Capitol Ideas / Pulitzers from the USSR
Bethell, Tom
C A P I T O L I D E A S PULITZERS FROM THE USSR An April editorial in the New York Times touched on the subject of "Soviet propaganda," a phrase that piques one's curiosity in such a...
...But even if they could and did bear it, Korionov pointed out, in harmony with" Flora Lewis: "There are no forces in the world capable of deflecting our party from its general course, whose motto has been and remains: Everything for man., everything in the name of man...
...The nuclear "freeze" proposal of "noted American senators E. Kennedy and M. Harfield" enjoys broad support among the masses, and so on...
...He was a c o n s e r v a t i v e Demo~ ratic governor of New York in the Twenties...
...I have watched the President become less and less the Ronald Reagan of Campaign '80 and more and more the captive of the Republicans of the furrowed brow...
...The influential Washington Post" (lzvestiya...
...How about that, Mr...
...Here is part of-a Radio Moscow discussion, presumably their equivalent of Agronsky & Co...
...They are certain that owing to the economic policies of Ronald Reagan people off in the direction-toward which their corporate c h a u f f e u r s head at night are selling apples and preparing barricades...
...Prominent American political figure Edward Kennedy" (Tass...
...Gaydar: It is quite right, and these fears are appropriate because it seems to me that now that the Soviet Union has again provided a good solid basis for talks . . "The freeze movement people . . . want to put nuclear restraint back on the track, to give diplomacy, and peace, a chance...
...Gaydar: The public mood in West Europe has also changed...
...J. Reston, who belongs to the "flower of the American intellectual elite" according to Literaturnaya Gazeta, is far more subtle...
...El Salvador Election: Tass 'n' Times were less than completely enthusiastic about the election--especially after the results came in...
...It isn't necessary to hire a translator to learn more about the intriguing topic because, five days a week, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service of the Department of Commerce puts out a salmon-colored booklet entitled "Daily Report: Soviet Union...
...Revolutions and even Marxist revolutionaries are not automatically proofofa vast Soviet-Cuban design," the Times concurred...
...much as a reader of the London Times in the late 1930s (when the paper was dedicated to appeasing Hitler) would have been surprised to come across a reference to "Nazi propaganda...
...One after another bourgeois press organs are beginning to write that the U S. economy, undermined by colossal military spending, is reaching an impasse...
...How about substance...
...Since 1798,' he pointed out, ' t h e United S t a t e s has c a r r i e d out 14 armed actions a g a i n s t Mexico, 13 against Cuba, 11 a g a i n s t Panam a . . . ' " Pravda added that "they are trying at all costs to convince ordinary Americans that [Sandinistas and Salvadoran terrorists are] under the orders of the Russians...
...It is more difficult still to get sweet words from the millionaire mannequins of the evening TV news...
...U.S...
...The people I have most rect.nrlv interviewed were once Democrats, too: though they were liberals in the 1970s they came THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR .JUNE 1982 5...
...In summary, both Tass 'n' Times feel that the Soviet Union should not be singled out as an exception when considering the reunification of families...
...But the New York Times should know that a good deal of the so-called "Soviet propaganda" comes straight out of Western news media, not least from the New York Times itself...
...There you are--some authentic Soviet propaganda at the end there...
...C A P I T O L I D E A S PULITZERS FROM THE USSR An April editorial in the New York Times touched on the subject of "Soviet propaganda," a phrase that piques one's curiosity in such a context...
...Capacity to Influence Soviet Union...
...These are the Republicans who believe chat the key to political greatness is a nice white shirt and a good word from o n e ' s political opponents...
...The "ominous strength shown by the d'Aubuisson terrorists and their allies now leaves El Salvador's hopes for a peaceful future cloudier than ever...
...Central American Policy: Pravda quoted Rep...
...That loser could only have been the United States...
...They want him to fudge on still more of his campaign promises...
...They have pretty successflllly isolated him from his former allies, and the),, want him to u t t e r no a g i t a t i n g t h o u g h t s about "getting t h e government off our b a c k s " or " s t r e n g t h e n i n g our defenses...
...NYT) "The longer the Administration waits, the more the Kremlin will expect to g a i n - - i n the s t r e e t s . (MYr) U.S...
...European politicians will not maintain it either...
...politician" (lzvestiya...
...ambassad o r . . . " (Pravda...
...So much for tone, and polls...
...Clarence Long as requesting evidence that the Salva4 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 1982 doran " r e b e l s " have outside assistance, only to be turned down on the ground that "this could endanger the informants " "Everyone remembers very well that it is the United States that is constantly intervening in the affairs of Latin America and not 'Caucasians' at all," Pravda continued...
...the idea that isolation, sanctions, pressure from outside can force a sea change in Soviet fears and ambitions has had no more success...
...Korntlov: The New York Times is quite right in this case...
...Of course, we in the States know that these poll results are fundamentally determined by the wording of the question, which in turn reflects the philosophical biases of the pollsters...
...Warnke, a prominent U.S...
...So Mr...
...The tone of Soviet journalism tends to be quite different from its Western counterpart: hectoring, querulous, and humorless, ranging from elaborate sarcasm to mock surprise, then back again to hollow laughter and on to high-decibel indignation...
...The wellknown American political observer James Reston" (Radio Moscow), who is also called "the U.S...
...They believe that politics is the art of the anesthesiologist: Dope up the opposition, put a smile on his f a c e . Assure him that you are with him in s p i r i t , and do nothing to arouse his unease.,Be pragmatic...
...This sentiment was echoed by Radio Moscow...
...I can recommend it to all students of the news media...
...He is editor of the New York Times editorial page...
...In any event, our pollsters should know that their surveys do come in handy as Soviet propaganda...
...and for extra bedtime reading they even throw in some translations from Trud, the trade union publication...
...The Harris service registered an all-time record decline in the confidence of Americans in the president of their country"--Tass...
...Treasury and the sempiternally alluring poetry of The Greening o f America...
...No doubt they find his brand of woolly accommodation appealing...
...Tass commended the efforts of the American Civil Liberties Union to "reunite" the family, as of course did the Times...
...Tass agrees, feeling that young Walter is being "unlawfully detained by Ukrainian nationalists entrenched in Chicago...
...polling results: Harris polls, Gallup polls, CBS and New York Times polls, daily informing Soviet readers of the sagging morale in the West...
...They agree with the Democrats that taxes should be raised in a recession and that this huge milchcow s t a t e c r e a t e d by the liberal Demo~rats should continue to graze contentedly on our tax dollars even though it gives less and less actual sustenance for every heaping bushel basket of dollars munched upon...
...Pravda saw things in the same historical light, noting that "adventurist imperialist circles, incapable of learning from the lessons of history, cannot comprehend that socialism has the forces to enable it to frustrate any scheme by its adversaries...
...this...
...This is what the New York Tames writes: the principal purpose of the White House's quick response to Brezbnev's statement, the newspaper n o t e s , is the f e a r t h a t t h e moratorium which he announced could find s u p p o r t and enthusiasm among public opinion in West Europe...
...Hawks such as [Sens.] Jackson and Warner" (Radio Moscow...
...As recently as 16 March, CBS TV commentator B. Moyers, who had just r e t u r n e d from a t r i p to Central American countries, cited many examples of this sort of interference...
...Lest you think that I am exaggerating as usual in comparing the Times of Geoffrey Dawson to the New York Times of Sulzberger, Rosenthal & Frankel may 1 offer as prime exhibit a NYT editorial (April 12) supporting continued technology transfers to the Soviets: "A more relaxed policy would serve the West's best interests because a steady supply of foreign technology saps the Soviet Union's incentive to develop its own...
...circles that certainly cannot be suspected of disloyalty to capitalism...
...When you read doublethink like that you can't help occasionally wondering whose side they are on...
...What is this Soviet propaganda exactly...
...Here is how some American individuals and institutions have recently been characterized by the Soviet media: "W...
...Frankel...
...President Reagan has the power, but he doesn't have the support of the American people, the Congress or the allies in the hemisphere or the Atlantic to use it, or the words to explain his dilemma...
...Reagan is caught in a web of contradictions, most of them imposed on him by history...
...Thus these pragmatic Republicans walk around the White House with furrowed brows...
...John B. Oakes, former senior editor of the Times, was rather more outspoken on the op-ed page, telling us " i t was clear from the start that there was going to be one sure loser...
...The Farabundi Marti Front and the left-wing forces it leads boycotted the election farce and have pledged to build up their struggle against the terrorist regime...
...Salvadoran rightists should not by Tom Bethell misconstrue American enthusiasm for the election," the Times cautioned glumly after the vote...
...O'Neill a boodler bent on buying votes with the assistance of the U.S...
...H e r e ' s a closer look at the contrast between the Soviet and the New York Times position on various issues: Walter Polovchak: The New York Times, being a supporter of families, feels that the 14-year-old Ukrainian immigrant should come to his senses and rejoin his parents, who went back to the Soviet Union after an exploratory trip here...
...Yellow Rain: The Soviets defended themselves against charges of engaging in chemical w a r f a r e by citing Western news media r e p e a t e d l y , although not the New York Ttmes as far as 1 could see...
...It contains 60 to 80 pages of single-spaced typescript translations of articles from Pravda, Tass, lzvestiya, Radio Moscow, and other journals...
...Monroe had the words, but he didn't have the power to enforce t h e m , " Reston wrote...
...According to American p r e s s r e p o r t s , the 'evidence' is regarded with ill-concealed m i s t r u s t even in the United States itself," Tass reported...
...Nuclear Freeze Proposals...
...Tass triumphantly quoted the Council on Hemispheric Affairs deploring Reagan's use of "cold war language," and the Times likewise found that language "simple and puerile...
...Thus, discussing the administrauofl's attempt to blackmail the Soviet Union with an expensive arms race, the New Yvrk Times wrote in an editorial"The American economy will not bear the burden required to maintain this race...
...They se.e themselves as the heirs to Robespierre...
...The next thing you notice is the repeated citation of U.S...
...W e l l , after a series of interviews with some of our amiable President's supporters from the-last campaign, it appears to me that many of them are snatching a line from the late AI Smith and taking a walk...
...These pragmatic Republicans have been keeping a careful eye on the Oval Office, and when they see their boss reading tile editorial page of the Wall Street Journal they gasp...
...It is fitting that AI S m i t h ' s name shouht be invoked...
...F1 ~ O O Q ~ I ~ D 0 0 O ~ O 0 i ~ 0 0 ~ O Q ~ 0 0 0 o 0 0 0 ~ I ~ 0 ~ g O O ~ g O 9 ~ i i ~ i Q i 8 0 0 6 ~ Q I ~ O ~ 0 ~ g Q ~ O Q O O g Q 0 0 ~ O ~ Q ~ i Q o Q 0 Q Q Q 0 Q ~ O o ~ Q Q Q 0 Q 0 ~ 0 0 ~ q Q Q O Q Q t ~ g ~ o a i i Q 4 8 ~ * Q Q ~ Q o o O o ~ Q 0 ~ o o ~ Q ~ E D I T 0 R I A L ~ O g O Q Q O O O t B O O B Q 6 O g q B g l g Q q ~ g O Q g g q ~ q O q g ~ Q Q q o g g Q q . . . . Q Q O I O ~ 4 ~ 4 ~ O 0 . . . . . . . . Q O 4 1 Q 6 . . . . . . . O Q Q ~ Q ~ Q Q 4 0 9 g q Q q O g q ~ q g g q g t O q ~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ i ~ O ~ . . . . . ~ . . . . TOWARD OPPOSITION ? by R. Emmett Tyrrell, J r. Going into opposition: The tug to do so is upon me...
...Any disagreements so far...
...It is not easy to keep Tip O'Neill happy, especially if most of the members of your party think Adapted from RET's week& Washington Post column syndicated by King Features...
...Fulbright, a prominent American figure" (Pravda) "who has been made wiser by life and political experience" (Tass...
...But Soviet readers and listeners may not realize Tom Bethell, The American Spectator's Washington correspondent, holds the De Witt Wallace Chair in Communications at the American Enterprise Institute...
...Many" in the United States cannot help recalling the grim Vietnam w a r . " Monroe Doctrine: Tass regards the Monroe Doctrine as "notorious...
...Such prominent figures as A. Harriman, former U.S...
...And the Soviet clichds soon wear thin: "As is k n o w n . . . " " I t is no accident t h a t . . . " "American ruling circles . . ." (although come to think of it we do have them and it would be foolish to deny it), "enemies of socialism," and so on...
...O'Neill and the mannequins of evening news while avoiding national bankruptcy is a grueling task...
...It isn't likely to work any better now that Moscow has g r e a t e r m i l i t a r y strength than it did in the 1920s . . ." (Flora Lewis, NYT) On the very same day, April 1, Vitally Korionov wrote an article entitled " U s e l e s s P l o y " in Pravda which included the following: It is characteristic that warnings of the inevitable failure of Washington's present political "strategy" are being voiced increasingly loudly even in U.S...
...Sweetening up Mr...
...My sample survey of the Soviet media suggests that Reston may be their current media hero...
...newspaper oracle" by Literaturnaya Gazeta...
...NYI) Aid to Caribbean Basin...
...The newspaper Washington Post, commenting -on the r e p o r t . . . " " I n offering conclusions on the basis of half-digested evidence, the State Department risked placing itself in a false position...
Vol. 15 • June 1982 • No. 6
