- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
White House criticized CBS television on Wednesday over what a spokesman
said was a spurned offer to rebut comments by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
during an interview to air on Wednesday evening.
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- In a flap that raised anew questions about U.S. news
outlets airing the views of potential foes and government attempts to influence
coverage, CBS rejected the charge and said it remained open to providing
a forum for a top Bush administration official to respond to Saddam on
the air.
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- White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told Reuters the
White House had offered a representative to counter what he said would
be propaganda, lies and "irresponsible statements" by Saddam
in the rare interview.
-
- But he said CBS replied it was interested only if President
Bush made the response himself -- which he said the White House would not
accept on the grounds that there was no "moral equivalence" between
the two leaders.
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- "This seems odd they wouldn't let the White House
have a voice," Fleischer said.
-
- But CBS News spokeswoman Sandy Genelius disputed this.
"The conversation was never President Bush or no one," she said.
The White House had initially offered to send Fleischer for brief comments,
but this was not accepted, she said. Fleischer denied that he had been
suggested for the show.
-
- CBS made a new offer on Wednesday, Genelius said, but
the White House showed little interest. "If the president, the vice
president or Secretary of State (Colin) Powell would like to appear on
the program tonight we would be happy to have them appear on the program,"
Genelius said.
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- CBS was to air the interview by news anchor Dan Rather
at 9:00 p.m. EST (0100 GMT Thursday) on its 60 Minutes II program.
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- Recorded on Monday, it is the first interview Saddam
has given to an American journalist in 13 years. Pressed by Washington,
the United Nations is preparing to debate whether to authorize a war on
Iraq to enforce disarmament demands.
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- "EXCLUSIVE WITH THE ENEMY"
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- "This is an exclusive with the enemy, and the White
House wants to have its say as the enemy lays out its case," said
Marvin Kalb, a former CBS and NBC journalist and senior fellow at Harvard
University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
-
- He said the administration has had "ample opportunity"
to present its own views on Iraq, and the American public was smart enough
to watch the interview without an immediate White House response. The interview
could help Americans make up their minds about the wisdom of going to war,
he said.
-
- With saturation coverage by U.S. and international media,
Bush has repeatedly accused Saddam of defying U.N. demands that he dismantle
weapons of mass destruction programs -- a charge the Iraqi leader denies
-- and of threatening to spread chemical, biological or nuclear weapons
to terrorists.
-
- He was giving another speech on Iraq on Wednesday evening
before the CBS interview was aired.
-
- But Fleischer said the "the White House thought
it was appropriate in the same interview and the same time to be able to
address the irresponsible statements and lies of Saddam Hussein."
-
- In the past the administration criticized television
networks for airing videotaped statements by al Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden, accused of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United
States. Officials said networks might inadvertently broadcast coded messages
to al Qaeda operatives.
-
- Fleischer said he was not concerned Saddam's interview
could sway opinion. "But it's also important to recognize, in the
name of balance and in the name of not making a moral equivalence between
a dictator and a democracy, that Iraq engages in propaganda," he said.
-
- An administration official also raised questions over
the way the interview was conducted, saying it was under conditions that
would never be accepted if set by Bush. The interview was filmed by Iraqi
television, which made a translation and pieced together videotape from
three cameras into a single recording.
-
- Genelius said it is customary for Iraq to do the filming
for such interviews, that CBS made a separate translation and that there
appeared to be no deletions of the 1 hour, 45-minute interview in the final
tape given to CBS. The interview will be edited to fit the program's one-hour
length.
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