MediaWatch: December 1992
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: December 1992
- Networks Select One "Year of the Woman" Over Another
- NewsBites: Clinton Tilt
- Revolving Door: Too Randy
- Post-Election Economic Numbers Embarrass Negative Media
- Post-Election Gushing
- Martin's Money
- Herbert's Hunger Hype
- Janet Cooke Award: Gumbel Consults Only Far-Left TransAfrica
Networks Select One "Year of the Woman" Over Another
1990: YEAR OF THE IGNORED WOMAN
Pundits dubbed 1992 "The Year of the Woman," and the national media hailed the new phenomenon, spurred by the outrage "many women" felt over the Senate Judiciary Committee's treatment of Anita Hill and her unproven testimony. The number of women did swell noticeably in both houses of Congress, but this wasn't the first "Year of the Woman." In 1990, seven Republican women and two Democrats made the ballot in November for the U.S. Senate. That's almost the opposite of 1992, when ten Democrats and one Republican ran.
Did media outlets pay more attention to women Senate candidates in 1992 than they did in 1990? To find out, MediaWatch analysts surveyed campaign stories on four evening newscasts (ABC's World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, CNN's Prime News or World News, and the NBC Nightly News), and the three national morning shows (ABC's Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and NBC's Today). The difference was stunning. In 1992, the evening newscasts aired 29 stories exclusively devoted to women Senate candidates. In 1990, there was one, on election night. In 1992, the morning shows interviewed women Senate candidates on 26 occasions. In 1990, there were no interviews.
Beside the partisan differences between the two slates, increased news coverage in 1992 could be partially explained by the heightened news value of the 1992 Senate primaries. Both Carol Moseley Braun in Illinois and Lynn Yeakel in Pennsylvania achieved stunning upsets over male opponents. Barbara Boxer's come-from-behind win in California provided the historical opportunity of the first two-woman Senate delegation.
By contrast, the Republican women running in 1990 faced little or no primary opposition. In addition, 1992 boasted a presidential campaign, while 1990 was an off-year election in the wake of a major budget accord and the massive deployment of U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf.
In 1990, women Senate candidates couldn't buy themselves a news story. The only story devoted to the trend of female candidates came on the November 5 CBS Evening News. Reporter Edie Magnus spotlighted five women, four of whom were Democrats. Jim Wooten filed a report on Illinois that same night, noting at the very end that Democratic incumbent Sen. Paul Simon was "comfortably ahead" of then-Rep. Lynn Martin, a Republican.
Two days earlier, CBS reporter Bob Schieffer did mention GOP candidates Martin, Patricia Saiki, and Claudine Schneider, but only to note how they were endangered by anti-Republican sentiment. On October 29, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell devoted a whole story to one female candidate -- Rep. Jill Long (D-IN).
Women weren't completely ignored. The gubernatorial campaigns of Democrats Dianne Feinstein in California and Ann Richards in Texas drew six and seven evening news stories, respectively. But while Republican women were ignored by reporters, David Duke's Senate campaign received 12 evening news reports; Ohio Congressman Buz Lukens and Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Jon Grunseth, both derailed by charges of sexual abuse, gained another 11 stories, which might say something about the Republican image the networks prefer to project.
In 1992, women Senate candidates were much more visible. In addition to their 26 morning appearances, they also made four appearances on the Sunday morning talk shows, and one on ABC's Nightline. They gained visibility from the party conventions. In addition to the Democrats' Tuesday night spotlight of their candidates, the networks also interviewed them on seven occasions during convention coverage. Three of them -- Carol Moseley Braun, Patty Murray, and Gloria O'Dell -- appeared on CNN's Inside Politics.
This left only one question: where was Charlene Haar? The only Republican woman running for the Senate in a long-shot race against Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Haar made one appearance on Inside Politics, but otherwise went ignored by the networks.
CBS aired segments on women candidates twice without a Republican, on the June 11 CBS This Morning (Rep. Barbara Boxer, Lynn Yeakel, and Jean Lloyd-Jones), and the Sept. 6 Face the Nation (Braun, Feinstein, and Yeakel). One qualifying note: A closer look at the morning show appearances by the female Senate candidates also showed the majority of their appearances -- 15 of 26, or 58 percent -- occurred in the wake of their primary or general election victories.
In their repetitive descriptions of the outrage "many women" felt at the 98 percent-male Senate, none of the networks explained that two of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Democratic members, Sen. Paul Simon and Sen. Herb Kohl (WI) were challenged by woman candidates in their last election. Neither woman candidate merited one entire network news story during their campaigns. It's failures like this that suggest the networks care as much about the party of the candidate as their gender.
Now, the network newscasts have failed to follow up on the new Senators' campaign promises. After all the outrage over the all-male Judiciary Committee, none of the new female Senators wanted to be named to it, preferring committees like Appropriations to secure money for their home states, just like the men. Despite the TV hype, it seems these "agents of change" are conducting business as usual. Unfortunately, so are the networks, promoting the fortunes of Democrats rather than being tough on both parties.
