Now that the trash fires have been extinguished and the fight for Elian Gonzalez
 has, for the moment, moved to a cooler climate in Washington, a look back at
 the weekend of extraordinary television coverage in South Florida prompts a
 singular question:

 Was it biased?

 Of course it was -- no matter which side you're on.

 Just as the issue of what should happen to Elian has polarized our community,
 assessments of how fairly television reported on the boy's removal are equally
 as divided.

 ''Anglo television showed its disregard for the feelings of the Cuban majority on
 such a crucial day . . . the newscasters had a definite slant in favor of Reno,
 Clinton and Castro. Only Spanish-language TV covered it right,'' argued one e-mail
 sent to The Herald.

 Said a telephone caller: ''I was sickened by TV's constant reference to what
 happened at the Miami relatives' house as a 'raid.' It was a lawful action and to
 call it a raid demonstrates the outrageous pro-Cuban bias of the media.''

 Clearly, during the hours and hours of coverage most channels devoted to the
 story over the weekend, some reporters and anchors said or did something that
 could be construed as evidence of bias.

 When WPLG-ABC 10 anchor Dwight Lauderdale grilled an unhappy Miami-Dade
 Mayor Alex Penelas on what the mayor would have done if the feds had given him
 advance notice of the INS action, was that an example of opposition to the
 keep-Elian-here forces?

 I think it was an admirably tough question -- and one the mayor didn't really
 answer.

 When WSVN-Fox 7 anchor Rick Sanchez castigated some national reports for
 the adjectives they were using to describe the scene in Miami, was that
 pandering to his Cuban-American audience?

 Sanchez, who is Cuban American, was defending his hometown against what he
 saw as bias, hardly a sin.

 When WLTV-Univision 23 zeroed in on the flimsy question of whether the photo of
 a smiling Elian with his father was doctored, was that straight-and-narrow
 reporting of the facts?

 No, but Spanish-language TV is at least upfront about how it pitches stories for its
 unique audience.

 There's no disputing the focus of the weekend's coverage was on the
 demonstrations in support of Elian's Miami family. There were frequent replays of
 a crying Elian being hustled from the Little Havana home and tearful interviews
 with Marisleysis Gonzalez and Donato Dalrymple.

 Those images were far more prevalent than interviews with citizens who supported
 reuniting Elian with his father, or those who felt Janet Reno had been patient long
 enough and that Saturday's ''raid'' was overdue.

 And TV did report on the federal court orders, the polls that show a profound
 disconnect between many Cuban Americans and other groups over Elian's fate,
 and the fact that violent demonstrations were taking place in a small area and
 involved only a few hundred people.

 But this was not a story that could be reported in a ''he said, she said'' fashion,
 counting up the quotes and pictures that represent each viewpoint and making
 sure they were equal in number.

 Had local television attempted to report the past weekend's events
 dispassionately from a distance -- as though it were a typhoon on a remote
 Pacific island -- that would have been true bias.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald