The Press: Trap at Wounded Knee

Any sharp confrontation between dissidents and authority makes journalists vulnerable to attack. The American Indian Movement's takeover of Wounded Knee has provided a classic case study. "It could have been settled in a week if it weren't for this horde [of reporters]," argued Interior Department Aide Charles Seller. Said Assistant Deputy Attorney General Charles Ablard: "The press has created a climate of undue sympathy for AIM." Sioux Tribal Council President Dick Wilson, whose resignation AIM leaders demanded, excoriated newsmen covering the occupied village for responding "only to dramatic violence and anarchy." Last week this criticism received an unlikely echo—from some of...