MediaWatch: December 1993
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: December 1993
- TV Gun Control Coverage Tilts Its Tone, Talking Heads and Labels to Liberal Side
- NewsBites: Clinton on Quayle, Take 2
- Revolving Door: Democrat Heads PBS
- Media Dive on GOP in New Jersey, Ignore Democrats in Philadelphia
- No Clinton "Sleaze Factor"
- Endangered Property?
- Editor Squashes "Pejorative" Words
- Janet Cooke Award: CBS This Morning's Giselle Fernandez Hails "Castro's Playground;" Tunnels with Nightclubs
Media Dive on GOP in New Jersey, Ignore Democrats in Philadelphia
The One-Sided Dirty Trick Hunt
No story excited reporters in November more than GOP consultant Ed Rollins' strange story that he paid $500,000 in "street money" to black ministers to refrain from asking people to vote for New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio. But while reporters played prosecutor against Rollins and the Republicans, they ignored proven Democratic vote fraud in Philadelphia.
"Now, there are charges that dirty tricks may have made the difference, with a prominent Republican operative from the Reagan years at the center of it all," Connie Chung announced on the November 10 CBS Evening News. From November 10 to November 30, the four networks aired 38 evening stories on the New Jersey allegations. CNN's Inside Politics reported an additional 13 stories on the New Jersey allegations. Between the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post, 62 stories were filed on New Jersey, 15 on the front page.
Meanwhile, on November 14, The Philadelphia Inquirer, a heralded pillar of the liberal journalistic establishment, reported that Latino voters in Philadelphia were talked into casting absentee ballots for Democratic State Senate candidate William Stinson even though they did not qualify for them. Stinson's Republican opponent, Bruce Marks, actually won the regular vote but lost dramatically in the absentee ballot count. This is especially important because Pennsylvania's Senate is divided 25-25, with Democratic Lt. Gov. Mark Singel casting any tie-breaking vote.
One week later, the paper's front page returned to the story, with testimony from people of all races who said they did not vote in the Stinson race, but had ballots filled out for them without their knowledge. The Inquirer even reproduced forged signatures.
On November 29, the Justice Department announced it was investigating the Philadelphia case. When the Justice Department announced an investigation of the GOP in New Jersey, ABC and CBS made it the lead story that evening, but the Philadelphia story went unmentioned. On December 1, CNN's Inside Politics led with the Philadelphia story (and did one other story, for a ratio of 13-2). But the same night's World News had no story. As for the newspapers, The Washington Post did two less-than-200-word briefs, USA Today filed three tiny items, and the Los Angeles Times and New York Times never wrote anything.
Even reporters noted the disparity. On C-SPAN's Journalists' Roundtable December 3, National Public Radio White House reporter Mara Liasson admitted: "I think the Pennsylvania story has not gotten the coverage it's deserved...I think the Pennsylvania story's going to be getting a lot more attention." Not yet.
