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Coverage of Terrorism
following foreign policy, for people
who have not been keeping track of
global events, that’s almost an emotional
response, almost like a spurned
lover. Why does he hate me? It was also
a very humanistic sort of question that
I think very intelligent people in newsrooms
are thinking is what our readers
really need to know. Or this is their
point of entry, so we will then try to
bring the story through that portal, and
that’s where that question comes from
and not really from the journalists who
cover these events.
Rami Khouri: I have a problem
with that question, with its last three
words “they hate us.” It’s very imprecise
and loaded. It’s a very political and
sort of culturally distorted kind of question.
Who is “they”? The bombers or
the wider societies? Or the Islamic or
the Arab world? “They” is not clear.
And hate is not the right word. For the
people who did the bombing, their
emotions are stronger than hate. The
societies that allowed these terrorists
to rise have an emotion that I think is
not hate; it’s a very complex, mixed
emotion of positive and negative. And
“us” is not a very precise word. Are you
talking about American society as a
whole, the Western free world democracies,
the United States government,
the United States people?
Journalists on the Watchdog Panel
Geneive Abdo—Tehran correspondent
for The Guardian, Nieman Fellow
2002.
Ellen Hume—media consultant,
former White House correspondent for
The Wall Street Journal.
Alex Jones—author, director of the
Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics
and Public Policy, former reporter
for The New York Times, Nieman Fellow
1982.
Rick Kaplan—fellow at the
Shorenstein Center, former president
of CNN.
Rami Khouri—columnist and radio
commentator in Jordan, Nieman
Fellow 2002.
Charles Nesson: When we read this,
when you say to yourself why do they
hate us, do you not have a sense who
we are who are asking this question?
Who are we asking this question?
Alex Jones: I don’t think it really
matters, frankly. The reason for putting
it that way was to narrow the focus
to a point. And the point was actually to
try to get the perspective of the people
who did this thing into the newspaper
so that people were not just sort of
shaking their fists but were trying to
understand some motivation that
would help explain it. Obviously it’s
imprecise—they, us—who are we talking
about? It was a journalistic device,
a headline that was intended to get
people to read what was on that page
and those were representations of the
perspective of people who are far into
the experience and knowledge of most
of the people in this country.
Charles Nesson: So Ellen, what was
your question, the right question?
Ellen Hume: I’m not sure it’s the
right question. I think it’s a right question—“What
were they trying to accomplish?”
Because if they were trying
to accomplish an expression of hatred,
then that could be one or two of the
essays about why do they hate us. They
Charles Lewis—founder and chairman
of the Center for Public Integrity.
Melissa Ludtke—editor of Nieman
Reports, Nieman Fellow 1992.
Murrey Marder—former chief diplomatic
correspondent for The Washington
Post, benefactor of the Watchdog
Project, Nieman Fellow 1950.
Michel Marriott—technology reporter
for The New York Times, Nieman
Fellow 2002.
Susan Reed—freelance journalist,
former CBS News reporter, Nieman
Fellow 1999.
James Trengrove—senior producer
for “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,”
Nieman Fellow 2002.
hate us, and they were trying to accomplish
pain. Or it could also encompass
what is the strategy? What do they think
this is going to trigger? Are they hoping
we will bomb Afghanistan? What is it
they’re looking for? So I would have
asked a question that would have elicited,
I think, a more complex range of
answers, but would also have covered
why do they hate us.
Melissa Ludtke: This is also a question
with different levels to it. If we’re
sitting here as a group of journalists
talking about this, then it seems this
headline is also inner-directed at journalists.
Where did we fail in terms of
educating the public prior to this happening
so that they come to these events
with a basis of knowledge that maybe
we don’t have to ask that question at
this stage? It is important that we look
inward and ask ourselves some of the
questions that we’re asking to a public
audience. Where did we fail? What
about our coverage, prior to this event,
did not give people an understanding
they need at this point to make an
interpretation of what’s going on?
Charles Nesson: So yours is the
journalism business? You educate
America. If America is completely ignorant
on some major aspect of the world,
so that they are utterly amazed that
there is a large segment of the world
that hates us, that’s your fault.
Melissa Ludtke: We are one piece
of an educating process. We aren’t the
only educators, but certainly that is
one of the roles journalists play in our
society today.
Rick Kaplan: What journalists recognized
when that happened is that all
of a sudden they’re going to get to be
journalists again, they’re going to get
to cover news again. All of a sudden,
Gary Condit doesn’t matter. And, even
for that couple of weeks, we’re not
going to see some of the CEO’s come
down and take a look at the balance
sheet and see how much money is
being spent. I’ve never seen so many
happy, depressed, sad but invigorated
journalists as I see now. I think what
40 Nieman Reports / Winter 2001