1) Friday
morning and night brought no coverage of separate House hearings held
both on Thursday and Friday on White House withholding documents and
on the relationship between Molten Metal Technology, Peter Knight and
Al Gore. Not even CNN's Inside Politics could find time Friday for
either hearing. And the broadcast networks have yet to tell viewers,
as CNN did last Thursday, about the discovery in an old car of a 1982
Madison Guaranty check for over $20,000 payable to Bill Clinton, a
check that contradicts Clinton's claims that he never got any money
from Madison.
Friday's
Today did run a taped interview with Senator Fred Thompson conducted
by Lisa Myers. As recounted by Tim Graham in the November 7 Media
Reality Check, now available at the top of the MRC's home page, Myers
asked if the President was involved in a coverup, knowingly accepted
illegal contributions, or did anything improper. She began by noting
the cost and 33 witnesses who refused to appear, and concluded with
the first network mention that the committee may seek perjury charges
against Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and former DNC Chairman Don
Fowler. (It should be recalled that Today did not utter a word at the
time about Babbitt's October 30 testimony.)
But in
between she also posed a question reflecting the current media mantra
blaming lack of regulation, not the actions of individuals, for
Democratic illegalities:
- "At
the same time you were criticizing the misdeeds of the Clinton
administration, leaders of your own party were opposing changes
in the law to outlaw these huge contributions that helped create
these scandals. Do you think that undercut your credibility with
the public?"
A few minutes later Matt Lauer delved into a very serious matter: the
dispute between Barney the Dinosaur and the San Diego Chicken. Today
devoted several minutes to Lauer's interview with the San Diego
Chicken, who was in full outfit for his 4:30am PT appearance.
2) The crime
victim is the villain at CBS News. Last Wednesday, November 5, the CBS
Evening News ran a piece about the first instance test of a new
Louisiana law allowing victims to shoot carjackers. In this case the
man who shot and wounded the carjacker will not be charged. Reporter
Bob McNamara narrated a story over video from WWL-TV in New Orleans.
MRC news analyst Steve Kaminski caught this interesting conclusion
from McNamara:
McNamara:
"Aaron Bottoms says he wasn't out to test a law and hopes his
attacker survives."
Bottoms:
"I didn't want him to die, I wasn't out to kill him. I just
didn't want him to kill me."
McNamara:
"Still, driving a car with wheels valued at $700 dollars each
these days may be a case of inviting trouble instead of avoiding it.
Bob McNamara, CBS News, Dallas."
Bottoms' car:
a Chevrolet sedan that looked at least ten years old, though I guess
it had nice wheels. But car or even tire value does not seem to be
what's always motivating the Big Easy's carjackers. Earlier in his
story McNamara explained that "the law came out of the killing
two years ago of eleven month old [name I can't imagine how to spell]
and the wounding of his mother during a New Orleans carjacking
attempt..."
As McNamara
spoke those words viewers saw video of the crime scene and a car with
shattered windows: a Hyundai Excel, hardly a luxury vehicle nor one on
which you'd expect to find valuable wheels.
3) A couple
of items on the China front that got overlooked over the past weeks in
the rush of other news bias.
Back on the
October 11 World Today, MRC news analyst Clay Waters noticed, CNN ran
a story which equated communist dogma of the past with capitalism of
the present. Both have negatively impacted women. Here's the last
third of a piece from CNN's Andrea Koppel in Beijing on glamorous
images of women in China:
- Andrea
Koppel: "...And in today's increasingly beauty-obsessed
society, light is operative word. While thin has always been in
in China, doctors say in the last couple of years eating
disorders like anorexia and bulimia have become more
common."
Dr.
Hong Baose (through interpreter): "This has a lot to do
with what's put out in the media. For example, the celebrities
that young people see in the media are singers, actors and
especially models who have to be tall and thin. But in the end
that's not real life."
Koppel:
"But much as the Communist Party used to use its propaganda
to promote unisex uniformity, today's message is equally
mind-numbing and potentially misleading, because beauty sells.
Andrea Koppel, CNN, Beijing."
Bob Schieffer
took on conservatives and described as "ill- fated economic
experiments" communist efforts which killed millions, all in his
end of the show commentary on the October 26 Face the Nation. As
transcribed by MRC intern Rebecca Hinnershitz, Schieffer opined:
- "Finally
today, I've never been one to quote extensively from the
writings of Richard Nixon, but when it comes to what the basis
for our relationship with China ought to be, I always thought
that Nixon won the award for getting it right in the fewest
words possible. He said simply, 'There is no place on this small
planet for a billion of its people to live in angry isolation.'
Nixon went on to establish relations with China, and until the
Chinese brutally crushed a rebellion in Tiananmen Square,
America and China grew closer to the mutual advantage of both.
It's been a tenuous relationship since Tiananmen because
Tiananmen was hard to take for Americans especially. After all
the student rebels had taken the Statue of Liberty, our symbol
of freedom, as their symbol. For that reason alone it will
always be a factor in our dealings with China. Tiananmen was
indefensible, and there will be no defense of it here. But as
the Chinese president heads to Washington, it seems to me that
those in this country who still want to build a wall around
China mainly because of what Tiananmen stood for should also
remember that it is no more feasible today to fence off China
than it was when Nixon warned against it.
- "There
is, after all, some good news about China these days. It's in
the midst of a remarkable change as it moves toward a market
economy. It is not America, but it is more open than it has
ever been, and in a country where millions died during such
ill- fated economic experiments as the Great Leap Forward and
the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese will tell you what they
are proudest of is that their country has remained stable in
the process. Of course, we want China to adopt a more open
political system, but we can't force that by walling off 1.2
billion people. Better that we look for ways to bridge those
walls through trade and other contacts. As President Clinton
said, 'It becomes increasingly difficult to maintain a closed
political system in an ever more open economy and
society.'"
So, the
Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward are "ill- fated
economic experiments." Does Schieffer consider the Holocaust an
"ill-fated cultural repatriation effort"?
A few minutes later Matt Lauer delved into a very serious matter: the
dispute between Barney the Dinosaur and the San Diego Chicken. Today
devoted several minutes to Lauer's interview with the San Diego
Chicken, who was in full outfit for his 4:30am PT appearance.
