MediaWatch: August 1992
Table of Contents:
Janet Cooke Award: NBC: Is it Today or Toady?
Reporters and anchors always seem to compete with each other to see who can ask the toughest questions of the President. But at the Democratic convention, the network morning shows sounded like they were reading off the Democratic National Committee's list of talking points, asking about Clinton's family background, the party's emphasis on women candidates, and the nastiness of Republican attacks. All of the Big Three networks turned to mush, with NBC the worst offender. For abandoning any pretense of toughness, NBC's Today show earned the Janet Cooke Award.
WOMEN. One of the Democrats' goals was to showcase their feminist candidates. On Today July 14, Katie Couric interviewed three: California Treasurer Kathleen Brown Senate candidate Dianne Feinstein, and Iowa House candidate Elaine Baxter. Couric's questions didn't challenge the three, but let them tout their strengths: "Let's give women some credit here. What do they bring to the mix, what do they bring to the equation? What can they get accomplished?....What about addressing though, some of the issues that are particularly important to women? They may be domestic issues, and not exclusive to women, like family leave. Will you focus on things like that?....Do you think that women are more sensitive to family issues and do you think they can steal this whole family values campaign away from the Republicans?"
Couric might have asked how their party's opposition to parental consent for abortions puts them at odds with most voters, or how Democrats can be for family values and the gay rights agenda.
VIRGINIA KELLEY. On June 2, Dateline NBC ran a very tough (and for the networks, very rare) investigative piece on Clinton's mother, Virginia Kelley, questioning whether she used her son's influence to cover up a mistake she made that may have cost a young woman's life. In Hot Springs in 1981, a car of drinking young whites yelled racial epithets at blacks. A black man threw a piece of concrete at the car, striking 17-year-old Susan Deer in the face. Although the surgery was routine, Mrs. Kelley struggled in moving the tube supplying the girl's air from her nose to her mouth. She died on the operating table. But the state medical examiner, Dr. Fahmy Malak, appointed by Clinton in 1979, ruled the death a homicide, leaving Clinton's mother out of his report. Dr. Malak was later appointed to a higher-paying job.
Dateline NBC on-air reporter Brian Ross pointed out that Mrs. Kelley claimed to be willing to talk about the incident, but only if the Clinton campaign assented -- and they said no. But on the July 16 Today, Katie Couric only had non-threatening questions to ask Kelley: "I also read in the many things that have been written about your son and his childhood that he used to walk to church alone with a Bible under his arm."
Couric followed up with more toughies: "You've talked before about the fact that you were a segregationist way back when and how your son convinced you to see things differently....There have been things though in more recent memory that have been very difficult, I know, for you. He, of course, has been the target of a lot of controversy involving allegations of marital infidelity, draft dodging, not inhaling. Are these legitimate campaign issues, in your view?...How tough has it been for you, Ms. Kelley, to witness this, to see these in many ways, character assassinations, and negative comments made about your son?"
HILLARY AND TIPPER. Bryant Gumbel gave -- and the word "gave" fits too well -- an appallingly soft interview to the ticket's spouses, Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore, on July 20. Gumbel began by asking: "How's the trip going?" After Hillary said they were having fun, Gumbel asked: "Why fun? What's fun about jumping on a bus and wandering around through over 1,000 miles? Mrs. Gore?" While GOP spokesmen often get their answers cut off with hostile retorts, Gumbel let Mrs. Gore and then Mrs. Clinton go on about their bus trip for one minute and 28 seconds. Then Gumbel asked: "Let me talk about the two of you a little bit. How well did you know each other up until about two or three weeks ago?" Then, Gumbel asked if "two women as strong-willed, independent- minded, outspoken as you are" got along, and let Mrs. Clinton talk for another 55 seconds.
As if Hillary hadn't had enough time to criticize Republicans, Gumbel lobbed another softball: "Mrs. Clinton, in an interview with PBS, you said you thought that the Republicans had made a calculated political decision to, in your words, go after you. How big an issue do you think you're yet going to be in this campaign?" After Hillary talked for a minute and 13 seconds, Gumbel inserted, "You think it's going to get pretty nasty," and let her talk for another 40 seconds.
When MediaWatch contacted NBC, spokesperson Lynn Appelbaum said Today Executive Producer Jeff Zucker was in Barcelona for the Olympics. Applebaum did stick up for the Today interviews: "I don't know if I would necessarily agree, or I don't frankly think that Jeff would agree that they were all softball interviews."
