European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 28, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday september 28, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 19 shame on pcs for by Bob Herbert if the Public broadcasting service had the Choice of televising a human rights series produced by a highly respected emmy award winning team or quiz show which would it choose the events in Haiti give this question added significance. Pcs was created in1969 to provide an alternative to com Mercial television s mind numbing Politi Cally timid fare. In promotional material sent out this year As part of the network s 25th-Anni-Versary Celebration executives boasted that pcs programs created by Public television stations Independent producers and foreign sources set the Standard for Quality television television that respects and nurtures the intelligence of the  that appears to be less and less the Case. Not Long ago pcs made a decision not to fund or support rights & wrongs Charlayne Hunter Gault s weekly news Magazine on human rights struggles around the world. Turned Down by the network. Rights & wrongs was produced on a shoestring by Danny Schechter and Rory o Connor who collaborated a few years ago on the acclaimed South Africa now. They distributed rights & wrongs themselves std several pcs stations. The response was Strong. Walter Goodman of the new York times said you Don t have to share the series editorial positions. To Welcome its Atten Tion to such  the nation said the show unlike almost All other television news shows makes you think it enlivens rather than numbs  then pcs went Public with a remarkable explanation for rejecting the show. Jennifer Lawson the vice president for National programming was widely quoted As saying that human rights was an insufficient organizing principle for a pcs series. It s the kind of comment that stops you cold. It is so ludicrous you have to hear it a least one More time just to be certain you heard correctly. Human rights is an insufficient organizing principle for a pcs series. Cooking is Fine As an organizing principle. And baseball certainly but human rights the bitter struggle for survival and dignity that is carried on endlessly in every society around the world nah recently on assignment for the fac Neil Lehrer news hour  was in Haiti where the Media spotlight on beatings by the police produced sudden dramatic results. But it is rare for such abuses to be committed in front of an International assemblage of reporters and photographers. T rants Are nocturnal animals doing their dirtiest work under cover of dark Ness. Courageous members of the press try to bring the atrocities to Light. That Isth Mission the organizing principle of rights & wrongs. Earlier this month Glenn Rifkin of the times reported that pcs was about to unveil a glittering Holly Vood style prime time quiz show. He wrote the half hour program Replete with a smooth wisecracking Host an off camera announcer prizes lavish sets a studio audience and applause signs will begin on oct.0 and run of mondays at 8 30 . For 22  the 22 shows financed by pcs and the corporation for Public broadcasting will Cost $1.5 million. This is just what we need Public television at taxpayer expense chasing the increasingly Down Market sensibilities of commercial television. Can Apps version of hard copy be far behind while the quiz show moves happily ahead with its $1.5 million rights & wrongs is fighting desperately to stay alive. Attempts to get corporate financing have proved futile corporate executives according to Schechter Are saying things like look this is a great idea but it would t be appropriate for us right now. We re doing business in China and it a Ould create problems for our people in China if we were identified with a human rights show."1 -.  is not a Noble moment for  25 years the alternative to Commer Cial television s terminal triviality finds it self saying yes to a quiz show and no to news about human rights. That s not much of an alternative. C new Yon times nows Vlco Clinton Wedon Stephen s. Rosenfeld How it ends in Haiti is in a foggy future. How it began is becoming clearer and More dismaying but More instructive practically by the , Haiti s history and culture make it just about the least promising place anyone can imagine to reach in and  the Bush administration in whose time president Jean Bertrand Aristide was exiled handed Bill Clinton a mess. But Clinton brought his own weaknesses. Fore most his foreign policy team de Nied him Steadi Ness and Protection. They did t thrash out differences. They failed to keep the president on the track of the political Compromise that american policy in a moment of optimism pressed upon Aristide and it Gen. Raoul Cedras at governors Island in july 1993.the outer Shell of american policy was to get the military out and the elected pres ident Back in. The inner Core was to isolate Cedras after he broke his word and failed to go by leaning on Aristide to broaden his government with available military officers and private sector people. Much has been said and with jus Tice that Cedras thought he could wait out the International Community and that Aristide rather than Settle for Compro Mise chose to work the International con science instead. But these responses would have Only slowed not stopped a Resolute american diplomacy. Instead came Harlan county in octo Ber 1993. The . Tank Landing ship carrying International police trainers re treated from a dockside mob. Later Cidras marvelled that the Navy had t at once regrouped and poured ashore. But Pentagon civilians not the brass got cold feet the Cia thought Aristide was unstable anyway the state department was Uncertain and the National Security Council was no help. Then came what some Call Harlan county ii in january 1994. The unite states renewed its Appeal to Aristide to put in a broader government and told a dras to comply or face new  the Clinton administration backed away from new sanctions. At this Point Clinton was in the soup. The c6dras regime s atrocities an the refugee flow were putting political pressure on him to act. Clinton was get Ting pushed toward an unwelcome military option. It is fair to wonder whether the political option would have worked especially with that cast of characters. It s a judgment question. To review the official miscues however is to develop a Strong sense of the wasted possibilities. There s plenty of room for second guessing Here. I Don t think we had no Choice but to accept Aristide s audacious and ultimately successful Effort to avoid political Compro Mise by enlisting the american armed forces As his own personal guard in his contest with Cidras. Nor did we have to accept Cedras cold Defiance of International norms and his contempt for his commitments. But that is what happened As a consequence of the Clinton administration s failure to organize a coherent policy. This collapse of policy making also explains How Jimmy Carter got into the picture. As shrewd As he is obsessed with his historical Mission the former presi Dent appears to have sensed an Opportunity to move in on Clinton who was increasingly desperate for Rescue in Haiti still trying but still deep Down ambivalent about intervention. Was it a bit embarrassing that Carter on Odd Days a human Righter was making his bid through the criminalc6dras, whom he was reinventing As his partner in teaching sunday school his Back to the Wall in effect abandoned by his aides Clinton was in a poor position to say no. This is How an intervention launched to reseat Aristide the democratically elected Leader turned out in the Start of its meant to be Brief first stage anyway to seem to reseat the interloper dictator Cedras who is of course scheduled to step Down by mid october. Is All Hope gone for the sort of political solution the administration earlier promoted and then let slip from its grasp it s needed now More than Ever to satisfy the new requirement on american policy to terminate the intervention and if Possi ble to have things  better rather than worse. That Means expecting Aris tide designated principal custodian of the haitian political process to work within the existing Constitution to get the elected parliament up and running promptly and to reach out for political allies. As for Bill Clinton he has his own Shap ing up of his foreign policy apparatus to do. C Washington Post