MediaWatch: April 1990
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: April 1990
- Tags Not Planted On Green Groups
- NewsBites: All for Advocacy
- Revolving Door: New Investigators
- NBC Refuses to Learn From Nicaragua
- Networks Miss Another Election
- State Department Attacks
- Earth Day Evangelists
- Janet Cooke Award: CBS News: "The Record of Who We Are"
Janet Cooke Award: CBS News: "The Record of Who We Are"
CBS NEWS: "THE RECORD OF WHO WE ARE"
The Harry Smith/CBS This Morning Civics Quiz
1. The best phrase(s) to sum up the decade of the '80s:
(a) the decade of greed
(b) the junk bond and national debt era
(c) dirty air and the homeless
(d) the age of opportunity and prosperity
2. Apartheid is a system of racial prejudice practiced in:
(a) South Africa (b) the United States
3. States that rule by the barrel of the gun include:
(a) the United States
(b) South Africa
(c) the Soviet Union
4. The recent "Second Coming" refers to:
(a) the victory of Violeta Chamorro in Nicaragua
(b) the reappearance of Christ
(c) Jesse Helms' decision to run for re-election to the Senate
(d) the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in South Africa
ANSWERS:
1. -- all but (d)
2. -- both (a) and (b)
3. -- all but (c)
4. -- (d) only
Even before CBS dumped Kathleen Sullivan from CBS This Morning, co-host Harry Smith was being groomed for the limelight with the introduction of his weekly series titled "The Record Of Who We Are." Smith has consistently used the Friday analysis to promote liberal themes and solutions. For that, Smith receives the April Janet Cooke Award.
The Eighties. Since the series' inception on December 22, three reports evaluated the '80s -- and all focused on greed. On December 29, Smith told us that 1989 was a year in which "we saw the icons of American politics bow down to the almighty dollar. And we threw one last party to celebrate the end of the decade of greed. Yet we continue to dirty our planet like there was no tomorrow."
On February 23, he was still preoccupied by the past decade: "The '80s are almost the good old days. It's too bad there won't be much to remember them by....The greedy, gaudy '80s are fading fast. In a few years, when we look back, we shouldn't be surprised to find nothing there."
Bush's State of the Union. On Feb. 2, Smith sounded much like Bush's 1988 challenger: "We would like to believe the State of the Union address is the time when the President tells the American people the way it is. But no one really wants to hear that, so the President keeps reality down to a minimum. The President was remarkably upbeat for a man who runs a country with a monstrous national debt, huge balance of trade problems, a crumbling infrastructure, dirty air, countless homeless people, a coast-to-coast drug epidemic, and a faltering self-image. The country's that is, not his." Over audio of "Don't Worry Be Happy," he intoned: "Just remember George Bush's unofficial campaign theme song."
Smith revisited the state of the nation theme on March 16, recalling John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. "Booms and busts move folks from the Rustbelt to the Sunbelt and back again...Mostly we chose not to hear or see the suffering of the dispossessed. It helps us sleep better at night. What's happened to them must be their fault. What's happened to them can't be our responsibility."
Black America. On March 2, Smith argued that "Twenty-three percent of the young black men in America are behind bars, on probation, or on parole. As surely as an assembly line, America turns thousands of innocent black children into cast-offs. It's one of the accomplishments of America's system of apartheid."
What caused this? "A racism ripened by a society that has changed its public policies but not its private feelings. Whites and blacks are still separate in this country, economically if not legally. The chasm that separates whites and poor blacks in our country is as significant as any wall of barbed wire or bricks."
Death Penalty. Smith admitted Americans overwhelmingly support the death penalty, but he disparaged the idea. On March 23, he asked sarcastically, "Now there are two political litmus tests: abortion and the death penalty. Does it confuse anyone when a candidate is both pro-death and pro-life at the same time?" Smith concluded: "America is about the only developed country that still kills criminals."
The Soviet Union. Smith's foreign policy analysis didn't sway much from liberal rhetoric either. On December 22, he characterized Mikhail Gorbachev as "this Christmas' star in the East [who] ironically enough is an atheist." The Soviet leader, Smith told us, made it clear that "ruling by the barrel of a gun is no longer the rule of the day."
On February 9, Smith questioned the rush for freedom in the Soviet Union: "Yes, somehow, Soviet citizens are freer these days, freer to kill one another, freer to hate Jews, freer to express themselves....Doing away with totalitarianism and adding a dash of democracy seems an unlikely cure for all that ails the Soviet Union."
Nelson Mandela. The release of African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela in South Africa allowed Smith to become truly poetic: "Nelson Mandela walked out of prison this week, and suddenly the world wondered out loud if South Africa could be born again....It was indeed the second coming. Pilgrims came from across the countryside to see and hear the man the South African government had all but crucified."
MediaWatch had a lot to tell Harry Smith about The "Real" Record Of Who We Are and requested an interview through CBS This Morning publicist Terry Everett. Neither Everett nor Smith ever replied to our request.
MediaWatch wanted to tell Smith we are fast approaching our 90th straight month of economic growth. That unemployment rests at a low 5.2 percent. That apartheid does not exist in the U.S. That Census Bureau statistics show that the '80s were a boom time for the vast majority of black Americans. That the number of upwardly mobile black families has grown by more than a third, with unemployment down by 25 percent. That ABC's John Martin, reporting on the results of a poll last year, told us: "America is a more integrated and more tolerant place today than just eight years ago."
That if it's confusing to be pro-life and pro-death penalty, it is more confusing to be pro-abortion and anti-death penalty. That the Soviets are indeed "ruling by the barrel of a gun" as Soviet tanks roll through the streets of Vilnius. That while Nelson Mandela lives under racist rule, he leads a communist, terrorist organization. On Feb. 2, Smith stated that "President Bush delivered his State of the Union address this week and chances are that it had even worse ratings than, fill in the blank, C-SPAN, maybe, not that bad certainly." Has Smith checked his ratings -- last place -- recently? Chances are, until Harry Meets Reality, they'll stay that way.
