TELEVISION REVIEW : Reporting on Drugs in KGTV’s ‘Cartel Connection’ Is First Rate

Reality permeates “The Cartel Connection,” the hourlong KGTV (Channel 10) special airing tonight at 9.

In a matter-of-fact, in-depth style rarely found in locally produced programming, the show examines the production and distribution of cocaine, tracing it from its manufacture in the mountains of South America to the streets of Southern California. Reporter Mark Matthews and photographer Richard Klein traveled to Peru, Bolivia, Columbia and Mexico to chronicle the business of cocaine.

Instead of simply parroting State Department propaganda, or relying on the cliches that often make up coverage of drug trafficking, Matthews and Klein take it a step further. They ask tough questions and don’t settle for portraying the United States as the white knight fighting the good fight.

Reports of drug-growing operations in South America often stop at footage of a Drug Enforcement Administration bust. However, in Peru and Bolvia, Matthews and Klein got off the State Department tourist train to develop their own sources. They talked to residents, venturing into the slums of Lima, to present the interdependence, in terms of real people, of the economy and cocaine traffic.

The role of the American government in attempting to slow the industry is depicted, but Matthews and Klein are not always satisfied with the answers provided by official sources. From a herbicide that kills other crops as well as coca plants, to American helicopters that at times sit unused because the Peruvian government can’t afford gasoline, the viewer is left with serious questions about the effectiveness of U.S. programs.

In Colombia, where a “drug war” is in full swing, the local team touches all the bases endlessly covered by the network news--the opulent power of the drug lords and the fear that affects all public officials--but once again they go a step further. Top-level Colombian officials are asked why it took so long for Colombia to officially declare war on the drug lords.

And, again, they talk to everyday Colombians about the damage that U.S. policies are having on the country’s non-drug-related industries, such as the coffee industry and tourism, although it seems hard to blame the United States for Colombia’s problems attracting tourists.

From Colombia, the trail continues through Mexico, where “90 percent” of the expensive air system designed to stop smuggling comes up empty. Instead of just depicting deficiencies, the program points out that measures to slow drugs coming across the border are having some effect. They use a smuggler, not the government, to confirm the facts.

A “mule” who was caught trying to bring cocaine across the border says that someone making $8 to $10 an hour is going to find it tough to resist a $50,000 payday. That’s reality.

In San Diego and Los Angeles, Matthews and Klein again break away from official presentations to present a broader picture. They hit the streets to talk to an active dealer, the type of enterprise reporting rarely undertaken by local news operations.

Although most of “The Cartel Connection” has aired during Channel 10’s regular newscasts, it carries far more power as a single package, when the viewer can follow the trail step by step. The big picture, the relationship of a poor Peruvian farm worker to a crack addict in San Diego, becomes far clearer, as does the huge scope of the problem.

“The Cartel Connection” exposes the complexities of what is truly an international problem, created by rampant drug use in the United States, without pulling any punches or accepting at face value the usual answers provided by the involved governments.