TV hosts Donahue, Poznir blast media coverage of war with Iraq

Phil Donahue and Vladimir Poznir, former hosts of popular television news programs in the United States and Russia, discussed yesterday the U.S. government's influence on American television news coverage of the war in Iraq.

Though they claimed the U.S. media is "controlled by government forces as an instrument to control public opinion," they also said the American public is "complicit" because of its unwillingness to hear dissenting views.

War coverage is not new to Donahue and Poznir, who collaborated on a series of joint Russian-American news programs during the Cold War's waning years. The Iraq war has brought them back together, this time as media commentators rather than participants. They spoke to a packed auditorium in Robertson Hall last night.

Poznir began by saying he does not think the American media bears direct comparison with that of a totalitarian state, where "the media is used as an [official] arm of the state . . . the U.S. media was never seen as that kind of instrument."

Poznir said the U.S. media is under a different sort of control, one which began "after the Vietnam War, [when] the U.S. government began to see the power of television [images]."

After the government realized the power of the image to sway public opinion, Pozner said, it ruled that "[all information] had to go through the military [before news release]."

Poznir said that though the means of media control in America and Russia are different, "[the] two countries, one that never had democracy and one that was born because of an ideal of democracy, had . . . similar results [of censorship]."

Donahue said though "there is no overstating the management and control of the media, most of it is voluntarily offered."

He said it is known in the media that when the Iraq war is criticized on the air, "you can see the [ratings] numbers go down."

"These are not Neanderthal TV executives [cutting programs] for kicks," he said. "[The public is] helping them. What is on television . . . is the result of the opinions of a focus group."

Saying that this problem is more economic than political, Poznir related an incident from his work on an American TV show. Poznir told the audience he thought Japanese cars were superior to American models, and General Motors, one of the show's sponsors, pulled its advertising.

Poznir said that in Russia journalists must talk about subjects like Chechnya "in a way that is accountable to the government." But the GM incident made him realize that even in America, TV executives can "ban you from saying what you think is right."

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Economics and ratings, the speakers said, are key to determining what gets on the air. The average citizen, who draws advertising dollars, thus holds great power over news content. But they said because the American public doesn't want to hear antiwar views, journalists who speak out against the Iraq war risk losing jobs.

Donahue, whose self-professed "liberal" show was cancelled last February because of low ratings, condemned this atmosphere of fear. "Who is a journalist," he said, "if not a person who is out there to see the truth and express it truthfully?"

Referring to a former CBS anchorman admired for integrity and objectivity, Donahue added, "Today Walter Cronkite would not get a job. And that's a fact."