Rwanda, Kosovo lost in O.J., Monica turmoil p.8

By: Allan Wolper Holbrooke riles Overseas Press Club awards dinner

United Nations Ambassador-designate Richard Holbrooke says the media overcovered President Clinton's impeachment, Monica Lewinsky, and O.J. Simpson while underreporting the emerging crises in Rwanda and Kosovo.
Holbrooke, standing at a lectern at the recent 60th Annual Awards dinner of the Overseas Press Club (OPC) at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, said: "Kosovo was undercovered because of Monica, and Rwanda was undercovered because of O.J. ? Editors should cover what is important not what is titillating."
Holbrooke says that even The New York Times is succumbing to the sleazy O.J., Monica, and impeachment stories that have dominated many of the country's front pages.
On the day that Holbrooke gave his speech, the Times was reporting that President Clinton had decided not to appeal a civil contempt court ruling against him. Federal Judge Susan Webber Wright recently ruled that President Clinton had given "false, misleading, and evasive answers" in a sworn deposition in the Paula Jones lawsuit.
Holbrooke ended his speech amid a series of shouted questions from two Pacifica Radio reporters, Amy Goodman and Jeremy Scahill, whose documentary, "Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship," won a special citation at the OPC competition. Their documentary was entered in The Lowell Thomas competition, which rewards radio news reporting of foreign affairs.
Scahill and Goodman startled the tuxedoed chamber when they announced they were rejecting the citation because Holbrooke was refusing to answer questions about America's role in Kosovo.
Tom Brokaw, the NBC news anchor who handed out the awards, told the audience that Holbrooke always was available to the press and probably answered questions of many of the reporters in the room. Brokaw then conferred briefly with Holbrooke and said he would answer questions after all 18 awards were given to the honored journalists.
Holbrooke, however, turned aside questions after an interview with E&P in which he elaborated briefly on his criticism of media coverage. "The media weren't covering Kosovo and Rwanda," he said. "They were covering another story. The balance was all about impeachment."
He begged off other questions, saying he wanted to take home his 89-year-old father-in-law, Andre Morton, who received a special citation in recognition of his foreign coverage for the Associated Press 45 years ago.
Holbrooke ushered his father-in-law around tables as Goodman and Scahill shouted questions after him. Lesley Stahl, the 60 Minutes television news star who had written a blurb for Holbrooke on a recent book he wrote, soon appeared at the back of the ballroom. "Has anyone seen Richard [Holbrooke], I'm supposed to take his father-in-law home?" Stahl asked.
Goodman told E&P she was embarrassed that her press colleagues would not support her. "Reporters don't stick up for each other," she says. "Chevron would not allow Pacifica to cover a press conference in San Francisco and no one said anything there either."
Sonya Fry, executive director of The Overseas Press Club, says speakers at the OPC do not normally hold press conferences and noted that Holbrooke spoke to CNN and other reporters before the dinner. Fry conceded, however, that she understood why some journalists might want to question him after his criticism of the media.
Holbrooke, a former Assistant Secretary of State and a onetime special envoy to Bosnia, has been embroiled in a eight month fight to win U.S. Senate confirmation as Clinton's ambassador to the U.N.
Senate Republicans are holding up his confirmation, in part, because of his role in 1996 as vice president with Credit Suisse First Boston. Holbrooke, according to published reports, will pay a $5,000 fine to settle Justice Department charges that he inappropriately lobbied Department of State officials for Credit Suisse one month after leaving his job there as special envoy to Bosnia.
Federal laws forbid officials from conducting business with their former colleagues for one year after leaving office.
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