© 1999 Global Beat Syndicate. All Rights Reserved.

The Media Discover Foreign Policy

 
By James Hill*
April 1, 1999
 
WASHINGTON -- The interesting convergence of foreign-policy crises, both real (Kosovo) and potential (China), has had at least one beneficial effect: The media are finally focusing on national security instead of you-know-her-name.
 
The question of media credibility looms large over both these foreign policy issues. Kosovo did not happen overnight. It had been building for years, along with the general disintegration of the Yugoslavian federal state, and has been at flash point for months.
 
But media interest, with the exception of reported Serb atrocities against the Kosovo Albanians (interestingly, not Albanian atrocities against the Serbs) has been next to the nothing. Perhaps this is because Yugoslavia, with its many ethnic groups and breakaway states, presents such a daunting challenge for reporters and editors raised in an era when many students couldn't even find Europe on a map.
 
Or perhaps it's because the media, when roused to finally cover Balkan events, still finds it more convenient to follow the official line, which has run the gamut from ludicrous to perfidious to schizophrenic.
 
Little wonder, then, that most Americans, and even many members of Congress, find themselves asking: "Just what are our interests in the Balkans?"
 
That the Clinton administration and its soul mates in Britain's Labor government have a problem articulating those interests, other than stopping the slaughter, is one thing. But their willingness to launch air strikes against a sovereign state, even if it's not much of one, is quite another.
 
Already the media are beginning to look for parallels between Yugoslavia and Vietnam. They're finding quite a few.
 
Yet, the largely free ride that the administration has received so far to pursue a policy of a military involvement may mean that it may already be too late for anything but such comparisons. Questionable policies can only develop in an information vacuum. If Kosovo leads to an extended American military presence in a second Balkan theater, the media must share some responsibility for letting this vacuum exist in the first place. A more welcome development is the media's reaction to reports that China, allegedly in part by spying at U.S. weapons facilities, has turned itself into an emerging nuclear superpower, capable of threatening our allies in Asia and possibly the U.S. as well.
 
The thought of Los Angeles being incinerated and concerns about a Chinese military buildup has been enough to unleash thorough and credible coverage on front pages and evening newscasts. American editors still know a story when they see one. What reporters are discovering is a disturbing pattern of ostrich-like behavior on the part of the Clinton administration concerning China's nuclear buildup. Along with the nuclear activity in North Korea, India and Pakistan, and questions about Chinese helping rogue states develop weapons of mass destruction, it's been enough to keep the issue going, leading to recent disclosures by the nation's premier media outlets that the secrets within America's nuclear labs were about as water-tight as a sieve.
 
Much more reporting remains to be done before Americans will know how seriously American security has been breached. After the initial rounds of disclosure, officials and commentators who discount the danger are now using the media to present their counter arguments. But it's a refreshing discourse, unlike , until just very recently, the mostly one-sided media treatment that has passed as coverage of the Balkans.
 
Should American soldiers be put in harm's way in the Balkans and a quagmire develops, the media will rightly demand: "What went wrong?" A skeptic might retort: "What took you so long to ask?"
 
James Hill is a manager with the Center for Media and Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation in Washington..

 

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© 1999 Global Beat Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. The Global Beat Syndicate, a service of New York University's Center for War, Peace, and the News Media, provides editors with commentary and perspective articles on critical global issues from contributors around the world. For more information, check out http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate/.

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