MediaWatch: January 1988
Table of Contents:
Summitbites
A Communist By Any Other Name. During summit week the nation's two most influential papers never once used a negative term like "dictator" to describe Gorbachev. Between December 6 and 11 The New York Times and Washington Post ran 242 news stories mentioning Gorbachev: 124 stories did not label him; 101 simply called him the "Soviet leader" and 16 referred to him as "General Secretary." On one occasion the Post tagged him "Communist Party Leader."
Flowers for Detente. Not all the demonstrators surrounding the summiteers got the coverage they deserved. The Dec. 5 evening newscasts of CBS, CNN and NBC led with scenes of children in Washington taking flowers to the Soviet embassy and the White House; only the Soviets, the networks noted, accepted them. However, when children maimed by Soviet toy bombs in Afghanistan demonstrated four days later, they were ignored not only by the Soviets, but also by NBC and ABC. Dan Rather put the story fourth on the Evening News; CNN balanced its earlier lead by putting the Afghans at the top of PrimeNews.
Flip the Lever, Mr. Murphy. As Murphy goes, so goes ABC News? Thomas Murphy, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Capital Cities ABC Inc. was so ecstatic upon meeting Gorbachev that he reportedly told him: "If I were a Soviet citizen, I'd vote for you."
