Q & A with Robert MacNeil
The series America at a Crossroads, airing Sunday, April 15 through Friday, April 20 at 9 p.m., is a major public television event that explores the challenges confronting the world in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks — including the war on terrorism, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the experience of American troops, the struggle for balance within the Islamic world and Muslim life in America, and perspectives on America’s role in the world. The WETA-produced series of 11 independently created documentaries is hosted by distinguished journalist Robert MacNeil, who recently offered his perspective on the broadcasts.
Q: Throughout your prolific career and in your writings you have explored firsthand the relationship between television media, politics and the public. Why do you think the America at a Crossroads series is a significant television event in this era?
This series is significant because it deals with vital issues in a different way, a sustained focus through 12 hours of original documentaries shown over six consecutive nights. I don’t think anyone in television has attempted to focus public attention in quite this manner before, and I am confident that only public television could, or would, do this. America at a Crossroads will offer viewers a sustained look at the origins of Islamist terrorists and why they have made us their target, the war in Iraq, divisions within the Islamic world and whether our “War on Terror” compromises civil liberties at home.
Q: How is America at a Crossroads different from other televised attempts to characterize the current social/political climate?
Besides the unusually concentrated focus, Crossroads is different because of the variety of authors, voices and viewpoints in these independently made documentaries, the different styles and textures of filmmaking and the strong opinions expressed.
Q: What intrigued you most about the series?
I have never been involved with a project for which such a diverse group of journalist/producers was commissioned. It has been fascinating to tie their different perspectives together so as to be coherent for the viewers. Given the fast-moving events overseas and in our politics at home, it’s also been an interesting challenge to keep our stories topical. I heard a Washington insider say that the Iraq War has sucked the oxygen out of everything else. Iraq and the belated national debate over how to end the war has also greatly speeded up the 2008 presidential race. Everyone realizes that America is indeed at a crossroads.
Q: As an editorial and selection consultant for the series, what qualities did you look for in the chosen documentaries?
That they be good, vivid and compelling television, both informative and entertaining, and that they meet journalistic standards appropriate to their different purposes. Some of the documentaries represent objective reporting with due attention to fairness and balance. Some were deliberately commissioned as vehicles for one person’s opinion: they confront their critics but the editorial voice is personal and uninhibited.
Q: What do you hope America at a Crossroads will accomplish?
I hope the series will bring people who watch to see what happened to us on September 11, 2001, and how America responded, in the context of what we have learned in nearly six years — about our military capabilities and what American power can really achieve unilaterally.
Q: Can you comment about why it is important for Americans to learn about the perspectives, motivations and goals of Al-Qaeda — and about the perspectives of mainstream Muslims and their relationship to the United States from within and without?
We are told that we are in a “War on Terror” that is the vital struggle of our time. All authorities on war say that the first essential is to know who your enemy is, and, of course, who he is not. Distinguishing our enemy — Islamist radicals who oppose democracy and wish to harm us — from the vast number of Muslims who represent no threat seems equally vital. We cannot be paranoid about the whole of Islam. There are 1.3 billion Muslims, one-sixth of humanity, and millions live among us as law-abiding American citizens. If we are to protect ourselves, it seems obvious to me that we have to know how to isolate terrorists from Muslims who are merely vocal and radical and, how not, by our own actions, to incite more terrorism. With our detailed look at Muslims in Europe, in the United States, in Indonesia, and elsewhere — all facing the same internal struggle between modernism and fundamentalism — the Crossroads series offers Americans real insights into this relatively unknown world.
