MediaWatch: February 1988

Study: Campaign '88: CBS' Liberal Agenda

The TV networks, citing cost concerns, are covering the 1988 presidential race differently than previous campaigns. No longer are reporters assigned to follow each candidate. Instead, a few correspondents are stationed in key states to cover all the hopefuls as they pass through. Unable to cover every event, network officials told The Washington Post in January that campaign stories promise to become more "analytical" and "interpretive," a development confirmed by a MediaWatch Study of recent candidate profile stories.

As Richard Cohen, top political producer for CBS News admitted in the same article, "I think we're going to try and impose our agenda on the coverage by dealing with issues and subjects that we choose to deal with instead of parroting the candidates." (Cohen is the man who arranged the Rather-Bush confrontation.)

The study determined that CBS, the only network so far to air a series of candidate profiles, is using them to promote a decidedly liberal agenda. MediaWatch analyzed "Campaign '88" presidential candidate profiles aired by CBS Evening News and discovered the network went out of its way to include criticisms of policies espoused by conservative Republicans, but rarely ever mentioned anything negative about ideas endorsed by liberal Democrats. Since the series skipped Dole and Jackson, and the Bush profile focused exclusively on Iran/Contra, announcement day stories for them were used instead.

MediaWatch researchers analyzed each story for positive, negative, and neutral/ factual statements, from the reporter, candidate, political analysts, or people in crowds, in the following three areas: 1) Style. A candidate's speaking ability, charisma, or character traits. 2) Policy. Anything about the candidate's political stands. 3) The horserace, or "who's ahead" feature of each story including not only polling data but also comments about a candidate's strategy.

In the Policy category, CBS failed to air even one positive statement about the political views of five of six Republicans, but issued positive judgments on policies of all but one Democrat, Michael Dukakis. Reporter Bruce Morton delivered three uncritical, straightforward summaries of his ideas. Assessments followed a similar pattern in the Style category. Covering the Republicans, CBS issued nearly four times as many negative judgments as positive ones, while the Democrats got praised more often than not. Even when analyzing horserace positions CBS found more bad things than good to say about five of the six Republicans, but came up with few reasons to believe a Democrat might not win the nomination, issuing more upbeat than negative comments on their chances.

Since horserace positions are constantly changing, combining Policy and Style assessments gives the best measure of the slant of each story. Doing that, every Democrat but Gore, who promotes himself as a conservative on defense, received more positive than negative comments. Every Republican but Dole, whom CBS portrayed as an experienced Washington insider, received more negative than positive judgments.

Pete duPont ended up with the most damaging profile with seven negative remarks on his conservative policies. Reporter Bob Faw introduced duPont's three central campaign themes: reduced farm subsidies, drug testing, and alternative Social Security programs and then countered each suggestion with a negative reaction from someone who claimed they would be hurt by the proposal. In contrast, stories on liberals Paul Simon and Mike Dukakis did not include any criticisms of their proposals to cut defense spending or raise taxes "as a last resort."

Faw also took time to critique the supposedly dull speeches of Jack Kemp, but Bruce Morton went out of his way to portray Simon's "plainness" as an asset. In the most dubious opinionated assertion by a reporter, Faw claimed Kemp's biggest problem is his "message, he's conservative at a time when the polls show the country is moving toward the center." No CBS reporter ever blamed liberal policies for hurting any Democrat in a conservative state like New Hampshire.

With four positive policy assessments and just one negative comment on his campaign style, (he lacks "razzle-dazzle"), Bruce Babbitt received the most glowing profile. Infatuated with his plans to raise taxes, Faw repeatedly praised Babbitt for "confronting issues which others fudge and sometimes offering the political equivalent of castor oil," with a platform of "common sense and sacrifice." The typical double-standard occurred between Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertson. Lesley Stahl's piece on Jackson ignored his religious background and dismissed his past praise for Castro, claiming "Jackson has shed his radical image." But in his piece on Robertson, Bruce Morton brought on a "political analyst" to explain why Robertson's "mixing of politics and religion" will hurt him.

Below is a sampling of how CBS analyzed each candidate. The listing includes examples of how virtually every report ended with an opinionated concluding spin, labeled (C).

Pete duPont

"DuPont's ideas are new, provocative, and not always what his listeners want to hear....duPont's call for a private alternative to Social Security makes a lot of senior citizens shudder."

(C): "He keeps raising his lance to joust with the others, even though they're convinced all Pete duPont is doing is tilting at windmills." -- Bob Faw, 12/1

Bruce Babbitt

"Is the only candidate to say how he would pay the bills, with a five percent national sales tax....talking straight while others seem to be blowing smoke."

(C)): "[Iowa] will determine if Bruce Babbitt gets into the political fast track or whether he's just been taken for a ride." -- Faw, 12/17

Michael Dukakis

"Ideas? Dukakis has plenty. Like the other candidates, he stresses education." -- Bruce Morton, 12/9

Jack Kemp

"Like the President, supply-sider Kemp is against abortion, against higher taxes...Still, some who listen leave unconvinced, like Michigan stock broker Marty Gotkin, who doubts that Kemp would do enough to reduce deficits." Gotkin: "I think we're gonna, the government's gonna have to resort to some tax increases."

"Part of the problem is the candidate. Better on the stump than he was six months ago, Kemp still quotes Hegel and Maimonides, still fails to excite crowds."

(c): "The Republican candidate who's run the longest and hardest will try to persuade skeptics he's not just running in place." -- Faw, 10/27

Paul Simon

"Simon is a plain man. No high flown eloquence, no glitz. Plain speech. That plainness finds an echo here. A lot of Iowans are plain people too."

(C): "The new fashion may be the old fashioned, old Democrat, warts, ideals and all. He may be an improbable dreamer, but he has some followers here [in Iowa]." -- Morton, 11/23

Alexander Haig

"On the issues, Haig is outspoken, sometimes outrageous... Many now wonder, 'can an old cold warrior lead this country into the 90's?'" -- Richard Schlesinger, 1/8

Bob Dole

"Dole is also trying to soften his hatchet-man image." -- Bob Schieffer, 11/9

Richard Gephardt

"Say one thing for Gephardt, he looks the part and his family is campaign poster classic right down to the loyal dog."

(C): "In the meantime, you have to ride a lot of planes like this [small] one before they let you ride Air Force One." --Schieffer, 10/22

Al Gore

"(He is) stressing his theme that he's the Democrat who's strong on defense....The candidate is widely respected for his expertise on the environment and arms control."

(C): "The biggest question for Gore is whether a hidden block of conservative Democrats will show up at the polls, something they haven't done in more than a decade." -- Lesley Stahl, 11/27

Jesse Jackson

"At 46, he is one of the most famous men in America, often treated like a rock star. In his second run for the presidency, Jesse Jackson is turning 'em on in White America."

"[Jackson is] getting what he always wanted: respect. This time Jackson wants to represent all victims, black and white." -- Stahl, 10/9

Pat Robertson

"There is a downside too...because of course he was a preacher and no ordinary one, he was a charismatic Christian, a television evangelist who believed prayer could and did heal... Robertson has resigned the ministry, but that identification may hurt him." -- Morton, 11/4

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