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In Afghanistan, where outsiders are no longer able to do much watching, the difference shows. Whatever story is there can't be covered properly. News must be gathered from diplomats, whose own movements are limited, or distilled from travelers, whose passionate descriptions often outrun their knowledge. The Associated Press hasn't been able to get anyone into Afghanistan since Edie Lederer, posing as a rug-buying tourist, traveled through the countryside last May. She came out with a colorful story and four rugs. In Iran, no American correspondent can get accredited to Khomeini's regime; to cover the story, news-gathering organizations must make use of foreign reporters and other stratagems they don't like to talk about.
Still, dictatorships too have their problems of acknowledging stories they can't conceal, or giving a televised look of actuality to their own version of news. Chinese newspapers, in the confessional mood of the new era, speak of "lies and distortions" in the past and admit that they "still often carry false, boastful and untrue reports." South Korea's newly installed army dictator, Chun Doo Hwan, has ordered Ms press to proclaim that the U.S. fully supports his rule, despite repeated State Department protests that the U.S. objects to his suppression of opposition. South Koreans aren't told that. The technology may be there, but there are a lot of dark corners in the global village.