MediaWatch: February 1995

NewsBites: Partisans and Pansies

The Los Angeles Times saw two very different parties in its January 1 preview of the new congressional leadership. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole is "a feisty partisan," and Majority Whip Trent Lott will be "the political enforcer who does whatever it takes," which he "clearly relishes." The "pugnacious" Al D'Amato will "serve as grand inquisitor" in Whitewater hearings. Newt Gingrich "redefined what it means to be a partisan warrior," while Majority Leader Dick Armey's "instincts are perhaps the most aggressive of any Republican in the House."

But the Democrats were a different breed entirely. "Mild-mannered" Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle "would seem to be the least likely person to send into the political ring to battle assertive Senate Republican leaders like Dole and Lott, who excel at partisan sparring." House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt's "style within the party tends to be consensus-oriented," while Gingrich-bashing Minority Whip David Bonior is "a team player with a knack for parliamentary tactics."

Serge at Helms.

Washington Post reporter Serge Kovaleski faxed 16 questions to Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) on January 5, including: "What do you say to Democrats who are happy that you are in such a visible role because they plan to use you as an example of how the GOP is laden with extremists who are out of touch with the country?" And, "Why have you chosen to be so virulent and controversial in language and tone in your attacks on such issues as homosexuality, AIDS, the arts, and U.S. involvement in Haiti. Isn't there an approach you could take that would be viewed as less offensive to some groups and give you more credibility?" Helms replied: "The tone of your question emphasizes why so many citizens neither respect The Washington Post nor believe very much of what the Post reports."

Kovaleski also queried: "Because the chairmanship is such a high-profile position, will you be more conscious, if not restrained, about the public comments you make?" Helms retorted, "I'll be at least as restrained as a U.S. Senator as The Washington Post is as a newspaper."

Minimum Debate on Wages.

Who works for minimum wage? CBS reporter Wyatt Andrews led viewers to believe it's mostly working adults. In a January 20 Evening News segment, Andrews reported: "When you work at the minimum wage or just above it, when you are a sewing factory worker like Joanne Meyers or Theola Ward, 35 more dollars a week is real money....Joanne and Theola are the kind of low-skilled working adults the Clinton Administration wants to help." Yet, the Employment Policies Institute, ignored by CBS, has contended: "More than 50 percent of those working at the minimum wage are between 16 and 24 years old. Thirty percent are teenagers while more than 63 percent work only part time."

Andrews later declared: "The truth is, this minimum wage debate isn't about economics anymore. This is straight politics. This is a clash between Republicans and Democrats over whose vision creates the most prosperity for America's middle class."

Whose vision did CBS support? While Andrews allow-ed a factory manager to note that a hike would lead to layoffs, liberal economist Jeff Faux, who along with Labor Secretary Robert Reich created the Economic Policy Institute, defined the debate: "The Democrats see an issue that can win back the poor and frightened voter...while the Republican appeal, he says, is aimed at the top." Opposing economists? None. Instead, Andrews asked which vision Ward preferred. She answered: "Give me the 35 dollars."

Liberal? Who Me? CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather took offense at being labeled a liberal in a column in the Rochester [MN] Post-Bulletin written by Professor Thomas Ostrom. Rather responded in a letter to Ostrom: "As far as your labeling of me as a liberal, I'm not sure where you (or anyone else) get such ideas, since I've never discussed my politics in public or private except to say that I voted for Eisenhower twice. I suspect that such labels -- in my case as well as others' -- are less the product of what I've said than of what others have said about me."

Let's refresh Rather's memory with this quote from the February 1989 Evening News. "President Bush said last night our first obligation is to the most vulnerable: infants, poor mothers, children living in poverty. Those sentiments clash with the reality of a decade which has found the federal government offering school children less food for thought." Not sounding like an Eisenhower voter, Rather authored a partisan attack for The Nation's April 11, 1994 issue: "Gays and lesbians are beaten to death in the streets with increasing frequency -- in part due to irrational fear of AIDS but also because hatemongers, from comedians to the worst of the Christian right, send the message that homosexuals have no value in our society. Sometimes that message has a major-party affiliation and a request for a campaign contribution. In the post-cold war era, gays have been drafted to replace communists as the new menace to the American way."

Slandering a Movement.

The murder of two abortion clinic workers by John Salvi in late December led re- porters to lump violent criminals with nonviolent pro-life activists. Jane Pauley teased a Jan. 3 Dateline NBC piece: "Still ahead, the latest round of bloodshed and violence at abortion clinics. The anti-abortion movement has been creeping to the edge of bloody fanaticism for a decade."

ABC's Linda Pattillo promoted the theory of a national anti-abortion conspiracy -- "an organized campaign of domestic terrorism" -- on the January 20 World News Tonight. "Abortion rights advocates say this night, 15 months ago, was a turning point when the national debate over abortion turned into a war. They call it the night of the living dead -- an abortion protest outside the home of a Milwaukee doctor that ended in death threats." But Pattillo had to conclude: "The federal government has yet to prove a nationwide conspiracy exists." Despite the disappointing lack of facts, CBS reporter David Culhane presented a new poll on the January 8 Evening News: "Three out of four Americans say the protest tactics of some anti-abortion activists can be blamed for leading to the recent shootings at several abortion clinics." Culhane didn't consider the impact the media had on public opinion by smearing the pro-life movement with a broad brush.

Contract on the Contract.

Newsweek's newest feature is the "Contract Watch," a weekly scorecard about Congress' work on the GOP's Contract with America. The January 23 issue examined the impact of passing the Balanced Budget Amendment. A chart listed each state, alongside the percent of the state budget received from the federal government, and the "percentage taxes would increase to maintain services." For example, the chart listed Michigan as receiving 30 percent of its state budget from the federal government. Newsweek's chart shows it will have to increase taxes 13.2 percent to maintain services.

Newsweek's speculative math assumed raising taxes is the only way to make up for decreasing federal cash. But the February 6 U.S. News & World Report looked at the fiscal health of the states and found many "finished last year with their biggest budget surpluses since 1989. State tax revenues are expected to rise by $14 billion, or a healthy 5.6 percent, in 1995. And 22 states felt rich enough to cut tax rates this fiscal year." In fact, it lists Michigan as having a 13.1 percent budgetary surplus. Even if Michigan maintained its spending level, it would hardly have to raise taxes as Newsweek's chart insists. Newsweek never published a chart citing the percentage taxes would increase in each state to fund the Clinton health plan.

Joe Slovo, Communist Hero.

The peaceful end of apartheid in South Africa came about despite a half-century of communist attempts to provoke an armed revolution. That didn't stop ABC from lionizing one of South Africa's communist leaders as a democrat. On January 15, Carole Simpson proclaimed: "South Africa buried a hero today. Joe Slovo, who died of cancer at the age of 68 earlier this month. Slovo was a white man who spent a lifetime fighting to abolish apartheid, and he lived to see his dream come true." Reporter Nathan Thomas, while admitting that Slovo was a communist, labeled him "a hero to black South Africans," and after listing problems with the Mandela government, maintained: "Slovo's burial in a Soweto cemetery is a reminder of one more problem -- mortality...the new South Africa will have to learn to get along without the old guard of the revolution."

ABC never mentioned Slovo's violent career. According to Who's Who in South African Politics by Shelagh Gastrow, Slovo was "an active member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) from the 1940's....one of the earliest members of the military wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe, [he] regularly attended meetings of its high command." Slovo remained "Chief of Staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe" though the 1980s, as the group endorsed necklacing, the placing of burning tires over the necks of political opponents. Fortunately for South Africa, Slovo's violent vision of "revolution" never materialized.

Reactionary Radio.

Since the rejection of liberalism in last fall's elections, the mainstream media have blamed "demagogues" on talk radio for turning voters into mindless sheep who voted Republican. Dan Rather declared on the January 4 CBS Evening News: "The surge to the right on Capitol Hill is making waves all over the country on openly politically partisan and sometimes racist radio." NBC's Bob Faw wondered January 3 if "talk radio is not democracy in action, but democracy run amok." The cover of the January 23 Time asked "Is Rush Limbaugh Good for America?" Inside, Richard Corliss began with a mock monologue from a liberal host: "This is Rash Lambaste, the liberals' Limbaugh, with all the news you need to know. Well, we just heard another beaut from Newt. The Speaker hired a House historian who thought Nazism should be taught in schools. That's good sound Republicanism: instead of condoms, let's distribute SS armbands."

Corliss claimed: "What's new is that today the radio rightists are wired into the political process. In 1994 the scream rose to the top. These fervent spiels, in which we heard America slinging, stinging, cajoling, annoying, persuading, finally transformed the social dialogue." Rather than praise voters for being energized by political discourse on radio, he portrayed listeners as dupes: "Like the backyard savants, barroom agitators, and soapbox spellbinders of an earlier era, Limbaugh & Co. bring intimacy and urgency to an impersonal age." CNN's Frank Sesno exemplified this disdain for alternate information sources, claiming during CNN Presents on Jan. 22 that talk radio "injects more heat than light into the political discourse. Call it Rush to judgement." Perhaps voters were simply tired of the "social dialogue" and "fervent spiels" favoring big government from the networks and news magazines.

SDI and Pizza Pie.

In the January 16 Time, in keeping with tradition, the editors ran a piece in the Chronicles section criticizing the new Congress for seeking to fund the Strategic Defense Initiative. "The antimissile system has long been derided as a military-industrial boondoggle, a locus of Pentagon waste and trumped-up test data." The only positive effect Time could find was, "that the $30 billion the U.S. has already invested...has generated a new type of plastic that will keep home delivered pizzas `hot and crisp for two hours'...That works out to $3.75 a pie." Time failed to note another product of SDI research were upgrades in the Patriot missile defense system, which saved lives in the Gulf War, not pizzas.

Try this quote from the September 28, 1989 Evening News: "A political showdown vote in the U.S. House of Representatives today on economics. A vote to support President Bush's idea to cut the capital gains tax for the wealthy. Sixty-four Democrats bucked their own House leaders, abandoned them, and joined the Republicans to support the measure. Mr. Bush says that cutting the capital gains tax for the wealthy will boost the economy and create jobs. Opponents don't believe that, and they call it simply a tax giveaway for the wealthy."More recently, Dan stamped himself with the liberal label by his comments to President Clinton during a CBS affiliates meeting in May 1993. Rather said, "If we could be one-hundreth as great as you and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been in the White House, we'd take it right now and walk away winners...Thank you very much and tell Mrs. Clinton we respect her and we're pulling got her."

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