless, they all mobbed Bob Woodward for a photo as if he were an international rock star. .....(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-nathanson/international-journalists_b_47142.html
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