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American Morning

Entertainment Shows Get Military Access Beyond Journalists

Aired April 05, 2002 - 09:55   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: There is one less detainee being held at Guantanamo Bay this morning. The second Taliban-American is now heading to the U.S., and no longer seems to be facing a military tribunal.

The Pentagon, which has been very tight-lipped about the tribunals to journalists has been very forthcoming, it turns out, to the producers of the hit series "JAG." Now, this kind of cooperation is a growing trend between Hollywood and the military, and one that a lot of people seem to be beginning to question.

Here's CNN National Correspondent Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a military tribunal, called to order on a Hollywood soundstage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your honor, this is not a court martial.

BUCKLEY: Writer Charles Holland penned the script for the April 30th episode of the CBS show "JAG," which U.S. military lawyers reviewed at the show's request. Holland says the lawyers helped him to incorporate details of how the real tribunals will run, weeks before the details were made public.

CHARLES HOLLAND, WRITER, "JAG": They pointed out the things that were inaccurate, and then I was able to ask questions and follow-up questions, and from those, glean what I wanted to know.

BUCKLEY: To critics of the Pentagon, it was the latest instance of entertainment producers receiving special access to the military to tell war stories.

A spate of reality programs like the CBS show, "American Fighter Pilot," also getting Pentagon cooperation. The trend is causing some critics to worry about the Pentagon's relationship with Hollywood. Is it at the expense of mainstream journalism?

ROBERT THOMPSON, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: Journalists are very much a part of the equation that has made the American experiment work for as many years as it has, and when you begin to bypass that by getting out information through entertainment, you upset that very delicate balance. BUCKLEY: Take the "JAG" episode. The real tribunals will not be televised.

ROBERT LICHTER, CENTER FOR MEDIA AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS: That means the only pictures we are going to get of how these tribunals work, will be pictures of fictional trials from prime time TV.

BUCKLEY: Don Bellisario is the creator and executive producer of "JAG."

DON BELLISARIO, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "JAG": ...the Afghan terrain, before it's hit by a missile.

BUCKLEY: This production meeting dealing with another war- related episode. Bellisario says his job is not the same as a journalist's, and the public knows it.

BELLISARIO: My role is not to question. My role is to do a show. The show is not reality, and the audience out there knows they are not watching a news show.

BUCKLEY: Pentagon officials say "JAG's" writers did not receive any privileged information. But, they say entertainment programs are an important avenue through which to tell the military story.

PHIL STRUB, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: They are entertainment productions, yes, but we have surveys that show that a very significant number of Americans form their impressions of the military from these very entertainment productions. So it's important for us to be concerned about them.

BUCKLEY: And to be fair, the military regularly provides access to mainstream reporters, like this one. I recently got a ride in an F-18 Super Hornet to be seen in an upcoming "CNN Presents" program. It's the kind of shot Bellisario says he's had difficulty getting recently.

BELLISARIO: We can't get a helicopter if we need it, we can't get an F-14 to work for us right now because we are at war.

BUCKLEY: A war whose detainees will face tribunals, closed to cameras. The fictional version, as close as the public will get to seeing the real thing.

Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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