MediaWatch: February 1997
Table of Contents:
Making Excuses for Fundraising
Clinton as Victim
As the Democratic fundraising scandal grew, some reporters portrayed Bill Clinton not as a player but as a bystander, if not a victim.
In a lengthy interview published January 19, Washington Post reporters asked the President: "There's been a lot of talk lately, as you know, printed and so forth, about the Lincoln Bedroom and the people who stay here. And obviously a lot of them are your friends. And I don't think anybody would begrudge somebody having guests in their own house. Some of them, though, it seems apparently you didn't know quite as well. And we're wondering if you might feel let down a little bit by your staff or by the DNC in their zeal to raise funds?"
When the White House admitted throwing over 100 coffees for wealthy donors five days later, NBC's Tom Brokaw cast a wide net of condemnation: "Everyone in Washington agrees that the money game in that town is simply out of control for Republican and Democrat alike. And the more we learn, the greater the outrage. There's enough blame to go all the way around the country tonight. But the latest money trail, it turns out, is a four lane highway leading from the White House to almost every group in America. As NBC's Andrea Mitchell tells us now, the White House released the documentation. The Republicans are thrilled."
During the President's news conference the following week, newly-installed ABC White House reporter John Donvan asked Clinton: "In your Inaugural address eight days ago you outlined some quite lofty goals -- for example, the education proposals you were speaking about today. But in the days since, many questions in the press and in Congress have focused on issues like campaign fundraising. My question is whether you are worried that the well is being poisoned even now for the realization of these goals before you can get out of the gate, particularly on the issue of bipartisanship?"
When the press conference ended, CNN anchor Judy Woodruff pressed Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas) on when the fundraising scandal would be finished: "The President acknowledged mistakes were made...How much more does the President need to say, to apologize, to say he wants to clear the air or however you want to put it?"
