For Readers Overseas, an Unflattering Portrait

An estimated 1,050 foreign reporters, photographers and technicians are covering Liberty Weekend here, and for them, the extravaganza is a way to give their countrymen a glimpse of American culture, a picture of how America throws a party.

It is a portrait that is not entirely flattering.

“When America does something, they do it so big,” said Jean-Francois Bizalion, correspondent for Le Matin in France. “The statue has been around for 100 years. It’s like all of a sudden they have discovered the statue. It’s like America has only one monument. It’s too much.”

‘Used as a Sales Argument’

Jochen Siemens, correspondent for the daily Frankfurter Rundschau, said that it’s well known that “commercialism is a central theme in the United States” But, he said, “this whole kind of thing symbolizing freedom is so much used as a sales argument. The way the whole thing is organized is like a private entertainment.”

Nevertheless, as the weekend wore on, some foreign reporters found the excitement of the event contagious and remarked at the surprising joy and friendliness of the celebrators. A Dutch journalist even expressed envy that his country has enjoyed no such national festival.

The foreign newsmen and women here, who make up a fifth of the accredited press corps, have been sending home stories about the huge amounts of money spent, the bizarre array of entertainment, the flash, the crass and the sentimental. About 40 foreign broadcasters, from China to Uruguay, have purchased television rights.

In interviews, many foreign journalists said they would describe the almost-childlike excitement of Americans toward their statue as well as their ready willingness to exploit it.

“This is either the biggest patriotic expression in American history or the biggest panoply of sleazy exploitation: Take your pick,” said Dermot Purgavie, who writes a column from the United States for the London Daily Mail called “Dermot Purgavie’s America.”

Focus on Current Policy

But the journalists are also sending home reports that have little to do with the festivities. Several journalists said that they will contrast the celebration’s focus on past European immigration to current U.S. efforts to stop the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

Michelle Mayron, correspondent for the Koteret Rashit in Jerusalem, said she will write about efforts by Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III to restrict sexually explicit publications on the eve of a national celebration of liberty.

In the Soviet Union, the Communist Party daily Pravda charged that weekend celebrations belie the true meaning of liberty in America--”the liberty to sell and be sold and the power of the dollar in a place where money is boss.”

Several journalists compare the festivities to the 1984 Olympics, when members of the foreign press widely condemned what they described as a nationalist wave sweeping the United States. But many are concentrating on aspects that will appeal to the nationalism of their own countrymen: the ship that their country has sent, the failure of President Reagan to award a medal to a native of their nation, or the receptions and celebrations of their diplomatic representatives here.

Reflection of Liberty

And many view the event positively. Magoyoshi Kaneko, correspondent for the Sekai Nippo in Tokyo, said he will describe the celebration as a reflection of “American liberty” and the mood of the country as “good, because it motivates people and encourages economic growth.”

R. L. von Baumgart-Psyla, a Maltese immigrant who covers the United States for the Sunday Times of Malta, said he writes “what I have seen in the streets, all the beautiful things, the marching bands, the puppets and stuff like that.”

Eamonn Fitzgerald, correspondent for Ireland’s Cork Examiner, said that there is not much new for the European press to report.

“It’s a party, a party atmosphere,” he said. “And New York is the kind of city that really revels in any kind of celebration. But people in Ireland are not that interested in a party 3,000 miles away.”