MediaWatch: April 1993
Table of Contents:
Toilet Troubles
On the March 12 20/20, ABC correspondent John Stossel illustrated how big government and liberal groups can prevent private enterprise from solving a problem. Stossel focused on the attempt by a French company to install pay toilets on New York City sidewalks: "After New York City was sued by a homeless organization, it did try to bring these to America. But then it ran into American rules. First, city lawyers said `You can't bring pay toilets here. They're illegal in New York State. They discriminate against women.' Why? Because women have to use stalls and men don't. In addition, thirteen separate city agencies must grant approval before anything can be built."
More controversy followed: "Several organizations for the disabled say they will sue because there won't be enough wheel- chair accessible toilets." He added: "New York wants many more of these toilets installed. But to get legal permission may take years....No one knows if they will ever return to the city. The disability issue is only one of the many hurdles. The Transportation Department has a 100-page contract that must be worked out. The Art Commission must approve the toilets' `aesthetic merits.' Endless mazes of rules exist everywhere."
Stossel concluded with a personal experience: "Everywhere there are these crazy rules. Not far from my house there's a high school that built a very expensive swimming pool. They can't use it because the word `feet' is abbreviated....I think we've gone beyond NIMBY [Not In My Back Yard] to BANANA -- Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody. Individually, it's funny. Collectively, it cripples the economy."
Myers Finds Pork
Unlike many of her colleagues, NBC's Lisa Myers has questioned the congressional and presidential commitment to real budget cuts. In a March 3 story she allowed Scott Hodge of the Heritage Foundation to point out some wasteful spending not even touched by the President's budget. Her March 19 Nightly News analysis of the stimulus package found: "The Fish and Wildlife Service gets money to compile fish atlases, and study sicklefin chub. The National Science Foundation gets money for projects killed by Congress last year, including one on mating behavior of swordfish." She reported GOP claims that grants to cities were wasteful, pegged "for everything from a golf course to a parking garage on the beach."
Myers concluded a March 25 story on Senate "budget-cutting" by cautioning: "For all the rhetoric about cutting spending, an independent analysis of the President's plan indicates that most money for deficit reduction is to come from tax increases. The Senate plan calls for spending cuts totaling $111 billion and tax increases of $295.7 billion...that amounts to $2.66 in tax increases for every dollar in spending cuts."
