MediaWatch: February 1996
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: February 1996
- A Social Problem Blamed on Reaganomics Fades Away in Clinton-Era Media Coverage
- NewsBites: Tricky Dick's Tax Break
- CBS Reporter Bernard Goldberg Charges Colleague
- Networks Scared of Flat Tax
- Global Warming Shtick Returns The Heat Is Off
- Transportation's Travel Bill
- Knowledgeable Limbaugh Dittoheads
- Janet Cooke Award: The Evangelical Right Wing That Wasn't
CBS Reporter Bernard Goldberg Charges Colleague
Reality Check for Eric Engberg
This month MediaWatch planned to include an article about CBS reporter Eric Engberg's February 8 CBS Evening News "Reality Check" attack on Steve Forbes' flat tax. But one of Engberg's colleagues beat us to it. In an unprecedented February 13 Wall Street Journal op-ed, CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg said that "Mr. Engberg's report set new standards for bias." Reaction was swift: CBS News President Andrew Heyward tagged the charge "absurd."
Goldberg began by observing that one reason fewer people are watching network news "is that our viewers simply don't trust us. And for good reason. The old argument that the networks and other `media elites' have a liberal bias is so blatantly true that it's hardly worth discussing anymore. No, we don't sit around in dark corners and plan strategies on how we're going to slant the news. We don't have to. It comes naturally to most reporters."
Reciting the story, he noted that Engberg showed Forbes saying the "economy can grow twice as fast if we remove `obstacles,' starting with the tax code. Mr. Forbes may be right or wrong about this, so Mr. Engberg lets us know which it is. `Time Out!' he shouts in his signature style. `Economists say nothing like that has ever actually happened.'"
Next, Engberg showed Forbes asserting "A flat tax would enable the economy to grow. That would mean more revenue for Washington." To that "Engberg tells the audience: `That was called supply- side economics under President Reagan. Less taxes equal more revenue. It didn't work out that way.'" Engberg then allowed an economist from the Brookings Institution, which he failed to label as liberal, to predict the same thing would happen again.
Goldberg wondered: "But haven't other experts argued that we wound end up with `hideous deficits' not because of the tax cut but because of increased spending?"
Engberg offered this snide hit: "OK, how about Forbes' number one wackiest flat tax promise?" In a clip, Forbes explained how "parents would have more time to spend with their children, and with each other." Goldberg queried, "can you imagine, in your wildest dreams, a network news reporter calling Hillary Clinton's health care plan `wacky?'" Engberg concluded: "The fact is, the flat tax is one giant untested theory. One economist suggested that before we risk putting it in, we ought to try it out someplace, like maybe Albania."
"Reality Check," Goldberg explained, "suggests the viewers are going to get the facts. And then they can make up their mind. As Mr. Engberg might put it: `Time Out!' You'd have a better chance of getting the facts someplace else -- like Albania."
