Dateline airs two
to four times a week, or about 350 times since January 1, 1995. Dateline
averages four stories per show. Five of 1,400 segments equals 0.3 percent,
meaning 99.7 percent of Dateline stories have not dealt with Clinton
scandals. Remember that the next time a reporter wonders why the scandals
are not "resonating" with the public.
3) Enough with
scandal coverage, or lack thereof. Here's some old-fashioned policy bias.
Last Wednesday (April 9) Lockheed- Martin unveiled a new fighter plane,
the F-22. The three broadcast networks all focused on its cost and raised
doubts about its necessity.
-- On World News
Tonight ABC's Peter Jennings announced: "It is also the most
expensive fighter plane ever built -- 80 to 100 million dollars each as of
now and the cost is expected to keep on rising. As we said it is your
money big time and it certainly raises questions today about whether
everything the Pentagon wants is worth the price."
-- Dan Rather
intoned on the CBS Evening News: "There is also news about a highly
publicized new U.S. warplane that's making $70 billion in tax money
disappear. This was roll-out day for the F-22, billed as the stealth
attack jet for the 21st Century and billed, as always, to you."
-- Tom Brokaw, on
the NBC Nightly News, told viewers: "A fierce political version of an
aerial dogfight over a new and very expensive fighter plane, the F-22. The
F-22 was a good idea at the time of conception, but do we really need it
now? And a whole new generation of other expensive weapons. Here's NBC's
Ed Rabel."
Ed Rabel
explained: "The F-22 was designed a decade ago counter sophisticated
new Soviet aircraft then on the drawing boards. But with the Soviet Union
now just a memory, critics are calling the plane, rolled out today by
manufacturer Lockheed-Martin, a Cold War relic and an expensive one at
that -- a 160 million a copy gold-plated gizmo outmatching any conceivable
threat."
Eugene Carroll,
Center for Defense Information: "We're spending money we don't have
to build and airplane we don't need to defeat a non-existent enemy."
Of course, these
critics would have more credibility if they hadn't fought military weapons
during the Cold War.
Liberals oppose
military spending and favor social welfare spending. By coincidence that's
just what NBC advocates.
The next night,
on the April 10 NBC Nightly News, Brokaw ominously warned:
"In Southern
California, the welfare reform requirements could have a disastrous
effect. That's the conclusion of a university study out today. Too much
expected too soon of too many. Here's NBC's George Lewis."
As viewers saw
video of an overweight women walking with two kids, even up some stairs,
George Lewis asserted: "April Boyd is a single mom with six children.
Because of a hip injury suffered in a car accident she says she's unable
to work. Boyd is one of a half a million Los Angeles-area residents who
could lose part or all of their welfare benefits."
Boyd: "We're
already struggling, so it'll just be all that harder for us because right
now I can't even work no more."
Lewis:
"Today's USC study predicts that welfare reform will push thousands
of people deeper into a life of poverty and overwhelming personal
problems."
After a soundbite
from a study author, Lewis reeled off some of the dire numbers about
unsupported disabled children and how 21,000 more children will end up in
foster care.
Though credible
studies put homelessness at under one million nationwide, Lewis
preposterously charged: "And homelessless could rise by as many as
190,000 people. Economically depressed neighborhoods, like LA's skid row,
will be hit the hardest. But the prediction is that the economic impact
for the entire community could go as high as a billion and a half dollars
a year. This afternoon a state welfare official criticized the USC study,
saying it went out of its way to paint, what he called, a doom and gloom
picture."
Viewers saw a
clip of the Governor walking between Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie as
Lewis noted: "Republican Governor Pete Wilson predicts that most
people kicked off the welfare rolls will find work. April Boyd is not so
sure."
Boyd: "If
you don't walk in a person's shoes such as myself you'll never know how we
feel and what we going through."
Over video of
April going up steps unassisted, Lewis concluded: "Most everyone
thought that overhauling the welfare system would be a good idea. Now,
there are new concerns being raised about the human consequences of doing
that."
How about a
little concern for the human consequences of an ever-rising tax burden on
workers carrying those who think they have a right to other people's
money.
