MediaWatch: August 1992
Table of Contents:
NewsBites: Eleanor Tingles
ELEANOR TINGLES. Is Newsweek's Eleanor Clift looking at the Democratic ticket for more than journalistic reasons? On The McLaughlin Group July 4, Clift speculated about a Clinton-Gore ticket: "I think Gore and Clinton could be the all-generational change ticket, and I suppose if they lose they could do cameo appearances on Studs or something."
Then, after Bill Clinton and Al Gore appeared together to make the decision known, Clift declared on Inside Politics: "I must say I was struck by the expanse of their chests. They may have to put out their stats." Asked on McLaughlin Group July 11 about the ticket, Clift made her interests clear: "I must say looking at some of that footage it looks like the All-Beefcake Ticket."
STONED NETWORKS. Ann Stone of Republicans for Choice may claim grass-roots support for a change in the GOP's pro-life platform, but she can't prove it. In the August 2 New York Times, reporter Richard L. Berke exposed Stone's newest publicity ploy, a pro- abortion "caravan" heading toward the GOP convention in Houston. "Organizers predicted that the caravan would be met at every stop by enthusiastic crowds," but Berke found a "sparse crowd" attending their Indianapolis stop, consisting mostly of reporters and pro-life counter-demonstrators.
Berke reported Stone tried to put a favorable spin on her failure by telling "a reporter that the trip was never intended to draw crowds but instead to attract news reports." The media certainly obliged. In a one week period, Stone appeared on Larry King Live, CBS This Morning and Face the Nation, plus her one-truck "caravan" garnered coverage on CNN's World News and the CBS Evening News.
Berke's story might prompt reporters to re-examine their promotion of Stone. As he reported, "The absence of public support for Ms. Stone's highly publicized effort so far does little to bolster the hopes of Republicans who favor abortion rights, and it tend to strengthen the arguments of anti-abortion Republicans who dismiss Ms. Stone as representing a noisy but small minority."
TV LADIES LEAN LEFT. Some famous newswomen weren't afraid to show their political stripes as guests at People magazine Publisher Ann Moore's power lunch for Ellen Malcolm, President of EMILY's List, a fundraising group for liberal pro-abortion Democratic women, New York Daily News columnist Elizabeth Jensen reported on July 14. Who attended? NBC's Faith Daniels and Mary Alice Williams, ABC's Lynn Sherr, CBS' Paula Zahn and National Public Radio's Nina Totenberg.
COFFEY'S GROUNDS. Los Angeles Times Editor Shelby Coffey joined CNN President Tom Johnson and New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. at a July 12 event organized by the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association. As he left the fete, which honored Democrats Barbara Boxer, Barney Frank, and Eleanor Holmes Norton, MediaWatch asked Coffey whether he would sponsor an event for conservative candidates. Coffey stammered: "This is an event, where what we work with, has to do with the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. So Arthur Sulzberger, Tom Johnson and myself are doing that." But weren't liberal candidates being honored? "What we're doing was, has no political meaning other than signifying equality of opportunity to journalists," Coffey asserted. So, Coffey won't hesitate to chair an event where conservatives will be honored? There's no political content involved, and equality of opportunity for conservative journalists isn't exactly major media newsroom policy, either.
L.A. VERDICT CHALLENGED. Coverage of the Los Angeles police brutality trial took a beating from Roger Parloff in the June American Lawyer. "A torrent of politicians, commentators, and lawyers...were arguing over the airwaves that actually seeing any of the trial wasn't a prerequisite to condemning the verdict." Parloff singled out Time and The New York Times for wrongly reporting Rodney King's behavior. "The Times article, though it does mention a `high speed chase' also twice refers to King's offense thus far as a `traffic stop.' Time's May 11 article about the verdict makes no allusion to" King's speed or his running stop signs at 80 MPH.
As for the juror who was berated for asserting King was "in control" of the situation, Parloff explained: "The juror meant that King could have avoided or stopped the beating by assuming a prone position. I agree. Every time King assumed that position, the beating stopped. (It's no secret in Los Angeles that this is what is expected of an arrested suspect and King had been arrested before.)" He concluded: "I am terrified at the prospect of quotation out of context. After all, imagine if the media were to summarize this article the ay it summarized the trial."
HILLARY'S TAG TEAM. PBS anchor Judy Woodruff and her husband, Wall Street Journal Washington Bureau Chief Al Hunt, teamed up to defend Hillary Clinton during the convention. Hunt grew positively livid on CNN's Capital Gang July 13. When columnist Mona Charen declared that Hillary still represents the left wing of the party, Hunt complained: "Mona, I would point out that that is based on law review pieces she wrote 20 years ago. It's utter complete nonsense. You don't have anything factual." When Charen tried to counter with facts, Hunt exploded: "No! That is the far- right American Spectator kind of neo-fascist hit nonsense!"
The Spectator article quoted a 1982 Harvard Law Review article in which Hillary described parents making decisions for their children as authoritarian: "Along with the family, past and present examples of such arrangements include marriage, slavery, and the Indian reservation system." But when Woodruff interviewed her on PBS July 14, she suggested that Hillary's past comments shouldn't be an issue: "How important is it that that not enter in, and should it enter in?"
MOYERS ON MARIO. During a convention stint at CNN, PBS omni-presence Bill Moyers praised the Democrats' leading leftists. After Mario Cuomo's speech, he declared: "It's worth dying prematurely so you can hear someone else do your eulogy if that someone is Mario Cuomo." Moyers also praised Jesse Jackson: "Now you know a speech like this reaches me. I'm from East Texas. My daddy was a New Deal Democrat, and I love the vibrations and the rhythms and the cadences and the power that he puts behind lost causes. But they've got to go beyond that." Jerry Brown emerged as Moyers' favorite: "I thought all through the primaries that Brown had the message -- that this is a party that is spoiled, that this is a two-party system that is corrupt."
AMORAL AMSTERDAM. Amsterdam did more than host the international AIDS Conference in late July; it allowed the media to promote their progressive policies on sex and drugs. "Talk to anyone from the mayor on down," Dr. Bob Arnot proclaimed on CBS This Morning, "and you'll find exactly how tolerant and open this city is about sex, drugs and AIDS....It's a lesson the entire world can learn if we are going to survive the AIDS epidemic." Dr. Arnot's prescription? "Spread the word and you won't spread the disease."
On NBC Nightly News, Robert Bazell touted the fact that "Dutch school children not only get condoms, but starting at age 12, they receive highly trained information on how to use them." CBS reporter Edie Magnus pointed out that "drug addicts can exchange dirty needles for clean ones here, no questions asked." The city also maintained needle dispensers, as George Strait noted on ABC's World News Tonight, that "provide a user with what he needs" for about 75 cents. Absent from the Amsterdam reports were any critics of the city's policies, although there was no shortage of criticism regarding the United States' "strict" laws and "spotty social pro-grams." Asked NBC's Bazell: "Why can't people in the United States and other countries be more like the Dutch?"
