AUG 19 1985

TV GUIDE

1290 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10104/212-484-9900

Aug. 19, 1985

Dear Chris,

As you recall, I interviewed Dr. Kissinger a few weeks ago on the subject of the Beirut hostage crisis. As usual, he asked that I send him his direct quotation so that he could check it over before we publish it. It is enclosed.

The other editors and I are quite happy with it the way it stands, so naturally we hope that Dr. Kissinger's emendations, if any, will be minor.

Once again, I'd like to thank you for setting up the interview. We really do appreciate your help and cooperation.

We would need Dr. Kissinger's corrections by the end of this week, or next Monday---a week from today---at the latest.

TRIANGLE PUBLICATIONS, INC.

Television is often accused of letting the bias of its commentators affect the presentation of the story. This was not the case in Beirut. The problem was the nature of the story, plus the competitiveness of the medium, which gives hijackers an incentive to create and prolong such a situation in order to use television to get before the American public. It's a tough problem, because television, being a visual medium, goes after whatever pictures it can get. So the networks show the hostages and the hostage families when they can. Obviously, those are the people who have the least judgment of the situation's overall necessities.

One could argue that, in the long run, the best way to save lives is not to negotiate with kidnappers at all. If they win their demands, the incentive will be there to grab another bunch of Americans in the future. But you can't expect the hostages or their families to have that view. And so the abstract requirement of saving American lives in the future is not necessarily the main priority of the hostages themselves and their families. This is a very complex issue, because if in any one situation the hijackers prevail and achieve most of their objectives, you create a premise that another hijacking will also be successful. And while you may then save some or all of the people being held at the moment, you are endangering the lives of future, potential victims. This is an objective problem and I don't know what television can do about it. You can't tell the networks not to show the hostages and their families. What they might perhaps do is explain that there are other considerations involved.

When they put on terrorists themselves, this is where I part company with the networks. They should agree among themselves that there are several things they will not do. They will not photograph the kidnappers stating their demands while they are holding hostages. I don't object to the simple reporting of demands. I object to letting the terrorists stage performances for American television during which they state their demands. That may create an incentive to kidnap people in order to get on television. I believe the networks could agree on some self-limiting guidelines.