‘UNDER SIEGE’ GETS FACT-TYPE HYPE FOR ITS FICTION

There they were on the split screen together Thursday morning.

Jane Pauley, co-anchor of “Today,” the early morning series produced by NBC News, was interviewing Bob Woodward, the Washington Post newsman still best known as the reporter who joined Carl Bernstein in breaking the Watergate story and writing a book about it called “All the President’s Men.”

There they were, Pauley in New York and Woodward in Washington, journalist to journalist. Must be hot news.

Except that the subject was unrelated to journalism and only indirectly related to news. The subject was “Under Siege,” Sunday’s fictional three-hour NBC movie (8 p.m. on Channels 4, 36 and 39) about domestic terrorism unleashed by an Arab fanatic copied after the real-life Abu Nidal. It was Nidal, the United States government says, who was behind the recent terrorist atrocities at the Vienna and Rome airports.

Why was Pauley interviewing Woodward about an NBC movie on a program produced by the news division? Was Woodard news? No. Was “Under Siege” news? No. The sole purpose of the interview was to publicize the movie, which was co-written by Woodward.

NBC, ABC and CBS traditionally use their morning programs to tout their prime-time programs, particularly during ratings sweeps months whose audience statistics set advertising rates for local stations.

“That’s Sunday night on NBC,” Pauley noted after getting the sizzling scoop from Woodward.

No harm, no foul, except that all three networks invoke a grubby double standard during these intense ratings periods by providing “news coverage” of their own shows, but not the shows of their competitors. Pauley would not have been assigned to play the role of shill to interview Woodward on “Today” if “Under Siege” were on CBS or ABC.

Far worse in this case, though, was the interview’s unintended subtler implication that “Under Siege” was, in some vague way, truth. The Pauley/Woodward chat tended to validate “Under Siege” as news, which was not only undeserved, but could prove inflammatory and dangerous.

Think about it:

The co-anchor of the nation’s most popular morning news program interviews one of the nation’s best-known print investigative journalists about a volatile movie topic associated with real-life terrorism. The line between real and fantasy tends to blur.

In “Under Siege,” Arab terrorist Abu Ladeen (Nidal phonetically spelled backward):

--Triggers a string of murderous acts in the United States (including blowing up three domestic airliners in flight and tossing bombs into stores and an airport) that arbitrarily kill hundreds of innocent Americans.

--Hides out with Shias in Detroit, where (in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn) there is a large real-life Shia Muslim community.

The Iranian ambassador to the United States in “Under Siege” condemns Abu Ladeen for hiding among the Shia people. But will some viewers of the “Today” interview and then the movie conclude that Dearborn’s Shia Muslim community somehow supports terrorism and would harbor someone as heinous as the real-life Abu Nidal?

If that is the conclusion of some viewers, it’s easy to think of a scary worst-case scenario in a nation where vigilantism is increasingly glorified in movies and TV. In any event, NBC should be more careful.

As a drama, “Under Siege” has its moments.

An Ohlmeyer Communications Co. production directed by Roger Young, it is written by Alfred Sole and Washington Post staffers Christian Williams and Richard Harwood, in addition to Woodward.

According to Woodward, executive producer Don Ohlmeyer approached him about writing a TV movie on terrorism after reading a six-part report on the subject that Woodward’s Post investigative unit did after the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut.

“Under Siege” is occasionally suspenseful and does mirror critical questions confronting a President (a la Ronald Reagan) who is under intense public and political pressure to respond militarily against someone, anyone , even if the source of the terrorism is not pinpointed.

The idealistic man of the hour here is FBI director John Garry (Peter Strauss), the chief spokesman for restraint in the Administration of President Maxwell Monroe (Hal Holbrook). Garry is pitted against Secretary of State Harold Sloan (E. G. Marshall), CIA director Bernard Hughes (Fritz Weaver) and the President’s chief of staff Geoffrey Wiggins (Mason Adams), who want to immediately act against Iran based on inconclusive circumstantial evidence.

The characters are sharply drawn, with Garry portrayed as heroic, the hawks as shrill and irresponsibly hip-shooting and the President, who is also hounded by the typically predatory media, as frustrated and largely impotent.

Ladeen (Thaao Penghlis) is a shadowy figure who doubts if he and his cohorts can change the world. He says, ominously, “We can make America suffer.” And he does. Along the way, however, “Under Siege” makes the Monroe Administration seem almost as amorally pragmatic as the suicidal terrorists.

Although interesting and pertinent, the story does its own kamikaze act at several critical junctures, with almost comical results. Garry is a hands-on FBI director, for example, who at one point chases down a terrorist himself. “Notify ‘em the director’s on his feet in fleet pursuit,” Garry shouts to an aide before speeding off with his gun raised.

The preposterous sequence ends, finally, with Garry cornering his man on some railroad tracks as a train approaches from a distance. When the terrorist produces a grenade, evily grins and mutters something about joining Allah, Garry realizes what’s in store for the train and begins pleading.

Garry is still pleading when the terrorist blows up the train and himself. Why doesn’t Garry simply shoot the terrorist before the train arrives? Either poor judgment, or he’s a better chaser than shooter.

If only that foolish sequence and a few like it were included on “Today” to balance the news credibility of Woodward, there’d be less to worry about. And the Shia Muslims in Detroit could rest a little easier.