 |
         
|
CBS chose the Asian angle, assigning the North Korean story to Barry Petersen in Tokyo. NBC chose the State Department angle, assigning it to Andrea Mitchell, traveling in Africa in the entourage of Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton. ABC went inside-the-Beltway with its senior foreign affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz. The former President "seems to have gotten exactly what he wanted," mused Raddatz, but appearances were deceptive. "He had been assured before he got there that is what would happen."
NBC's Mitchell reported that the pardon of Ling and Lee "had been engineered during months of secret negotiations with assurances that the former President would not leave empty-handed." She outlined her understanding that the deal had been negotiated "at the highest levels of the State Department" and then communicated to Al Gore--the boss of Current TV and Clinton's onetime Vice President--who, in turn, made the request to Clinton to make the trip. The Obama Administration, Mitchell noted, insisted that Clinton was on a private mission, traveling in an unmarked plane--"a lot of coordination but there is complete deniability."
For its part, CBS' Petersen pointed out, North Korea asserted that Clinton "courteously conveyed a verbal message" from President Barack Obama, a claim the White House contradicted. ABC's Raddatz also noted Pyongyang's efforts to spin the visit as official diplomacy: "They were making the most of it, pictures of a grinning Kim sitting side by side with President Clinton, meetings with Clinton and a VIP state dinner."
CBS' Petersen reminded us how "tensions have soared" between North Korea and the United States since Ling and Lee were arrested. North Korea has tested nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles; the United Nations has responded with tightened sanctions. NBC's Mitchell reported that the State Department is "trying to keep the release of the women on a separate track from those stalemated, stalled nuclear talks" yet she noted that it was North Korea's "top nuclear negotiator" who greeted Clinton: "State television said that the two men had extensive talks on a wide range of topics." George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC's This Week, added that North Korea "has been looking for ways to get around six-party talks" to negotiate with the US directly.
CBS anchor Katie Couric (at the tail of the Petersen videostream) followed up the reporting with an interview with Bill Richardson, the Governor of New Mexico who had diplomatic contacts with North Korea during the Clinton Administration. Richardson pointed to an internal power struggle in North Korea, where an ailing Kim is trying to secure succession for his son. Kim "gets a lot of juice" by securing a meeting with someone of Clinton's stature. As for that so-called forced labor prison camp, the journalists "were in a guest house, allowed access to phone calls to their families. They also allowed the Swedish ambassador to visit."
You must be logged in to this website to leave a comment. Please click here to log in so you can participate in the discussion.
