Volume 34, Number 3 · February 26, 1987
The Press on Trial
By Ronald Dworkin
Reckless Disregard: Westmoreland v. CBS et al.; Sharon v. Time
by Renata Adler
Knopf, 243 pp., $16.95
Renata Adler's fierce book about two recent libel suits—Westmoreland v. CBS and Sharon v. Time—has revived the debates they provoked and become a cause célèbre of its own. The lawsuits themselves attracted great public attention and were widely covered in both the American and foreign press. Both cases involved commanding generals, unpopular wars, and powerful press institutions. On January 23, 1982, CBS broadcast a documentary, called 'The Uncounted Enemy,' about the war in Vietnam. It claimed to report 'a conscious effort—indeed a conspiracy at the highest levels of American military intelligence—to suppress and alter critical intelligence on the enemy in the year leading up to the Tet offensive,' and showed General William C. Westmoreland, who commanded American forces in Vietnam, at the center of that 'conspiracy.' In February 1983, Time ran a cover story about the massacre of Palestinian refugees by Christian Phalangist troops in Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon following the assassination of the Phalangist leader Bashir Gemayel. It said that the Israeli defense minister, General Ariel Sharon, had 'reportedly discussed with the Gemayels the need for the Phalangists to take revenge for the assassination of Bashir.'
Review, 11909 words
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