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
Post-Election Gushing
CLINTON, SEX GOD
As the new President speeds toward inauguration, political reporters are piling on the puff pieces. Time Senior Writer Walter Shapiro crowed in the November 16 issue: "At a moment when the American libido seems to oscillate between Puritanism and rampant exhibitionism, how significant is it that for the first time in more than 30 years the nation has elected a President with sex appeal?....Cheryl Russell, Editor of The Boomer Report, a monthly newsletter on consumer trends, captures a new dimension in the national psyche when she confides, 'Every woman I know is having sex dreams about Bill Clinton.'"
In the November 23 U.S. News & World Report, writer Matthew Cooper cooed: "The President-elect's unique trait is a mix of cunning and kindness; he uses both to learn from others in order to make his own decisions...One presidential precedent that Clinton -- and perhaps the country -- can take comfort in is the fact that the last Democratic challenger to win by a healthy margin shared these traits of ideological expediency and diffuse authority. In his day, Franklin Roosevelt had what might be called a Slick Frank reputation."
The puff pieces are also trickling down to Clinton's staff, especially spokesman George Stephanopoulos. In Time November 30, Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Margaret Carlson oozed: "This brooding, dark presence has a quiet authority. His power whisper makes people lean in to him, like plants reaching toward the sun." Cooper of U.S. News swooned: "Like the President he will serve, Stephanopoulos is the ultimate political meritocrat.... Those who know him best cherish his decency and thoughtfulness."
On November 23, Washington Post reporter David Maraniss betrayed the reporters' selfishly syrupy desire for access to key sources in the new White House: "Of all the aides surrounding Clinton, Stephanopoulos is the one everybody seems eager to learn more about these days, partly because of his newfound power and attractiveness, but also because he seems to have more depth and complexity. Here is the student of theology making a living in the spiritual void of inside politics. Here is the cheerful countenance with the brooding soul. Here is a fellow who looks so young and dresses so hip yet behaves with such maturity."
