MediaWatch: December 1995
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: December 1995
- Budget News Without Basic Numbers
- NewsBites: A Wee Bit Off
- Revolving Door: Crossing Into Crossfire
- Deck the Cuts with Gusts of Folly
- TV Ignores Travelgate Acquittal
- "Al Capone of Apple Juice"
- Media Mourn Moderates' Decline Pennsylvania's Problem
- Janet Cooke Award: DeParle's Drama of Destruction
Deck the Cuts with Gusts of Folly
As the holidays approach, Americans can enjoy certain holiday traditions: shopping, caroling, and panicked media reports on unprecedented suffering for the poor. This year's angle: charities can't make up for "deep cuts" in social programs. Time's David Van Biema warned on December 4: "Those who work in charity expect a new cascade of the homeless, the hungry, and the abused to spill out of the government's shrinking safety net and turn to the private sector for help."
CBS Evening News reporter Eric Engberg used the same theme in a December 5 "Reality Check," claiming: "The federal cuts mean that for the charities to stay even, private contributions will have to soar 16-fold. For charities to replace all the federal aid to the poor that's being cut, private giving will have to grow 40 times faster than it ever has."
ABC World News Tonight reporter Kevin Newman contended on December 3: "To make up for proposed Republican spending cuts, an average-size church would have to fill every pew and more than double its donations. Leaders of all faiths have written Congress warning they can't provide that much more."
What numbers did the reporters provide to verify these "deep cuts" in social programs? ABC used none. Time used President Clinton's Office of Management and Budget figure of "$515 billion over seven years from programs affecting the poor." But are these actual reductions in spending, or just more reductions in growth from an arbitrary baseline? Time didn't say.
Unlike past years, reporters pointed out private charities are dependent on federal funds. CBS claimed the "cuts" would cost charities "$260 billion over seven years." That number resembles figures put together by Independent Sector (IS), a liberal alliance of nonprofits that fights for more federal funds. Time also used the IS numbers. But the reports did not focus on these groups' self-interest in federal funds or their ideological commitment to statism. The Capital Research Center quoted IS President Sara Melendez: "[Nonprofits] must not be asked to assume tasks properly performed by government with its vastly greater resources." ABC and CBS did air soundbites of conservative Arianna Huffington.
Time's Van Biema interviewed conservative Marvin Olasky, who he said argued "there is so much flab and inefficiency in both welfare and the big charities that small, nongovernment-funded groups, in sufficient number, would get better results." But Van Biema allowed another social service provider to end the story, predicting the GOP 's plans "will become painfully obvious to average Americans when they see levels of pain and suffering never anticipated."
