Scrutiny Will Be Trial By Fire For Powell

Colin Powell is finding out that it’s more difficult to get the media to fall in line than the Iraqis.

For one thing, Powell can’t aim a bunch of missiles at the media and threaten to bomb it back to the Stone Age if it doesn’t do exactly what he wants.

Not since he retired from the military, at least.

The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is learning quickly that the media and, to an extent, the American people, are not as impressed by rank and power as military types are.

Vagueness, they love. Give the American people and their media a chance to latch on to half an idea, and they will fill in the blanks with whatever they like. But give them orders, and they’ll rebel.

The days are over when Powell could say, “Jump,” and everyone around him would answer, “How high, sir?”

And, while Powell will get much of what he wants from the civilians, some of it will not come the way he intends.

So, we’re going to find out in the weeks to come just how much of a control freak Powell is, which is vitally important if his ambitions extend beyond simply making money to a certain live-in job on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The media will promote Powell and his book and his potential run for the White House, all right. By the time his 23-city, 20-day book tour is over and interviews with everyone from Larry King to Jay Leno are over, we’ll all be convinced that “My American Journey” is this year’s “The Bridges of Madison County.”

But the author may be convinced of a few things as well.

The lesson already has begun.

Powell’s campaign workers at Random House negotiated a media schedule for its best-seller candidate with the kind of care and detail normally reserved for peace settlements and new and improved soaps. But the media, in a move reminiscent of Norman Schwarzkopf’s Gulf War-ending “Hail Mary” strategy, got around their opposition and found Powell exposed and vulnerable.

Random House, for example, cut a deal with Time magazine for an interview and exclusive magazine rights to book excerpts, only to have Newsweek report on the book’s contents in a cover story the week before.

Then, Random House assured “20/20” it was getting Powell’s first post-publication TV interview, so “20/20” agreed to dedicate its entire hour to Barbara Walters’ talk with Powell.

But ABC used an excerpt of Walters’ interview on its Monday newscast, ticking off NBC because Random House promised Powell’s first network newscast interview to Tom Brokaw. “NBC Nightly News,” as a result, ran its interview a few hours before “20/20” last Friday.

None of this will matter in the end, of course. But Powell had better get used to it. Once he starts telling people what he believes and what he plans to do, the media and the people are going to start telling him a few things and asking for more.

A column by William Safire in The New York Times just last week questioned whether “Powell has the stomach for the hard shots coming,” dredging up everything from the My Lai massacre to letting “the Republican Guard escape because he didn’t want to seem cruel on TV.”

So, the backlash already has begun, and neither Powell nor Random House can control it.

Respect is something one commands, not demands. Winners here dictate nothing.