[R-G] CBS Pro-Drone Propaganda

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/05/12-13

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2009
6:45 PM
	

CONTACT: FAIR
Isabel Macdonald, Communications Director,
212 633 6700 x 310
imacdonald at fair.org
CBS Pro-Drone Propaganda
60 Minutes slights critics of controversial weapons
NEW YORK - May 12 - On May 10, CBS's 60 Minutes presented a remarkably  
one-sided report on unmanned Air Force drones firing missiles into  
Afghanistan and Iraq. Though the drones have been criticized for  
killing civilians in both countries, CBS viewers heard from no critics  
of the weapons.

Instead, correspondent Lara Logan seemed awed by the drones from the  
very start of the broadcast: "Every so often in the history of war, a  
new weapon comes along that fundamentally rewrites the rules of  
battle. This is a story about a revolution in unmanned aviation that  
is doing just that." She described the drones as "hunting down  
insurgents, every minute of every day," and as "one of the most  
important planes in the United States Air Force."

Viewers were told that CBS was getting special access: "Many of the  
details of this weapons program are classified, but our 60 Minutes  
team was given secret clearance and unprecedented access to bring you  
this story." The report relied entirely on pilots and the Air Force  
chief of staff.

The closest the segment came to airing any criticism at all was when  
Logan asked one pilot, Lt. Col. Chris Gough, about his confidence in  
the targeting of the missile attacks: "What if you get it wrong?"  
Logan asked. "We don't," Gough replied, before finally admitting that  
it's "a tough question.... We have the resources to make sure we're  
right." Gough stressed the "clarity" of being removed from the  
battlefield--the drones are piloted from a base in Nevada--which led  
Logan to say, "In spite of that clarity, unmanned planes and Air Force  
jets are criticized in Afghanistan for killing innocent civilians,  
including an incident just this week that is under military  
investigation." Those comments were accompanied primarily by footage  
of screaming Afghans protesting in a street, with a brief shot of a  
hospitalized child.

Logan added that drone attacks in Pakistan are "blamed for even more  
deaths." She reported that the CIA "wouldn't talk to 60 Minutes about  
their operations," so she gives the Air Force the last word on the  
subject, noting that they argue the drones are "more precise than  
piloted planes." Logan seemed to accept this argument: "We got a sense  
of that when the Air Force let us sit with Predator pilots in Nevada  
while they kept a close watch on U.S. soldiers along the Afghan/ 
Pakistan border."

It would not have been difficult to find critics of the reliance on  
drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Iraq--even among those close to the  
military. As the Los Angeles Times reported a week before the CBS  
segment aired (5/3/09), the House Armed Services Committee had  
recently heard testimony from David Kilcullen--a former adviser to  
General David Petraeus--who believes the drone attacks take too many  
civilian lives. Kilcullen testified that while drone attacks are  
suspected to have killed 14 Al-Qaeda leaders since 2006 in Pakistan,  
at the same time the weapons have killed about 700 civilians--a 50:1  
ratio of innocent victims to targeted enemies.

Such perspectives were missing from the CBS report, leaving 60 Minutes  
to air what amounted to little more than military propaganda about  
controversial--and deadly--weapons.

ACTION:
Tell CBS that its May 10 60 Minutes report about drone attacks in  
Afghanistan and Iraq should have included critics of these weapons.  
Excluding such criticisms, while relying so heavily on military  
footage and sources, looks more like propaganda than journalism.

CONTACT:
CBS
60 Minutes
524 West 57th St.
New York, NY 10019

Email: 60m at cbsnews.com
Phone: (212) 975-3247

To view the CBS report, go to:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/08/60minutes/main5001439.shtml

Please leave a copy of your messages to 60 Minutes in the comments  
thread of this FAIR Blog post.
###
FAIR, the national media watch group, has been offering well- 
documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986. We work  
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