THE ART AND CRAFTINESS OF MEDIA PROPAGANDA

Are the U.S. news media used for propaganda?

It’s a lingering, valid question, and it was asked again at the start of Thursday’s “Viewpoint.” The late-night ABC forum on the media was keyed to press manipulation by terrorists and by Vladimir Posner, the New York-reared Soviet radio and TV commentator and Kremlin spokesman.

Do terrorists have the media in their hip pockets? Do the media grant Posner free rein to sway U.S. public opinion?

Because “Viewpoint,” by definition, is merely a platform for diverse opinions, no conclusions were reached or pronouncements made. But try these two:

Yes, the U.S. news media are being used for propaganda. No, that is not necessarily bad.

Once again, it should be noted that news media and news makers have an unwritten, unspoken, unofficial pact to help each other. “They” need our space to convey their message. “We” need their message to fill our space. It’s a mutually benefiting arrangement that’s a convenient way to do business but doesn’t always serve the public well.

Propaganda isn’t automatically evil, though. It’s merely the spreading of ideas or information with an intent to sway others.

Some propaganda is labeled, some not. Judge the propagandist by the nature of the propaganda. A car salesman is a propagandist. Ditto for the organizers of Hands Across America and presidential spokesman Larry Speakes and Dr. Ruth and the Ku Klux Klan.

This shouldn’t be news to you, but I’m selling a point of view, hence this column is propaganda. So are this newspaper’s editorial and op-ed pages.

TV, though, is a virtual propaganda machine.

You need a calculator to count the ways. Product advertisements are propaganda. So are political advertisements. So are promos for programs and a station’s news interviews that promote that station’s programs. So are significant portions of talk and morning shows that rely heavily on authors, performers and special-interest groups to fill air time through hyping their individual enterprises.

Religious programs are propaganda. President Reagan’s speeches are propaganda, followed by more propaganda from Democratic leaders responding to his speeches, all of them given their widest exposure by TV.

News anchors doing stand-ups or venturing into the field to report stories are propaganda, attempting to sell viewers an image of journalistic credibility that translates into higher ratings.

Tom Brokaw’s recent interview with Palestine Liberation Front leader Abul Abbas was double-barreled propaganda that split the stage. Half went to Abbas, the self-acknowledged planner of the Achille Lauro hijacking that resulted in the death of an American. The other half went to NBC News for some subtle self-promotion.

By assigning “Nightly News” anchorman Brokaw to the interview rather than an ordinary correspondent, NBC was saying: This Is Important and thus “Nightly News” Is Important for airing it. Propaganda.

Not incidentally, the interview also cast Brokaw in the image enhancing role of Ace Reporter in addition to Ace Anchor. More propaganda.

NBC took some heat from the White House and others for giving Abbas a forum (he threatened to export terrorism to the United States) plus agreeing not to reveal his whereabouts as a condition for the interview. The United States wants to prosecute Abbas for the Achille Lauro hijacking, hence NBC seemed to be helping Abbas stay out of America’s clutches.

Appearing on “Viewpoint,” Brokaw said that NBC “would do it in roughly the same manner” if offered the Abbas interview again. He said any negatives associated with the interview were outweighed by its “news value.”

The only news, however, was that NBC had found Abbas or that Abbas had found NBC, and also that he wanted to kill Americans in the United States. But that news didn’t do Americans any good, because even if the United States immediately wanted to find Abbas and stop him, it couldn’t because NBC wouldn’t reveal where he was.

No, it was a bad deal that NBC made with Abbas. Would NBC have made the same deal if Abbas were inside the United States? Would NBC have made the deal if Abbas revealed plans to blow up the White House? Even worse, if he were hiding in Manhattan and planned to blow up NBC and take Bill Cosby hostage?

Minus the deal to hide his location, though, NBC was within its rights as a news organization to put Abbas on the air as representing a point of view.

The same principle applies to the propagandizing Posner, who also took part in Thursday’s “Nightline” and blamed “tradition,” not politics, for denying U.S. spokesmen the kind of access to Soviet TV that Posner enjoys in the United States.

Posner said he would try to reduce the inequity. In truth, however, it’s unlikely that the United States could supply Soviet TV with a spokesman even approaching the combined linguistic, political, social and media skills of Posner.

The Moscow-based Posner was to be making the media rounds in Los Angeles today. He has been in the United States since May 13, splitting his time between the media and preparations for “Citizens’ Summit II,” another space bridge TV dialogue between Americans and Soviets, co-moderated by Posner and Phil Donahue. KNBC Channel 4 will air the program June 28.

Speaking of disinformation on all sides, meanwhile, a press kit from the U.S. distributors of “Citizens’ Summit II” credits Posner with winning Emmys for his appearances on “Nightline” and the KCBS-TV’s “Two on the Town.”

Not quite. Actually, it wasn’t Posner who won the Emmys-- unless the Kremlin gives out its own TV awards--but episodes of shows on which he made an appearance.

More propaganda.