Sunday's Talking Heads

2005-01-03

Carol Bellamy has served as Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for the past ten years. Long a champion to the underdog, she was the first woman elected City Council President in New York where she took up many community causes, including saving an abandoned school on the lower eastside of Manhattan for use as an arts center that is now internationally known.

For the last week, Ms. Bellamy has patiently provided TV journalists with caring and experienced insight into a more grim reality than an arts center. On Sunday, from Sri Lanka, she described seeing parents "standing at the edge of the ocean waiting for their children's bodies to come back."

Sunday morning television in the States is time for the weekly news and political commentary shows. While the broadcast networks often cover the same topics and events, they typically book a different assortment of guests to discuss them. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appeared on ABC television's This Week show with host George Stephanopoulos, former Clinton staffer who figures prominently in the documentary War Room. Mr. Stephanopoulos commented, during his interview with Secretary-General Annan, that Colin Powell was headed for the disaster region. Secretary Powell did not appear on the ABC weekly show before leaving for Asia, but on CBS and NBC.

Speaking on Face The Nation[transcript pdf] (CBS News), after Carol Bellamy's brief interview, Secretary Powell described the problem of "retail distribution" in the affected area. On NBC's Meet the Press, Powell reiterated the huge logistical challenge of getting supplies to those who need them. "It's a matter of getting supplies to the region and then, once you get these supplies to airports and ports, how do you make retail distribution out to the people in need?"

Commenting on the criticism he and the U.S. administration had received following its initial response to the disaster, Secretary Powell said, "There is always some former official around, some Rolodex ranger that always shows up to criticize what we are doing."

In his book Plan of Attack, Bob Woodward describes Powell's own tension behind the scenes with other members of the administration. Since announcing his resignation, however, Colin Powell has not slowed down on the job, nor has he said what he will do after he leaves.