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August 2, 2005

Defending ABC

I almost hate to do it, but I have to defend ABC, which has been banned in Russia for interviewing the head of the Chechen terrorist/insurgent movement, Shamil Basayev. I don't like that ABC or other media outlets tend to interview monsters like Hussein or Basayev (responsible for the massacre of children at Beslan, among other things) more respectfully than they interview our own leaders or those of our allies. I don't like media organizations reporting enemy propaganda in exchange for access either, and here are the horns of our dilemma.

On the one horn, ABC is doing something vile: interviewing a terrorist and treating his claims with undeserved respect. On the other horn, the government of Russia is doing something even more vile: using the power of the state to silence criticism by the media. If this were not a pattern of Russian behavior, I would probably tend to lean in their favor. But it's becoming clear that Putin is a tyrant, of the "one man, one vote, one time" kind. And let's face it: a free society can tolerate a badly behaved press to some degree, but no society can tolerate a tyrannical government, and the silencing of criticism of a tyrannical government is simply unacceptable.

UPDATE: Ron Coleman takes the other side. (via InstaPundit)

Posted by jeff at August 2, 2005 4:54 PM

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» Free Expression: The Only Desideratum? from Likelihood of Confusion by Ron Coleman
The Russians are annoyed. Are they so far off base? Or are those notorious anti-democrats just uncomfortable with what seems to some people to be the only thing that matters on God's green earth -- "freedom of expression"? ABC News... [Read More]

Tracked on August 3, 2005 8:50 AM

Comments

Hi, Jeff. Very good discussion going on my blog with most people agreeing with you. But I do think it's a mistake to call punishing a media outlet for giving a platform to a terrorist "silencing of criticism of a tyrannical government" -- even if the Putin government is a "tyrannical government" which, IMHO, is also an overstatement.

Posted by: Ron Coleman at August 3, 2005 8:43 AM

The Putin government seems to be doing everything in its power to shut down critical media (this is just the first instance, AFAIK, of shutting down a foreign press operation), and has done a lot of other questionable things. These include limiting the candidates who could run against Putin, interfering in elections in the Ukraine to try to get a pro-Putin thug into office, and the continuing centralization of power and control into the office of the President. If "tyrannical" is a stretch, how would you characterize Putin's government? I think Russia has great potential, but Yeltsin's mismanagement damaged the short-term prospects for real freedom, and Putin seems determined to put an end to freedom from what I can see.

Like I said, I'm pretty conflicted on the more fundamental matter of how to treat ABC here. Basayev is a monster, and needs to be killed for the good of the rest of us. I think that ABC should most certainly not have done this interview. I also think that it's appropriate for the Russian government to refuse to meet with ABC reporters. I am far less comfortable with revoking the papers that allow ABC reporters to operate in Russia otherwise, and with preventing new ABC reporters from entering Russia. That is, whatever else you might characterize it as, deeply wrong for a free society to do.

Posted by: Jeff Medcalf [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 3, 2005 9:38 AM