MediaWatch: April 1993
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: April 1993
- Dan Rather's Greatest Liberal Hits
- NewsBites: Gumbel's Blame Game
- Revolving Door: Brokaw Balks at Babbitt
- Media Ignore Politicized Clinton Justice Department
- ABC Reports on Bias
- Toilet Troubles
- Gumbel Wants it Both Ways
- Janet Cooke Award: Still Fighting the Salvadoran War
Media Ignore Politicized Clinton Justice Department
Democratic "Land of Hackdom"?
In the last 12 years, reporters criticized the Justice Department for its partisan service to the White House. Both Time and Newsweek recently maligned GOP Justice Departments. Newsweek's David Kaplan wrote: "[Attorney General Ed] Meese ran a Justice Department that was the Land of Hackdom -- little more than an agency to service the needs of President Reagan, and occasionally, the A.G. himself. His four-year reign was the archetype of politics over conscience, ideology over law."
Now that Clinton's Justice Department has served the White House's partisan interests, did the networks and newsweeklies cry "hack"? No. In fact, the Democrats' machinations aren't much of a story:
On March 10, Judge Royce Lamberth ruled Hillary Clinton's task force violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which requires open meetings for task forces that include non-federal employees. Only ABC did a story before the judge ruled. All four networks reported the ruling, but CBS only did a brief anchor- read story. Time called it a "victory" for the Clintons.
The Washington Times scooped the yawning competition on March 26 by pointing out many task force members Clinton claimed as federal employees were not, violating the FACA. When the White House released a list of 511 names that day, the Times noted the list "did not meet the [General Accounting Office] request for dates of employment, salaries, and detailed backgrounds." The network reaction? None.
Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.), on trial for bank fraud, lobbied the Clinton Justice Department to demand the seated jury be rejected and replaced by one selected by race. The Justice Department caved, prompting the prosecuting U.S. Attorney to resign in protest. CNN did a story on Inside Politics. The other three? Zilch.
Attorney General Janet Reno fired all 93 U.S. attorneys, a very unusual practice. Republicans charged the Clintonites made the move to take U.S. Attorney Jay Stephens off the House Post Office investigation of Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski. The network response: ABC and CBS never mentioned it. CNN's World News and NBC Nightly News provided brief mentions, with only NBC noting the Rosty angle. Only NBC's Garrick Utley kept the old outrage, declaring in a March 27 "Final Thoughts" comment: "Every new President likes to say `Under me, it's not going to be politics as usual.' At the Justice Department, it looks as if it still is."
Applying the same standards to coverage of Clinton's administration as they applied to Reagan and Bush is a major test of the media's fairness. So far they're failing.
