Quick Links to Speakers
Sen. Richard
G. Lugar
Dr. Chung Hwan
Kwak
Amb.
Bill Richardson
Arnaud
de Borchgrave
Matthew A.
Levitt
Dr. Shibley
Telhami
Dr. Graham
Allison
Lawrence
S. Eagleburger
Bill Gertz
Amb. Philip
S. Kaplan
Dr. Timothy
Charles Brown
Dr. Daniel
Pipes
Dr. Muazzam
Gill
Faiz Rehman
Robert Baer
John O'
Sullivan
Hafez
Al-Mirazi
Georgie Anne
Geyer
Dimitri K.
Simes
Dr. Frank
Kaufmann
Amb.
Phillip V. Sanchez
Martin
Walker
Douglas D.M. Joo
MR. DOUGLAS JOO
President, Washington Times Corporation
CLOSING REMARKS
Honored guests, my dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen! Good afternoon! This conference has been a very rewarding experience, wouldn’t you agree? Coming from all over the world, from 46 different nations and from various media fields, we came together around the most pressing issue of our time.
My heartfelt thanks go to all our speakers, panelists, moderators, and staff for helping to make this conference so fruitful. I’d like to recognize the tremendous support of the founder of WMA, Rev. Sun Myung Moon. And, I’d like to thank the conference director, Michael Marshall, and our conference general manager, Tomiko Duggan, for creating an excellent conference for all of us. Let’s give them a big hand.
We are fortunate that, in the last two days, we have been just far enough away from the IMF protests, the tear gas, and so on. And, we’re also just outside Dr. Graham Allison’s zone two for a nuclear suitcase bomb, which ends at the Pentagon! So, even though these dangers are just a couple of hundred yards away, we have been safe enough here!
We are concluding our 19th WMC. Our topic in this conference, “The Media’s Role in the Aftermath of 9/11,” is not any less important or serious than the topics of our past 18 conferences, which have included such elemental discussions as perestroika and the emergence and importance of the Pacific Rim. The World Media Association believes that the media are supremely important in helping to set the stage for world events, and that we are definitely participants in, not just observers and reporters of, history in its making. The WMA has always held that we must not only look at the political, economic, or other external sides of an issue but also the deeper, internal, and causal side as well.
Looking across media coverage in the aftermath of 9/11, we can see a different emphasis from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, or the Washington Times, and ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, or Fox. I have also noticed throughout this conference that, on one hand, some of us focus more on the military and security issues related to the threat of terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11. On the other hand, some of us focus more on the cultural, religious, historical, social, and racial issues related to 9/11.
Actually, there is deeper understanding to be found here. When we focus on the consequences of terrorism and 9/11, we will be looking at the military and security issues. But when we focus on the causes of terrorism and 9/11, we will be studying the cultural, religious, and social aspects.
When we focus on the consequences, our readers’ conclusions will eventually be led more toward supporting one military action or another to combat the terrorist threat. When we focus on the causes, we are looking more to answer the question, “Why do they hate us?” WMA does not seek to emphasize one focus or the other, but, rather, the importance of both. What we must do is seek to gain a sense of balance as we report on these most delicate issues in the aftermath of 9/11. This is in line with Georgie Anne Geyer’s comments this morning on balanced reporting.
It will be helpful to establish a criterion to aid us in deciding which focus we will take, causes or consequences, and how we achieve balance between them. Permit me to offer a reflection: Orienting our reporting toward the goal of world peace could become a type of norm or common goal for the news media, since it is already a goal for all humanity.
In terms of the causal side, we know that our best hopes for peace will come through reconciliation and bringing harmony among our world’s cultures and religious spheres. Let’s take a look at this idea as we have seen it in our conference. There is an interesting lesson from the presentation of Ambassador Phillip Sanchez. That is, the power of spirituality to bring unity and peace. His readings emphasized that in the spiritual realm at this time in history, there is total unity among the hundreds of religions and the leaders of those religions. What we must do on earth is realize that spiritual power. As the Bible says, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
We have, therefore, learned that we journalists must not overlook the importance of this spiritual dimension, or, as Drs. C.H. Kwak and Frank Kaufmann reminded us yesterday morning and today, we must begin to take seriously the importance of religion as we report on the most important issues of the day.
Looking at the consequential side, we have learned that accurate and in-depth coverage of military and security issues is critical. In this context, we can also say that terrorism is absolutely antithetical to world peace. However, consider Arnaud de Borchgrave’s appeal for us to wake up and realize that the enemy is unclear in America’s present statement of its case for war, or that we must realize the problem of numerous bureaucratic systems that hamper our response to terrorism.
When looking at the political upheaval in Nicaragua years ago, we talked about fighting the Sandinistas or supporting the Contras. We did not frame the issues in terms of making war against Nicaragua. Today, we see some media reports simply talking about going to war against Iraq, rather than discussing a specific position against Saddam Hussein’s regime or dangerous military dictators. Which approach is more accurate?
The WMA certainly does not advocate judging any side of an issue or evaluating any media’s coverage of an issue. Rather, our mission is to provide this open forum so we can air our differences and come to some basic agreement on how to best fulfill our role as responsible and fair journalists. In the case of our topic for this particular WMC, we sought to consider how to best fulfill our role in the media in the aftermath of 9/11.
What we do is as important as, or, at times, even more important than, the actions of world leaders. Surely we can significantly contribute to achieving world peace. My hope, and the hope of the WMA and its founder, is that we leave here today with a renewed commitment to achieve the balanced reporting I have discussed and, therefore, make a profound contribution to world peace.
Thank you very much again for attending this important conference. I hope that what we have done together will be helpful to the profession of media leaders and have an impact on many other important leaders as well. The proceedings will be published very soon and will be distributed though out the world. And I certainly hope we can work together more in the future.
I hope you all have a safe trip home. May God bless you, your families, and your work. Thank you very much.
