MediaWatch: February 1992
Table of Contents:
Hill Shills
HILL SHILLS. The Washington Post Company empire took a much harsher look at Gennifer Flowers' claims against Democrat Bill Clinton than they did Anita Hill's. Take Post television critic Tom Shales on Gennifer Flowers' press conference January 28: "You'd almost think Harold Robbins and Sidney Sheldon has collaborated to produce dialogue like that."
But last October 12, it was a different Shales: "What about the fact that Hill maintained such dignity and stamina in such sordid and sleazy surroundings? It had to occur to some viewers as they watched the way she handled herself that she would have made a much better Supreme Court nominee than Thomas does."
Post Company-owned Newsweek noted seven inconsistencies in Flowers' story in its February 3 issue. But Hill's story was beyond reproach. Last October, reporter Eleanor Clift wrote that Sen. Alan Simpson's suggestion that "stuff" would come out on Hill was "the lowest of many low points in the Clarence Thomas hearings." Clift declared Hill had "done nothing to suggest she has a credibility problem."
