MediaWatch: August 1992
Table of Contents:
Matches Prime Time
MORNING MARCH
The networks can't blame time constraints for the tilt in Democratic National Convention coverage documented in the MediaWatch Study at right. The morning shows followed the same pattern as prime time broadcasts.
A study of ABC's Good Morning America, CBS This Morning and NBC's Today from Monday through Thursday found the three shows issued almost twice as many moderate and conservative labels as liberal ones, 31 to 16. On Tuesday, for instance, Today's Katie Couric asked Michael Dukakis: "How do you feel about the more centrist direction of the party?"
Reporters and hosts never called the platform liberal, instead tagging it moderate or centrist nine times. On Tuesday, ABC's Mike Schneider reported that "when it comes to business and economic affairs, this is a very mainstream, if not in some cases almost conservative platform." Today's Bryant Gumbel agreed: "On the business side, the Democrats adopted what's viewed as a moderate platform." The next morning, ABC's Ron Claiborne asserted that "in its sum it's a fairly moderate program, but certainly more to the right than previous platforms."
Besides two questions from CBS' Paula Zahn, eight references to Bill Clinton's ideology put him in the center or right. Zahn twice asked about George McGovern's assertion that Clinton-Gore would become "more liberal" if they won. More typical, ABC's Jim Wooten explained how Clinton wanted "to move the party back toward the middle. He's comfortable there." On Monday, Charlie Gibson had asked Susan Estrich "Does the left like this ticket that is clamoring so hard to get into the center?"
By a margin of 26 to 11, morning show hosts posed more than twice as many questions from the left than from the right. Interviewing Senator Tom Harkin, Zahn asked: "There is a feeling, though, Senator that in reaching to those Reagan Republicans or Reagan Democrats that in fact you're disenfranchising some of your minority voters. "The morning shows also ignored questions about Clinton's past, but Today did mention the Casey situation five times and Good Morning America another three.
