Media

...The definition of journalism in this country is for independent reporters to try to find out what is going on, to report critically, if appropriate, to criticize the government...

...Russians, it became clear during the New York conference, come to the United States with an acute sensitivity to American behavior—sensitivity that can't just be attributed to ideological or geopolitical differences...

...That is why, when it came to discussing examples of American reporting, they kept coming back to George Will...

...The definition of journalism in the Soviet Union is that the Soviet press is the spokesman for the government— We are engaged, essentially, in two different forms of occupation...

...But when Sam Donaldson and Chris Wallace stood in front of the White House to do their evening reports, they, too, "gave us the official line—but in their own words...

...When we hear the viewpoint expressed that we always express the views of the government, I can tell you that it is wrong," he said sternly...

...journalists in Moscow...

...Bovin and four other Soviet journalists and officials had come to the Center for the Study of War, Peace, and the News Media at New York University in May to take part in a conference comparing coverage of national security and domestic issues on both sides of the East-West divide...

...David Ignatius spoke for many when he reminded Bovin that in this country there is a "clear division between news reporting and editorial writing...

...If so, it is all the more ironic that Russians are so sensitive to our stories about them, which purport to reveal the truth, while we are merely amused by their reports about us, which we dismiss as nothing but Government lies...

...Therefore, I can't possibly always be reflecting the view of my government...

...The conservative columnist and commentator had gone to Moscow with ABC News in February to report on the Twenty-seventh Communist Party Congress, and had subsequently written about the experience...

...The American news media "had tried to make a show out of all of this of a certain kind—an anti-Soviet kind...

...Lawrence Grossman reminded the Soviets that we and they mean different things when we talk about journalism...

...That may well be the case...

...One television system, he said, "is state-run, monopolistic, stolid, even plodding...

...the column was Robert Karl Manoff is associate director of the Center for the Study of War, Peace, and the News Media at New York University...

...Europeans often count themselves superior to their American friends, whereas the insecure elites in post-colonial societies seem to be obsessed with what the American news media are saying about their countries...

...They feel like they are in a war," he said of the U.S...

...Don't try to teach people to live your way," he enjoined the American media, suggesting that they abide by Lomeiko's Golden Rule: "Write about other people the way you would like them to write about you...

...the other is "independent of government control, competitive, highly produced, visually exciting...

...Soviet sensitivity to American opinion seemed to resemble what you find in the Third World more than what you encounter in Western Europe...

...They feel like they are fighting with one side against the other and are very keen to show that they have not been 'duped.'" Such a view of American journalism is hardly popular among American journalists...

...The effect, however, was the same: Television news is an official transmission channel...

...The press didn't follow that rule when it came to reporting Chernobyl, he said...

...At the conference, Vladimir Molchanov—a special correspondent, and the author of several books—found it necessary to rebut Will, citing John F. Kennedy's comment, "We have deluded ourselves about the intellectual potential of the Russians...

...As you know, my government is never wrong," he went on, a knowing smile playing across his face...

...Political differences were to be expected, but the lack of humane concern for them as persons perplexed them...

...George Will at the peak of his acerbity...

...We were wrong about their level of ignorance...

...I, however, am wrong quite frequently...

...The conference, organized in conjunction with the Alerdionck Foundation, drew more than 500 journalists who spent the day watching Bovin...

...MEDIA Robert Karl Manoff Soviet Sensibilities In the end, Alexander Bovin, the Izvestia columnist, told his readers—much to my surprise—that "our American colleagues chairing the panels allocated time fairly...

...Alexander Bovin, a large man sporting a finely waxed mustache that Murray Kempton would later call "the last vestige of his vanity," was not impressed...

...Vladimir Lomeiko, chief spokesman for the Soviet foreign ministry, and Leonid Kravchenko, ranking journalist in the Soviet television system, discuss their work with the likes of David K. Shipler of The New York Times, David Ignatius of The Washington Post, and Lawrence K. Grossman, president of NBC News...

...What surprised me was that Bovin himself seemed surprised that he had received a fair shake on this side of the Atlantic...

...Having observed American correspondents during two long tours in Moscow, he said coverage of Chernobyl was merely running true to form...

...His comment to his Russian readers reflected an underlying assumption that he was bound to be treated unfairly...

...Gerd Ruge, the editor-in-chief of West German television, agreed...

...The Russians could forgive that—it was, after all, just a question of politics—but they were deeply insulted when he called their society "brain dead...

...Not unexpectedly, he hadn't much cared for what he saw in Moscow...

...At a press conference convened to provide answers to questions about Chernobyl, Lomeiko, the foreign ministry spokesman, betrayed similar sensitivities, attributing the tone of American press coverage of the accident to "a certain superiority complex...

...The NYU conference took place in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident, and while American reporters were upset about the paucity of information provided by the Soviet government, members of the Soviet contingent were offended by the few expressions of sympathy (three, by count) that were extended by the American journalists they met...

...The Soviet television system, he added, faithfully mirrored the Soviet position...

...Edwin Diamond, the television critic, had something concrete to add, based on his study of Soviet and American coverage of last year's Geneva summit...