Outside Voices: Philip Seib On Doing Better at Covering the World
After watching the CBS "Evening News" recently, I've come away dissatisfied with international coverage that is so terse and narrow that it raises more questions than it answers. I'll make my complaints and then offer a suggestion.
If a principal role for the news media is to provide the public with the information needed to make a democracy work, then "Evening News" -- like other U.S. network newscasts -- is not doing its job in terms of international news. Reporting about Iraq is part of this and should be addressed first, since most nights that sad country constitutes all or almost all of the outside world as seen by CBS.
Apparently no one at CBS is asking the question that occurs to me after each of these stories: What does it mean? For instance, a Dec. 13 report discussed the idea of sending a surge of U.S. troops into Baghdad, and then noted that "Iraqis wouldn't stand for" a big build-up of the American military presence. Why not? The story didn't say.
The following night, another story about the same topic. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), in Iraq with a congressional delegation, called for an "overwhelming troop presence," which has been taken to mean up to 35,000 more combat soldiers. Where would they come from? More call-ups of Reserve and National Guard soldiers? Redeployment of forces from elsewhere? Would there be an effort to expand enlistments and the overall size of the U.S. military? No direct answers. Presumably someone has some thoughts about this.
Then, at the end of its story, CBS reported that a year would be needed to recruit and train just 6,000 new troops. Put these items together and you have stunning evidence about how the Iraq commitment has crippled America's ability to respond quickly to a new crisis in North Korea or elsewhere. Something about that needed to be in the story or, better yet, in a follow-up story addressing just that topic. But there was not a word.
On Dec. 15, yet another story about more troops, this time a brief item about 3,500 soldiers being sent from the United States to Kuwait, ready for quick deployment into Iraq. Then a story about "a slide toward civil war" in the Palestinian territories, with dramatic video and plenty of gunfire. Again, what does it mean; why should we care about another civil war in another Middle Eastern country? CBS provided no help in developing answers.
After several days, the end product of watching CBS's international coverage was confusion, not information. Courageous reporters and photographers are doing their jobs in exceptionally difficult circumstances, but they are being let down by the people who put together the newscasts. Stories in isolation have limited value. They need context if we in the audience are to be able to use them to make judgments about U.S. policy and to be knowledgeable observers of the world.
Beyond flaws in specific stories is the limited worldview that "Evening News" provides its viewers. There is just not enough breadth to the newscast's international reporting. The horrors of central Africa, for example, receive nary a mention. A news organization such as CBS should be providing a drumbeat of outrage about the misery there.
Something can be done about this. Since I don't have to manage the budget or deal with affiliates, I'll propose this as a starter: Once a week, extend "Evening News" into a second half-hour, "The CBS World Report." The goal of such a program would be twofold: increased breadth and more thorough explanation, providing better answers to "What's going on?" and "What does it mean?"
CBS has enormously talented people who are fully capable of providing this kind of reporting. I want to hear more than a pro forma Q&A from the likes of Sheila MacVicar, Randall Pinkston, and the outside experts CBS can recruit. The American public, insular and underinformed, desperately needs something like this. And if it is offered and promoted properly, there will be an audience. Look at the polls reflecting despair about the war. People are worried and want information.
Saying to viewers, "You can find all this on the Web or on cable," is irresponsible. The evening network newscast remains the most effective, far-reaching medium for delivering journalism to the American public. That's where thorough coverage of the world belongs. CBS can do better.