CNN Chief Orders Balance in War News-Washington Post

NBC News Vice President Bill Wheatley took a similar tack, saying: "I¿d give the American public more credit, frankly. I¿m not sure it makes sense to say every single time you see any pictures from Afghanistan, ¿This is as a result of September 11th.¿ No one¿s made any secret of that."

But Fox News Vice President John Moody said the CNN directive is "not at all a bad thing" because "Americans need to remember what started this.. . . I think people need a certain amount of context or they obsess on the last 15 minutes of history. A lot of Americans did die."

To be sure, the cable networks, with their American-flag logos, carry hours of speeches and briefings each day by President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Tom Ridge, Ari Fleischer and other administration figures.

Few viewers complain about this coverage being one-sided.

Taliban leaders are courting world sympathy, especially in the Islamic world, by playing up the bomb damage, even as Pentagon officials dismiss Afghan claims of 1,000 civilian casualties as wildly exaggerated. And the issue is hardly a new one. CNN took considerable criticism during the Persian Gulf War over correspondent Peter Arnett¿s reports of damage from Baghdad.

Isaacson¿s memo said the network, in covering Afghan casualties, should not "forget it is that country¿s leaders who are responsible for the situation Afghanistan is now in."

Said Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism: "It sounds as though they¿re worried about people being mad at them more than about providing the information that is useful."

But Rosenstiel said the networks face a real dilemma, which is "how do you communicate information that some in your audience might perceive as sympathetic to the enemy? . . . If people get so mad at you that they tune you out, you¿re also failing."

In a second memo, Rick Davis, CNN¿s head of standards and practices, said it "may be hard for the correspondent in these dangerous areas to make the points clearly," so he suggested language for the anchors:
" ¿We must keep in mind, after seeing reports like this from Taliban-controlled areas, that these U.S. military actions are in response to a terrorist attack that killed close to 5,000 innocent people in the U.S.¿ or, ¿We must keep in mind, after seeing reports like this, that the Taliban regime in Afghanistan continues to harbor terrorists who have praised the September 11 attacks that killed close to 5,000 innocent people in the U.S.,¿ or ¿The Pentagon has repeatedly stressed that it is trying to minimize civilian casualties in Afghanistan, even as the Taliban regime continues to harbor terrorists who are connected to the September 11 attacks that claimed thousands of innocent lives in the U.S.¿ . . .

"Even though it may start sounding rote, it is important that we make this point each time." But aren¿t viewers who don¿t live in caves well aware of the Sept. 11 backdrop?

"People do already know it," Isaacson said yesterday. "We go to Ground Zero all the time. We cover the memorial services. We cover people¿s lives that have been touched. I just want to make sure we keep a sense of balance."

Howard Kurtz hosts CNN¿s weekly media program.

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