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CNN Live Today

Interview With Howard Kurtz

Aired October 10, 2001 - 16:24   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.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: We've been talking all this day about how concerned the White House is about broadcast statements by Osama bin Laden and his aides, and how this spotlight challenges facing all of the news outlets, particularly those in television. Now, this statement by a bin Laden aide was carried by CNN yesterday just as it was airing on Al-Jazeera television in Qatar. It is one of the taped statements that U.S. officials say could contain coded messages to bin Laden or signals of some sort to bin Laden supporters elsewhere around the world.

For a little bit more on the complexities of this story and the news media's role in all this, I'm joined by Howard Kurtz of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES."

Howard, first of all, what do we know about Al-Jazeera? We know it's based in Qatar. It broadcasts throughout the Arab world. What's its track record?

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST, CNN'S "RELIABLE SOURCES": It's very controversial, but at the same time very popular, because it tells all sides -- in other words, it may cover the Palestinian uprising very intensely, but also allows access to Israeli officials. It gets the videotape of Osama bin Laden that every network in the universe, including CNN, has now aired many times, but it also puts Tony Blair on the air to give the Western view.

So a lot of people see it as anti-American, but they insist that they are a journalistic organization and try to give access to all sides of a dispute.

WOODRUFF: Is there a free press in Qatar? I mean, many of these countries don't have what we know as a free press in this country, where the press reports the news as it sees fit?

KURTZ: Al-Jazeera, obviously, has extraordinary access to the Taliban and to bin Laden's organization. Some people think or charge they're being used a mouthpiece for those organizations. But at the same time, this is a network that seems to be given pretty free rein to -- by the government of Qatar, which is a minority owner in it. And therefore, I think they've ticked off just about everybody in the region, which is usually a good sign for news organizations.

WOODRUFF: So not a reason to be suspicious that they're the ones who got the bin Laden tapes? KURTZ: They claim that this was given to them by an intermediary, and I know some people say, well, gee, if they're putting this on the air, they're giving a terrorist a platform. I would suggest that any Western news organization that got that videotape, however it might have been obtained, would have put it on the air, because although it was horrifying and chilling it was newsworthy. Clearly newsworthy.

WOODRUFF: Howard, today, the president's national security adviser calls the heads of the television networks, including Walter Isaacson, who's the head of the CNN Newsgroup, to request that we judgment, sensitivity in airing these kinds of tapes as they're made available. When they're -- in other words, if we take the time to look at them, maybe use only portions of them. How does a news organization go about making a decision, the right decision about something like this?

KURTZ: Well, network executives involved in that call with Condoleezza Rice telling me that she was careful not to insist that they do this, but to raise the issue, that the administration was concerned about some kind of coded messages. I don't know how you decipher that.

But after she got off the phone, the network executives agreed among themselves that they would take a look at these tapes before putting them on the air rather than running them live at the same time that they're running on Al-Jazeera. That seems to me to be an entirely reasonable step, not to throw something on the air. If you're waiting 10 or 15 or 30 minutes to make an evaluation of what you have, I don't think that that's in any way bowing to pressure from the administration. I think that's good journalism.

WOODRUFF: But we're getting into a very, very sensitive area, where American press, obviously, patriotic, cares about the country that we live in, but at the same time wants to try to report the news in a fair and -- in a fair way.

KURTZ: I think the pressure on news organizations is tremendous, because you don't want to do anything that would sort of aid the enemy here. And who knows, again, if these tapes have any kind of messages embedded in them. But at the same time, journalists don't want to be seen, and I think even the Bush administration doesn't want to be seen, as somehow succumbing to pressure or applying pressure to black out the other side.

I mean, this reminds me of the days when Peter Arnett was reporting for CNN from Baghdad. People said, why are we hearing those messages: Because it's important to know what the other side is saying in this kind of new war.

WOODRUFF: All right, and it is a new war. All right. Howard Kurtz, thanks very much.

KURTZ: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: We appreciate it. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com