ON THE TERRORISM BEAT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580048-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 48
• Publication Date: July 2, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

-Arqw STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580048-5
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580048-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/23: CIA-RDP90-0096
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH (VA)
2 July 1985
On the Terrorism Bead
The quickest way int6the hearts and minds of
Americans is via television, and no terrorist
alive doesn't know it. If you grab a plane full of
Americans, can the press be far behind? Before
the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, there were no
American reporters in Beirut. Afterward, the
airport was crawling with them - literally
crawling, as reporters ducked the bullets of
hijackers who'd had enough of the media for the
moment.
The hijacking was certainly news, but much of
what came over the airwaves afterward was
manipulation masquerading as news. How is it
that American media, so loath even to appear
being used by its own government, would dance
so to terrorists' tune?
Americans may be sophisticated viewers: We
knew where those reports were coming from,
and we knew where Nabih Berri was coming
from; we knew that it was no place, physically or
philosophically, where Americans particularly
want to go and definitely where no Amens
should be forcibly taken. But the rest of th3
global village is increasingly sophisticated
about American media, and those who reside in
it - in aggrieved squalor, misery and anger
about which Americans know little but for which
they are very much blamed - also know that TV
will get our attention and terror will get TV, this
time, next time and the time after that.
So we had the press secretary for the militia
Amal posting a notice that all film made by one
American network was to be "pooled," i.e.,
shared, with all American networks. We had
street demonstrations in Beirut, with signs let-
tered in English, organized by Shiites for the
express benefit of the American viewing audi-
ence. We had "interviews" "conducted" by the
captors with their captives. And we had a "press
conference" called by militiamen at which
American reporters literally fought for the
floor, at which American hostages apologized
for the commotion, and which, one newspaper
reporter was heard to say, only half-jokingly,
was "the first time I've seen fear in the eyes of
the Amal militia."
And when there wasn't much to beam or to
telex from Beirut, we had reporters here at
home questioning - some of them badgering -
administration officials about what actions/re-
actions were in store, as though not only the
American media and public but the world at
large had a right to specifics in advance. We had
reporters repeatedly quizzing the hostages' kin,
5R000807580048-5 3TAT
as though we wouldn't otherwise have known
how worried, frustrated and angry they were -
and, understandably, how narrowly focused
their perspective. It's a measure of how accus-
tomed Americans are to television's so often in-
trusive role that most officials demurred polite.
ly and most families complied with panache.
After the next few days, things will get pretty
quiet on the terrorism beat, the crisis being over
when the cameras clidk off and the size of the
headlines drops. The public's initial reaction of
anger and indignation will be pretty much dilut-
ed, what with catching up on all else that hap-
pened these past two weeks, and what with the
already confusing interpretations of who among
all those involved were the good guys, the bad
guys and the not-so-bad guys. The important
thing, was it not, was to get our guys back; that
has been pretty much accomplished. Still-impor-
tant subjects brought up by the media - airport
security,. the legitimate grievances of faraway
folk, the responses of civilized societies to unciv-
ilized acts - will fade from view. The media do
make us think about things that require our
attention - but not, apparently, early enough,
nor for very long.
The press, press people are wont to say, isn't
good or bad; it just is, immutably. But the press,
the most self-policing force in our society, needs
to examine to what extent it was a complicating,
and perhaps contributing, factor. Among the ra-
tionales offered for the hijacking w-aaT"thM-Ager
of rantcafiStiii at _a Washington Post st in
May IIa aging a -tie between the CIA ind the car-
bomTing of the residence of a mi i ant Shiite
lei'; ? an allegation that the CIA vehemently
den ed aridtlia a Ouse committee highly skep-
tic 1 of (IA disclaimers has since disproved to
it'tigfa'~t a eb-
anon had been off the nightly news map for too Jj
long. Our plaint is not that the American press
left a country in anarchy but that it scrambled
so to return and reported events so rawly.
The press gets used, indeed it does; but too
often in this instance the used were uncharacter-
istically less shrewd and selective, and consider-
ably less disciplined, than their users. And be-
cause they were, they may well have bolstered
those who think that a sure way to get the
attention - and possibly the help, sympathy and
indulgence - of Americans is to hit them with
the 2x4 of terrorism.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580048-5