Dominant Paradigm

[Paul Mackin]

Not to overly beat a dead horse (dead out of the gate as far as I'm
concerned) but the following from this monring's Washington Post Style
section:

The Voice of America's news director has fired off a blistering memo about
the State Department's spiking of an interview with the head of
Afghanistan's Taliban.

Andre DeNesnera told his staff -- more than 100 of whom have signed a
protest petition -- that there has been "a systematic attack on the Voice of
America. . . . The State Department's decision is a totally unacceptable
assault on our editorial independence, a frontal attack on our credibility.
. . . It takes a long time to build up credibility -- and an instant to lose
it. This certainly was a dark, dark day for those of us who have -- for
years -- fought to uphold journalistic ethics, balance, accuracy and
fairness."

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher had said officials "didn't think
it was appropriate for the Voice of America to be broadcasting the voice of
the Taliban into Afghanistan." The VOA ignored the directive last week by
airing the comments by Mullah Mohammed Omar.

"Voice of America may be its name," DeNesnera says in an interview, "but we
also abide by the journalistic ethic of presenting both sides of the story
and let the listener decide."