Central America news reports ‘distorted’

Press, 25 August 1983, Page 20

Central America news reports ‘distorted’

Reuter correspondent, Washington

President Ronald Reagan, decrying what he termed “hype and hoopla” over his policies in Central America, has accused news organisations of offering the public distorted accounts of events in that area.

“You wouldn’t know from some of the coverage that the greatest portion of our aid to Central America is humanitarian and economic assistance,” the President said in a speech this week to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “You wouldn’t know democracy is taking root there.” Mr Reagan told the annual convention of the veterans’ group that Robert Currieo, a, V.F.W. official, recently returned from a trip to Central America and complained that “we’re getting a distorted view of what’s actually taking place. Bob is absolutely right,” Mr Reagan told the veterans. Mr Reagan made his accusation during a speech devoted to the

themes of military patriotism and a political defence of his White House record. He said he had restored the nation’s military preparedness and international reputation, and had had more arms control talks under way with the Soviet Union “than any administration in history.” .

Complaining abouut news distortion, the President said: “I don’t blame the media alone because in many cases they are just reporting the disinformation they hear coming from people who put politics ahead of our national interests.”

Terming the United States a “peacemaker” in. Central America, Mr Reagan declared: “We support any effort, any venue, that will give the people of that region a more prosperous future.” The President did not specify the distortions that he said were interfering with the public’s need to know about United States policy in

Central America. His programme of applying increased military and economic pressure in that region has stirred alarms from critics and opinion poll readings from the public that are dismaying to some White House strategists because they show significant indifference and caution among audiences whom Mr Reagan has spent weeks trying to influence. Last week, the President conceded in his weekly radio address that,"despite his attempts to rouse public support for his programme, the great majority of Americans don’t know which side we are on.” The President reflected his aides’ sensitivity to the ‘peace issue’ in his speech yesterday, when he asserted that the United States was safer now than it was under the Carter administration. “We’ve launched the most sweeping proposals for arms control since nuclear weapons became a threat,” he said.