MediaWatch: August 1990
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: August 1990
- Pro-Abortion Bias Detailed by L.A. Times
- NewsBites: The Untouchables
- Revolving Door: Gannett's Big Gun
- Reporters Bemoan Loss of Court's Liberal Activist
- Bashing Buthelezi, Mouthing Mandela
- Reporters Agree on Pro-Abortion Bias
- Reporters Discuss "Subversive Mission"
- Janet Cooke Award: A and E: Woman in War
Reporters Bemoan Loss of Court's Liberal Activist
THE BRENNAN FAN CLUB
Out came the Kleenex at the networks when word arrived that Supreme Court Justice William Brennan had resigned. In the midst of their tributes, reporters failed to consult one conservative on how Brennan achieved through the courts what liberals couldn't secure at the polls: the legalization of abortion, the erosion of property rights, the preference for criminals' rights over victims' rights, and the removal of religion from public life.
On July 21, the day after Brennan resigned, CNN's Candy Crowley warned "in civil rights circles, there is fear that a Supreme Court, with a philosophical scale weighted to the right, will no longer be a force for social change." Equating liberal judicial activism with "individual rights," Crowley worried: "Also seen at risk in a court without Brennan, the limits of individual freedom." Similarly, on ABC's World News Saturday, Tim O'Brien consulted liberals Ralph Neas, Robert Drinan, and Floyd Abrams, who agreed with O'Brien's assertion that "affirmative action programs which Brennan supported may now be doomed," as are "freedom of speech and press."
"He loved the flag clearly, and the Constitution, too," oozed reporter Bruce Morton in a sappy CBS Evening News tribute, quoting a Yeats poem about an old woman who walked like a young queen. "William Brennan loved and served two young girls who walked like queens -- his country and its highest court."
When President Bush nominated David Souter three days later, most reporters refrained from instant analysis. There were exceptions. CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather asked: "Senator Simon, is there any doubt in your mind that [Souter's] views pretty well parallel those of John Sununu's, which means he's anti-abortion or anti-women's rights, whichever way you want to put it?"
With little more than 90 minutes to evaluate Bush's nominee, NBC's Carl Stern jumped to his own conclusions: "Judge Souter's given high marks for intellect, but marks that are not so high for a rather narrow view of constitutional rights.... there are a number of cases that some groups will regard as troubling, in the church-state area, in the women's rights area, in the age discrimination area -- a certain insensitivity will certainly be explored at length in the Senate hearings."
The next morning on Today, Stern picked up where he left off: "As a bachelor, he showed spare concern for women's rights, taking a sometimes dim view of rape complaints....Souter seems just as bright as the other justices. The question seems to be his commitment to individual rights."
