CyberAlert -- 05/13/1997 -- Bananas First; Chinese Agent Eats with Clinton
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Bananas First; Chinese Agent Eats with Clinton 1. ABC puts it all into perspective: Don't let Whitewater come before bananas. 2. NBC finally reports the White House appeal to the Supreme Court; only ABC airs a full story on Monday's court filing.1) For the second time during the presidential excursion to Mexico and the Caribbean, ABC's John Donvan emphasized how the locals were tired of Whitewater. Last Tuesday (May 6) Donvan, reporting from Mexico City, reassuringly noted that Whitewater "has not ruined this Mexico trip. Mexicans could care less about Whitewater. They are joining the administration in calling this summit a success." From Barbados, on ABC's World News Tonight/Saturday Donvan told anchor Rene Poissant about Bill Clinton's reaction to Kenneth Starr's speech that day complaining of White House stonewalling. Donvan made clear what's really important: "...When the President fended off a Whitewater question by saying, 'Look, I'm just down here doing my job,' the Caribbean journalists burst into applause, in part because they had heard enough about Whitewater and wanted to talk more about bananas." 3) China funneled $1 million into the U.S. in "a secret plan to influence American politicians and policy," the May 19 Newsweek disclosed. Monday's Los Angles Times drew the scandal closer to the Clinton Administration, revealing that President Clinton shared bread with a Chinese agent. Reporter James Risen's front page story on May 12 began: "U.S. officials are investigating whether an executive of a Chinese-language newspaper in Southern California who sat next to President Clinton at a Democratic fundraiser in Century City in July is an agent of the Chinese government, according to sources familiar with an ongoing federal inquiry." The man in question, Ted Sioeng, and his family, own the International Daily News. Risen reported that after acquiring the paper in 1995, they "changed its independent editorial stance to one that is pro-Beijing." And in what you would think would be enough to put him in Clinton's dog house, Risen noted that Sioeng "imports Chinese cigarettes into the United States." John Huang organized the Century City fundraiser and Sioeng also attended the Buddhist Temple event with Al Gore in Hacienda Heights. Coverage: Nothing, not one syllable about Sioeng on any of the broadcast network shows on Monday morning or evening. Nothing on Today and Nightly News. Zilch on This Morning and Evening News. Not a word on Good Morning America or World News Tonight. MRC intern Jessica Anderson, returning for another summer of news watching, did observe that GMA mentioned the Newsweek story. At 8am news reader Elizabeth Vargas noted that China denied the Newsweek story, calling it "shear fabrication." And the networks can't say they didn't have a visual. CNN's Inside Politics ran video of Sioeng sitting beside Clinton at the fundraiser. 4) Maybe a Chinese agent sharing a meal with the President of the United States isn't considered important by the media because reporters don't really buy that anachronistic view of the PRC as an evil communist regime. Take a look at how Newsweek's Eleanor Clift and Steve Roberts, recently of U.S. News, reacted to the term "Red China." MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens caught and transcribed the April 30 exchange on CNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. Chris Matthews: "I will now take a shot at Janet Reno. She calls the White House to say the Chinese government, the Chinese government, the communist Reds are trying to infiltrate and interrupt and exploit our campaigns to their advantage. She makes one call to Tony Lake, the President's advisor and doesn't get through to him and she just drops it!" Eleanor Clift: "What is this the Chinese Reds? What decade are you in Chris?!" Matthews: "Well what do you want to call them? What do you want to call them? Oh you want to call them the good guys fine. Call them what you want, the Beijing communist government. Oh, are you with Clinton on this to say they are no longer communist? Are you saying they're not communist anymore? I call them the Reds." Eleanor Clift: "That's not the issue anymore. It's outdated language. It's Cold War language." Matthews: "Oh I think they would probably like it. They would prefer it." Clift: "The Chinese maintain an embassy in Washington as do other countries. They're not here just to show the tourists around. They're here to influence government policies. The Chinese may have done it very ineptly. But I don't think you're gonna find any evidence of espionage or so forth. And you are also going to find that they tried to influence Republicans more than Democrats because the Republicans are at odds with them." A bit later Steve Roberts pitched in: "This whole business of the Chinese Reds. Eleanor is absolutely right Chris. You are wallowing in it. You need the Reds to be an enemy. And you know you don't have the Russians to kick around anymore. The fact is they are more capitalist than we are in many ways." Matthews: "I think we make a big mistake when we think a communist country which has no human rights at all, we saw that in Tianemen Square, is somehow a benign post-communist government like Bill Clinton. I think Bill Clinton made a big mistake, said the former communist power China." Steve Roberts: "Why do you think this country is so weak that we have to quake under the threat that somehow the Chinese are influencing our elections. This thing is blown way out of proportions. It's people like you who say, 'We are so weak that the Chinese can manipulate us.' That's undervaluing the strength of our political system enormously. And the fact is there is no evidence that they succeeded." Clift: "Right." Two veterans of two of the major news magazines are grilled from the right by a former aide to House Speaker Tip O'Neill. When reporters are to the left of a Democratic operative for a liberal leaders can there be any doubt about liberal bias? -- Brent Baker
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