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American Morning

Interview with Mortimer Zuckerman, Stephen Mindich

Aired June 06, 2002 - 09:16   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: The "Boston Phoenix" newspaper has done something no other American news organization has done so far. They have actually published pictures of murdered "Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl. Not a picture like this, but pictures from a gruesome propaganda videotape made by his killers.

CNN will not show any part of that tape. CBS has shown the non- gruesome portions of that tape, but here at "American Morning," we have turned this story over and over before deciding even to put this debate on the air.

The issue is, do the details of Daniel Pearl's murder help the American Public understand what is really going on in this war on terror, or do they only appeal to people's lowest instincts?

The publisher of the "Boston Phoenix," Stephen Mindich, joins us now from Boston, and in New York with us this morning, Mortimer Zuckerman, the co-publisher of the "New York Daily News" and editor- in-chief of "U.S. News & World Report."

Good morning, gentlemen. Glad to have both of you with us this morning.

STEPHEN MINDICH, PUBLISHER, "BOSTON PHOENIX": Good morning.

ZAHN: So Stephen, you are aware of the fact that Daniel Pearl's family had appealed to not only CBS but other news organizations not to ever print or replay any of this gruesome videotape. Why did you decide to include some of these more gruesome images in your newspaper?

MINDICH: Well, first we put it up on our Web site last week, and then, obviously, it was a natural for us to follow through with the newspaper. I think the pain of the Pearl family is terrible and understandable. I think Daniel Pearl is a journalist in Afghanistan, in fact, seeking out terrorists and looking to report their stories, and in fact, if the "Wall Street Journal" had gotten them, they would have published them.

I think Daniel Pearl, who in fact worked at the "Phoenix" years ago was a journalist looking to get the story out. The fact that the video is propaganda, but I think it is negative propaganda, because it shows how Americans can identify with one human being, one of our own who was brutally, and heinously killed after being forced to say he was a Jew, as if that was a crime, and denouncing American policy.

I think the story is very critical, and Paula, I think if Daniel Pearl had made the decision, he would have run this video, and the story, and the photos.

ZAHN: I see Mort's face right now, and that is not what he thinks is appropriate. Mort, what is wrong with what Stephen has done?

MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN, CO-PUBLISHER, "NEW YORK DAILY NEWS": My own view is that this is something that should not have been published. We all know what the facts were, and I think there's a reason not to publish these pictures, and that is the Pearl family really is going to be having to live with this once again in the most gruesome ways, and I don't think it is going to add much to our understanding of the story, given the fact that, you know, we all know what happened. There's no journalistic purpose in my judgment to showing this and I think...

(CROSSTALK)

ZUCKERMAN: I know you have a...

(CROSSTALK)

ZUCKERMAN: I'm sorry. Just give you an example -- let me just finish...

MINDICH: I'm sorry.

ZUCKERMAN: ... give you an example. We, in the "Daily News" published, one day, a picture of people jumping from the World Trade Center. Now that was a very, very tough picture. It was right in the middle of it. was actual reporting, and we hesitated to do that, and we didn't publish anything like that again, simply because we thought it was just too gruesome for the audience of our newspaper to see it, and I think there are things that are too gruesome, and therefore, in one sense, should not be in a newspaper. I respect your judgment. I just would have done it very, very differently.

MINDICH: Well, I do think...

ZAHN: Steve, why is it necessary for people to see graphically what happened? As Mort just said, none of us really can imagine how awful and brutal this scene was, but we certainly can conjure up images in our head. Why do we have to see it in black and white?

MINDICH: Well, I don't you actually -- Paula, I don't -- first of all, I don't think they are that gruesome. I think the entire thing is gruesome, I think the entire thing is beyond our comprehension. However, it's real. This actually happened. You see Daniel Pearl speaking. You hear him, you feel him. He touches you, and then you think about the FBI repressing -- attempting to repress the tape. It was up on the Internet. It was going to be disseminated. It's an important story. It's important for Americans to understand what this terrorism is about, and the scroll at the end of this video says if Americans and otherwise the Infidels don't leave Muslim lands, this will be repeated over and over. I don't think -- I should say I do think there is a palpable difference between seeing and feeling, hearing, and reading about something.

And I just don't really understand the position that Mort is taking. Not that the "Daily News" is the most sensitive newspaper in America.

ZAHN: Ouch, Mort. Let me ask you, though, Mort, you had said earlier that Steve has the right to do this, but you would have done things differently. What would you have done?

ZUCKERMAN: We would not have published those pictures of the -- those gruesome pictures. There are, it seems to me, certain boundaries of -- that we feel we would rather operate within. I mean, we are all trying to inform the public, and frankly to interest the public. I mean, I have to say to you, I feel that this goes to the point of not informing the public or interesting the public, but exploiting these pictures. I really do feel that this is beyond the boundaries of the kind of -- I was going to say taste, but I would also say judgment.

I mean, I don't happen to agree with it, either as a matter of taste of journalistic judgment. I mean, this is the beauty of the American media is that we all don't have to agree, and if that's Steve's judgment, good luck to him. But it is just something that I felt does not add to the understanding of the story, would add to the pain of the family, I would not have done it.

ZAHN: Mort, let me ask you this. Are you politely saying that Steve is just trying to sell newspapers here?

ZUCKERMAN: Well, you know -- look, everybody is trying to sell Newspapers. I mean, I don't think that's something that we are all going to be discovering just this morning. But I do think that in the process of putting out a newspaper, you have to have a certain bond with your readership and with your audience, and I think this goes beyond those boundaries. It is not within those boundaries. I frankly would not have done it for those reasons. I just don't feel it is the right taste or the right judgment, and others may differ, but we would not have done that.

MINDICH: I can understand...

ZAHN: Steve, you get the last word.

MINDICH: I can understand the difference in taste. I don't know about judgment. And by the way, Paula, our newspaper is distributed free, so 98 percent of them are picked up every week, so it is not about selling newspapers. It's about informing the public.

ZAHN: All right, gentlemen. We are going to have to leave the debate there. Steve Mindich, thanks so much for dropping by our Boston studios. Mortimer Zuckerman, thank you for coming to our New York studios. Appreciate your time.

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