MediaWatch: April 1988
Table of Contents:
Revolving Door
Douglas Waller, Legislative Director for liberal Congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) until 1985, and Legislative Assistant to Senator William Proxmire (D-Wisconsin) for the past three years, joins the Washington bureau of Newsweek as a foreign affairs reporter.
So far he's contributed articles urging the U.S. to cease making plutonium for nuclear weapons because of current over supply and criticizing the Reagan Administration's Nicaragua policy.
Michael Kinsley, Editor of the New Republic and fill-in liberal debater on Crossfire and McLaughlin Group, has gained another outlet for his views. He's started contributing opinion pieces for Time magazine's "Essay" page.
National Public Radio's (NPR) evening news show All Things Considered (ATC) has yet to replace conservative commentator Cal Thomas. In January, ATC Executive Producer Neal Conan dropped Thomas, calling him "too predictable" and "stylistically anachronistic."
Thomas offered the only regular conservative response to the daily commentary of liberal former CBS News reporter Daniel Schorr. NPR President Douglas Bennet, Director of the Agency for International Development in the Carter Administration, has assured complaining listeners in a form letter that the federally supported network "relies on a wide spectrum of commentators."
In a mid-March column, Thomas wrote that in reality the current "stable of NPR commentators, analysts and even reporters would get a 100 percent liberal rating from the Americans for Democratic Action if these people were in Congress and not on the air." Thomas suggested the program change its name to: "Not Quite All Things Considered." In the past Thomas has criticized the efforts of conservatives who track liberal media bias, downplaying the depth of the problem. Maybe he has a different view now.
