Columnist Benjamin Grove: Great divide exists on an Iraq war

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Feb. 21, 2003 | 4:35 a.m.

THE BITTER DIVIDE that separates some European and U.S. officials over Iraq is the topic of much debate in the nation's capital.

Could news reporters on both sides of the pond be partly responsible for the widening rift?

Yes, said three European reporters based in Washington, speaking at a forum here last week. They offered some insight into why Europeans view the conflict with Iraq differently than Americans, and how media coverage plays a part in that.

The three journalists from mainstream news organizations in Britain, France and Germany said U.S. media, operating in a flag-waving, post-Sept. 11 era, generally help the White House promote its war with Iraq.

Their arguments: U.S. reporters ceaselessly cover the buildup to conflict (think CNN's daily "Showdown: Iraq" program). They cover the troop deployments, the failed diplomacy and politics, and the latest press briefings by White House officials. But U.S. reporters do precious little hard analysis of the looming consequences of war. Media reports here rarely delve into what will be the human costs of an invasion -- what life will be like for Iraqis under attack, how many would die, how they would die, how other nations in the region may suffer. American reporters routinely gloss over what they know are the gritty details of war.

BBC correspondent Nick Bryant went further. He said the hardest-edged interviewer in America -- he cited NBC's Tim Russert as an example -- would be considered the softest reporter in Britain. Bryant said an overwhelming majority of the U.S. public would oppose Bush's war within a month if you swapped the White House press corps for a swarm of British journalists.

"It's not aggressive," Bryant said of the U.S. media horde. By contrast, "a lot of the British media are after (Tony) Blair, there's no question about it."

Bryant said British media coverage reflects the British public: neither can figure out why Bush is so popular with Americans. He said the British public is "terrified" of Bush's cowboy manner, and they wonder what's next: Will America invade nation after nation? Bryant's 5-year-old niece recently asked his mother, "Why does President Bush want to kill everyone in the world?"

Martin Wagner, correspondent for German Public Radio, agreed with Bryant that after Sept. 11 European support for the United States reached a zenith, then plummeted to a new low in scarcely a year. Europeans were hoping to be a part of a long, thoughtful debate about the United States' place in the post-Sept. 11 world -- and instead got the drums of war, they said.

Wagner stressed that it's Bush -- not Americans -- that Europeans don't like, and not just because of Iraq. They have been awe-struck as Bush casually scrapped U.S. commitments to treaties ranging from the environment to anti-ballistic missiles, he said.

"The Bush administration gave the impression -- before Iraq -- that we do what is good for us; and the rest of Europe -- we don't care," Wagner said. "The U.S. is just walking its own way and saying, 'You're either with us or against us.' "

It's "pathetic" when Bush suggests that war is his last resort, said Loick Berrou, correspondent for the French television channel TFI. "The European public thinks (Bush) wanted war as a first resort," Berrou said.

The French do not believe there is a connection between al-Qaida and Iraq, Berrou said.

A fourth panelist, Vickie Walton-James of the Chicago Tribune, acknowledged that U.S. journalists had not done enough stories about the consequences of war. But she sharply disagreed that U.S. reporters had gone easy on politicians, including Bush.

"I think we have been very aggressive," she said.

In the end, the issue may come down to questions posed by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman: Is the European media, feeding on the European public's anti-war stance, distorting the news? Or is the U.S. media, swimming in patriotic fervor, slanted in favor of Bush's war?

Generally speaking, German Public Radio's Wagner said, "It's both ways."