Village Voice - March 17 - 23, 2004
Press Clips by Cynthia Cotts PBS Gets Picky A Reporter Disses Halliburton, and Newshour Producers Decide His 15 Minutes of Airtime Are Up
In a recent Nation cover story, Christian Parenti described hanging out with insurgents in Iraq. That got the attention of producers on News- Hour With Jim Lehrer, and on March 2, Parenti said something live that knocked Lehrer off his chair.
Parenti, author of an upcoming book on occupied Iraq, was being interviewed by NewsHour's Ray Suarez. He and Middle East history professor Juan Cole were analyzing the recent suicide bombings in Iraq and various groups that might have been involved. Then something went terribly wrong: Parenti suggested that Halliburton and Bechtel have failed to provide "meaningful reconstruction" and that the U.S. occupation might actually be contributing to the instability in Iraq. Lehrer apparently went ballistic.
Michael Mosettig, senior producer for foreign affairs and defense at NewsHour, told me, "This was not reportage, this was giving his opinion, and that's not why we brought him on." The next day, according to Parenti, Dan Sagalyn, NewsHour's deputy senior producer for foreign affairs and defense, called to inform him that top people were upset, that his comments had lacked "balance," and that Lehrer was planning to run an Editor's Note acknowledging the mistake. It seems they had violated one of Lehrer's internal "rules of journalism," which mandates that producers "carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories" and label it as such.
When I called Sagalyn, he confirmed that he had called Parenti that day, adding, "I said it was too bad what happened happened, and that I would have liked to have him on again . . . but because of this it would be very hard."
On March 4, Lehrer returned at the end of the show and read the following statement: "For those who were watching two nights ago, a discussion about Iraq ended up not being as balanced as is our standard practice. While unintentional, it was indeed our mistake and we regret it."
The Editor's Note surprised Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel. "We think Christian Parenti's reporting has been thorough and reliable," she told me. "This is a journalist who spent a great deal of time on the ground in Iraq." According to vanden Heuvel, Parenti's comments about the failure of meaningful reconstruction were based on his reporting and firsthand observation. Parenti called the Editor's Note "excessive to the point of being ridiculous."
It's not the first time Halliburton has surfaced on NewsHour. Talking heads often discuss the embattled contractor, though usually in a left-right format like the one featuring Mark Shields and David Brooks. (Typical Shields comment: "Halliburton . . . has become a laugh line on the late-night monologues. That's not going to go away." Typical Brooks comment: "It does look bad but . . . it's not as bad as it looks.")
As for Halliburton, the company denies wrongdoing. But since shortly after New Year's, it has been reimbursing the U.S. government millions for alleged overcharges, and last month the Pentagon launched a criminal investigation of allegations of fraud by a Halliburton subsidiary. Mosettig said the March 4 Editor's Note was Lehrer's doing. "As far as I know we got no external complaints," he told me. "Maybe we got two or three e-mails from ordinary citizens after the show ran."
Executive producer Lester Crystal reiterated that the show aims for balanced coverage. "We have no quarrel with what Parenti said," he said. "We felt we made a mistake in not trying to get a response."
Asked if Parenti will be invited back, Mosettig said, "When you have a loose-cannon experience with somebody, you're going to be wary." Crystal said, "This is not a bar and not a guarantee to his coming on the program again," adding that they might have him back, "if he's done some firsthand reporting that we think is important."