MediaWatch: December 1994
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: December 1994
- Networks Assail Proposition 187 As "Racist" and "Inhumane," Ignore Proponents' Arguements
- NewsBites: Rather on Race
- Revolving Door: Another Journal Entry
- Media Outlets Scold "Rabid Attack Dog...Darling of the Ultra-Right"
- An "Intolerant Bigot"?
- Capitol Hill Waste
- Newt: Time's Reagan Replacement
- Janet Cooke Award: CBS Packs Story with Emotional Anecdotes, Dire Predictions, Liberal Advocacy Research
Media Outlets Scold "Rabid Attack Dog...Darling of the Ultra-Right"
Jesse Helms, "Prince of Darkness"
The media's gaffe patrol has saddled up to ride again, branding conservatives as "outrageous" and "reckless" while ignoring similar statements by liberals. This month's target was Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.). Since the election, he's been tagged as "archconservative" in U.S. News and Newsweek, while Time preferred the more cuddly "ultraconservative." A recent Washington Post profile of new committee chairmen called him "the avenging angel of extreme conservatism." But nothing could prepare Helms for the thrashing he took from reporters after he said Bill Clinton wasn't up to the job of Commander in Chief and joked Clinton may need a bodyguard when visiting military bases.
On November 23, NBC Today co-host Bryant Gumbel editorialized: "Helms is slated to be the new chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, a prospect that is embarrassing to many Republicans. His two most recent outbursts against the President are just the latest in a long line of outrageous remarks that have earned Helms the disrespect and disgust of people from coast to coast."
Gumbel introduced reporter Jim Miklaszewski, who also unloaded on Helms: "He's called the Prince of Darkness. A darling of the ultra-right, he's been a rabid attack dog against anything liberal....Critics call him a bigot, sexist, and homophobe, and he seems to wear it like a badge of honor." Newsweek's Conventional Wisdom box gave Helms a down arrow: "If you'd said it in an airport, you'd be in a straightjacket by now."
The Big Three networks did nine stories on the Helms remarks. CBS actually led off the Evening News November 22 with two stories. But in November 1988, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) joked to a businessman's breakfast in Massachusetts that "the Secret Service is under orders that if George Bush is shot, to shoot Quayle." Did the networks denounce him? Did it lead the CBS Evening News? No, the only coverage was one brief NBC story read by anchor Tom Brokaw.
As for Helms' suggestion that Clinton isn't fit to lead our military, Time's Richard Lacayo wrote on November 28 that Helms' remark "was widely regarded, even by some of his ideological brethren, as very nearly unpatriotic." In the next issue of Time, Michael Duffy saw a silver lining in the remarks for Clinton: "Helms' blast -- the second reckless salvo from the archconservative in four days -- offered Clinton a chance to point out how extremist Republicans can be."
But the media may have misjudged what the people find extreme or unpatriotic. A December 6 CNN poll asked Americans if they agreed with Helms that Clinton isn't up to the Commander in Chief job: 49 percent agreed, 47 percent disagreed.
