U.S. Pundits Condemn ABC's Airing of Basayev Interview - Survey
In a survey conducted by Russian Information Agency Novosti among U.S. subscribers to daily e-mail newsletter Johnson's Russia List (JRL), 87% of respondents expressed their disapproval over ABC's broadcast of an interview with Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev.
NEW YORK, (PRWEB) August 9, 2005 -- In a survey conducted by Russian
Information Agency Novosti among U.S. subscribers to daily e-mail newsletter
Johnson's Russia List (JRL), 87% of respondents expressed their disapproval over
ABC's broadcast of an interview with Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev.
Only 13% of respondents considered the 23-minute interview aired on
national U.S. television to be justified by the public's "right to know."
Fifty percent of respondents considered it an "irresponsible act of
negligence and a show of double standards," and 12% viewed it as "direct
collaboration with terrorists, providing a mouthpiece to convey their
instructions and solicit funding."
Director of the Discovering Russia
travel agency Marc David Miller said that "while not a direct collaboration with
terrorists, the interview did provide Basayev with a Western audience, some of
whom will walk away from watching the interview thinking that, despite all of
the blood on his hands, Basayev had justification for his actions (a view akin
to thinking that bin Laden murdered 3,000 people in one day only to call
attention to his cause)."
Miller went on to say that the coverage was
unbalanced - there was no mention in the program of Basayev's invasion of
Dagestan and little explanation of his terrorist background.
Three
quarters of the respondents said the Russian Foreign Ministry's decision not to
renew ABC's accreditation was an appropriate response. Thirteen percent
considered the move insufficient and would have supported "closing the outlet in
Russia and expelling [ABC's staff from Russia." Twenty-five percent of
respondents said the Russian authorities should have ignored ABC's airing of the
interview.
Ninety percent of respondents expressed disapproval over the
fact that Babitsky is on the U.S. payroll (as an employee of Radio Liberty/Radio
Free Europe, funded by the Congress). "I would call it scandalous, incompatible
with the spirit of the global anti-terrorist alliance," Vlad Sobell, a senior
economist with the Daiwa Institute of Research, said.
At a U.S. State
Department daily press briefing on August 2, department spokesman Tom Casey said
that ABC, along with other media sources, should be allowed freedom of
expression and be able to choose what to report.
The survey was conducted
August 3-5. JRL subscribers include members of academia, politics, the business
community, and journalists involved in Russian-U.S. relations. The service has
over 6,000 subscribers. The survey's results are based on the first 50
respondents.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/8/prweb270745.htm