Ex-ABC Head Westin Denies Liberal Bias, Rationalizes Greater Media Focus on Romney's Wealth
Appearing as a guest on Tuesday's The O'Reilly Factor to promote his book, Exit Interview, former ABC News president David Westin denied seeing a liberal bias among his colleagues when he was head of ABC News, and, when confronted by a recent study by the MRC's Business and Media Institute, rationalized the greater attention the media have paid to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's wealth this year as opposed to Democratic nominee John Kerry's wealth in 2004.
Host Bill O'Reilly began by recounting the recent MRC study documenting the imbalance in media treatment of Kerry versus Romney, giving Westin - who was head of ABC News in 2004 but has since retired - a chance to respond. Westin argued that the economy is a bigger issue this year than it was in 2004:
And my recollection in 2004 is the big issue the country was facing was the war. It was Iraq. That's what everybody was talking about. And interestingly - you remember this well - what happened during that election was really they turned around Kerry's war record with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth - I talk about this in the book - and made it all sort of a referendum on his claim to be a hero.
He soon added:
I'm not saying that they shouldn't have - they shouldn't cover this less than they are. I'm not trying to defend that, Bill. But what I am saying is right now I think many Americans are worried about their economic situation. They're worried about their jobs, their houses, their children, their 401(k)s, things like that. That was not true in 2004.
He ended up suggesting that the media had followed an example supposedly set by the Bush campaign to make Kerry's war record an issue, and that the media are currently following a similar lead from the Obama campaign's attempts to make Romney's wealth an issue. Westin:
It's also driven by the opponent. I mean, the Obama campaign is pushing this story very, very hard. Bush was pushing the "let's challenge Kerry's war record hard, too."
But Westin's analysis ignored the fact that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth - rather than the Bush campaign - were mostly ignored when the right-leaning group emerged in May 2004 until August when Kerry himself started attacking the group because their ad campaign challenging his Vietnam War record was hurting his poll numbers. The media came to Kerry's defense by trying to undermine the anti-Kerry Swift Boat group.
In the summer of 2004, in the articles, "TV Gives No Respect to Swift Boat Vets for Truth," and, "TV Focuses on Kerry's Spin, Not Kerry's History." the MRC's Media Reality Check publication twice documented the media's pro-Kerry slant in its treatment of the Swift Boat group.
A bit later, after being pressed for an answer by O'Reilly, Westin eventually denied observing a liberal slant among journalists at ABC after he repeatedly avoided giving a straight answer to the media bias issue.
After Westin complained about a general "lack of diversity" at the network before he took over there, leading the former ABC News head to ramble about trying to include different types of people, he finally claimed not to have seen liberal bias at the network:
BILL O'REILLY: All right, liberal, conservative? You would admit that there were many more liberal thinkers than conservatives in the news organization when you got there, would you not?
DAVID WESTIN: I never asked people what their personal views are, but, Bill, honest to God, we fought every single day against that. I mean, I never heard people in news discussions take liberal points of view as (INAUDIBLE) ever.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the interview from the Tuesday, May 22, The O'Reilly Factor on FNC:
BILL O'REILLY: "Impact Segment" tonight. You may remember that last week we reported on an excellent study by the Media Research Center that pinpointed how the three network nightly newscasts are covering the wealth of Mitt Romney as opposed to how they covered John Kerry's money. Kerry, of course, ran against President Bush in 2004.
According to the study, in the period from January to April of this year, the three newscasts discussed Romney's wealth 27 times. In the same period in 2004, they discussed Kerry's finances twice. In fact, ABC News did 15 stories on Romney money, one on Kerry money. That was better than NBC which did none on Kerry money. Here now is the man who was running ABC News back in 2004, David Westin, the author of the brand new book, Exit Interview, about his time at ABC News. So what say you about this study?
DAVID WESTIN, FORMER ABC NEWS PRESIDENT: First, thanks for having me, Bill. I'm not responsible for the news now. I'm not responsible for the news coverage. I was back during the Kerry time.
And my recollection in 2004 is the big issue the country was facing was the war. It was Iraq. That's what everybody was talking about. And interestingly - you remember this well - what happened during that election was really they turned around Kerry's war record with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth - I talk about this in the book - and made it all sort of a referendum on his claim to be a hero.
O'REILLY: There was all of that, but that went to character, and what I see at the network news now is basically they're trying, they being certain individuals, not everyone. I just want to mention it's not everybody but certain individuals trying to portray Romney as this rich, out of touch guy, all right? We just saw a clip of Diane Sawyer in the cold open saying, hey, you know, you and your wife, you're pretty much out of touch.
There isn't anybody more wealthy than John Kerry. He lives on Beacon Hill. He's got a house on Nantucket. He's wind surfing all over the place, all right, he's a swell. Yet, it was never mentioned and now Romney, that's the theme. And so some people might say, look, they're trying to demonize Romney because of his money while they gave Kerry a pass.
WESTIN: I'm not saying that they shouldn't have - they shouldn't cover this less than they are. I'm not trying to defend that, Bill. But what I am saying is right now I think many Americans are worried about their economic situation. They're worried about their jobs, their houses, their children, their 401(k)s, things like that. That was not true in 2004.
O'REILLY: All right, so you say that it's economically driven. I don't see it that way.
WESTIN: It's also driven by the opponent. I mean, the Obama campaign is pushing this story very, very hard.
O'REILLY: But certainly the media is just picking up on that.
WESTIN: Bush was pushing the let's challenge Kerry's war record hard, too.
O'REILLY: I don't know about that. I know certainly the Swift Boat Veterans for Justice (Truth) supported Bush, but I don't know how directly involved with that Bush had - the Bush White House with those people. Now, you were at ABC after I left. ... But I have to be honest. I liked ABC News much more than CBS, which I had worked for prior. But I did see a liberal culture in the management of ABCnews when I was there, and I think that the people would admit that they personally, their belief system was liberal. Am I wrong?
WESTIN: Well, we fought against it every day.
O'REILLY: Did you really?
WESTIN: Yes.
O'REILLY: Why did you fight against it?
WESTIN: Because I thought our mission was not to be left of center or right of center, but to try to-
O'REILLY: So you saw what I saw, then?
WESTIN: I saw a lack of diversity and it wasn't just political diversity.
O'REILLY: How did that define itself? White, rich people?
WESTIN: Well, it can be religious. It can be race and ethnicity. It can be-
O'REILLY: But to you.
WESTIN: And I was always concerned that we needed voices at the table that would say, you know, part of the world doesn't see it the way you do. There's another part of the world - and I felt this powerfully. I come from Michigan and just in a small way, the Midwest.
O'REILLY: All right, so you saw that there was an elitism at ABC News?
WESTIN: There's a tendency for everybody to hire people like themselves.
O'REILLY: And how were they, though? You're dodging. How were they? Were they liberal elitists (INDAUDIBLE) when you got there?
WESTIN: Well, there was a range of people, but I thought we should diversify out from an East Coast orientation and sort of upper middle class and, yes, white, Caucasian, and expand out and hire a diverse group of people and put them into management positions mainly-
O'REILLY: All right, liberal, conservative? You would admit that there were many more liberal thinkers than conservatives in the news organization when you got there, would you not?
WESTIN: I never asked people what their personal views are, but, Bill, honest to God, we fought every single day against that. I mean, I never heard people in news discussions take liberal points of view as (INAUDIBLE) ever.
...
O'REILLY: Jennings himself was a liberal man, all right? He was. But he did try to tamp it down.
WESTIN: He did.
O'REILLY: But he admitted that the wholeculture of network news was left. He admitted it.
WESTIN: Listen, Bill, one of the things I talk about in the book is we all have a bias, whether we know it or not-
O'REILLY: But it hasn't changed.
WESTIN: Oh, I think we really did change it.
O'REILLY: You think you did?
WESTIN: I think we did made progress in saying other people have a voice at the table.
O'REILLY: Last question: Do you think Romney is going to get a fair shake from the three network news organizations as opposed to Obama this time around?
WESTIN: I think, first of all, I'm not running it, I don't know-
O'REILLY: I know you're not, but what do you think?
WESTIN: This is what I really think. I think that news organizations respond to the audience much more than we give them credit for. And, ultimately, we all get the news media that we demand.
--Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center
