U.S. News Owner Says CNN Influence Is Overrated

June 19, 2001

CNN is insignificant compared to other American news organizations, the owner of U.S. News told reporters in Jerusalem. "Many of you here just watch CNN and think that represents the way the media represents Israel. It does not," Mortimer Zuckerman said at a news conference in Sunday. "Many of the Israeli politicians I've spoken to speak of the 'CNN effect' and are really astonished to realize how insignificant CNN is."

Zuckerman, 63, a real estate magnate who owns both U.S. News & World Report and the New York Daily News, is in Israel as the new chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. He said the prominence of CNN is overrated. "I know that's what you watch here, but CNN reaches 288,000 viewers, while the three major TV networks have an audience of 45 million, and the three major news weeklies over 11 million," he pointed out. Zuckerman, who made his fortune in real estate and whose net worth is estimated by Forbes magazine at $1.2 billion, takes an active role in running the U.S. News weekly newsmagazine, serving as both editor-in-chief and columnist.

Zuckerman assailed the international media's "moral equivalence, where the arsonist is compared to the firefighter." According to Zuckerman, TV news coverage of Israel distorts the truth. "When you watch the pictures on U.S. television of the violence in Israel all crammed together in 60 or 100 seconds at most, you think the whole country is up in flames."

Zuckerman, whose visit to Israel is part of a "solidarity visit" by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, was asked about the Reform Judaism movement's highly controversial decision to cancel all of its youth trips to Israel this summer. Zuckerman replied, "That move really provoked everybody to make clear we are all committed to nourishing, encouraging, and participating in visits to Israel." He added, "There should be no triumph for terrorists."

Outgoing chairman of the Conference of Presidents, Ronald Lauder, head of cosmetics giant Estée Lauder, also spoke at the news conference. According to Lauder, the Bush administration is "extremely supportive of the State of Israel." Lauder noted that the U.S. government is taking a "wait and see attitude" on the "so-called cease-fire."

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