MediaWatch: April 1991

Joining Stahl's Quest for More Money

TIME'S INFANT FORMULA

Much like Lesley Stahl, the April 8 issue of Time carped about social spending by comparing it to defense spending. Time head-lined their coverage: "Misplaced Priorities: When it comes to buying weapons, cost is no object and logic goes out the window. But when it comes to saving infants' lives, penury is the rule." The article began: "Why does the U.S., which lavishes nearly $300 billion annually on its military machine, fail to provide the relatively piddling sums needed to care for poor expectant mothers and their children?"

Time Associate Editor Priscilla Painton asserted: "As issues go, infant mortality should be a no-brainer for a politician. Find a catchy slogan, throw money at the problem, and ride the quick results to fame and higher office. Become the candidate of compassion, courage, and common sense, all rolled into one."

Painton didn't detail how much has been thrown at the problem without "quick results," but continued: "Experts agree that the prescription for lowering the infant-mortality rate is simple and can save money: all it takes is good prenatal care...But this elementary arithmetic doesn't seem to add up for the Bush Administration, which is making no more than a symbolic gesture to attack a problem that has become a symbol of America's failure to cope with appalling poverty."

Like Stahl, Painton employed sarcasm and statistic-juggling. She declared "For a while, child advocates actually believed the Administration was serious" and reported "instead of improving at a steady pace, the nation's infant mortality rate leveled off at 9.7 deaths per 1,000 births in 1989." Leveled off? It fell to 9.1 in 1990.

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