CyberAlert -- 09/16/1997 -- Bashing Jesse; Emmy Sermon; CNN Defends Itself on Hearings
Bashing Jesse; Emmy Sermon; CNN Defends Itself on Hearings
1) ABC's Sam Donaldson and James Warren of the Chicago Tribune took some shots at Senator Jesse Helms over the weekend. On Sunday's This Week
Donaldson asserted:
Later in the day on CNN's Capital Gang of September 14, Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau Chief James Warren lashed out at conservative support for Helms:
"A dictator," a "terrorist" and "bigoted, narrow minded fellow." If uttered by a conservative about a liberal Donaldson and Warren would have declared the comments "mean-spirited" and "divisive." 2) During Sunday's Emmy Awards show on CBS a segment highlighted a left-wing diatribe from Chicago Hope that CyberAlert showcased when it first aired back in February. Introducing a montage of
television show clips, host Bryant Gumbel explained in reference to
television programming:
Viewers then saw clips of TV
shows and TV movies dealing with child abuse, abortion and children
who don't eat enough. Plus, the Ellen coming out scene and scene
dealing with gunshot victims from NBC's ER. In a scene from I believe
ABC's The Practice an attorney in a courtroom announces:
The montage concluded with
the big liberal finale, this scene from Chicago Hope in which the
hospital administrator testified before a Senate committee chaired by
Ted Kennedy:
To read the full story about the scene and all that actor Ron Silver said in the February 17 show as he played a character named Tommy Wilmette, see the February 19 CyberAlert. 3) You read it here first. In Monday's Washington Post, media reporter Howard Kurtz relayed in his "Media Notes" column: "When former Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour testified at the Senate fundraising hearings, CNN went live for most of the 4 1/2-hour session. Anchor Judy Woodruff assured viewers that when former Democratic Chairman Don Fowler and other top Democrats appeared before the panel, 'we will be carrying their testimony as well.'" Kurtz reported that "Republicans are crying foul" because "when Fowler testified Tuesday, CNN broke away after an hour and 40 minutes. When former Democratic general counsel Joseph Sandler appeared Wednesday, there was no live coverage. (MSNBC, which also carried Barbour live, provided zero live coverage of Fowler and Sandler.)" If this sounds familiar, it should. All this information was reported in he September 11 CyberAlert. But Kurtz did add to the story by getting a defense from CNN Washington Bureau Chief Frank Sesno. He told Kurtz: "We didn't say we were going to do equal time," adding: "We're going to take live as the news warrants. We had Fowler through the bulk of his testimony and where he made news....I don't think anybody can fairly say that Cable News Network isn't covering these hearings." (Ellipses as run by Kurtz.) Sadly, compared to the other networks, Sesno is right. CNN's less than a minute prime time newscast updates are more than the zilch offered by the other network on many nights and their one hour and forty minutes of Fowler live was one hour and forty minutes more than provided by MSNBC. -- Brent Baker
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