MediaWatch: January 1992
Table of Contents:
Mayoral Payola
The same networks that snubbed Census Bureau numbers on the homeless jumped all over the U.S. Conference of Mayors' December 16 report. On NBC Nightly News, Tom Brokaw intoned: "America's homeless situation is going from bad to worse. Hard times are pushing more people and more families out into the streets." On the CBS Evening News, Dan Rather moaned: "There's no joy in reporting it, but the ranks of homeless and hungry are up sharply and increasing."
CBS reporter Mark Phillips concluded: "The mayors got some tragic help to their appeal to official Washington. The other morning, the dead body of a homeless man was discovered less than a block from the White House. And the theme for the homeless children's Christmas show? They're acting out a series of funerals."
NBC aired four different stories on Today the next morning. Not one included any skeptics of the report to question its statistical soundness. More importantly, not one of the stories stated the obvious: mayors looking for more federal aid have an interest in high estimates of homelessness.
The mayors also decried a "backlash" against the homeless. On Today, reporter Keith Morrison suggested the homeless in cities like Santa Monica faced "public apathy and even anger. Are they supposed to disappear?" But the night before, Robert Hager reported that Santa Monica's "liberal policy toward the homeless has caused it to be overrun." In the December 23 U.S. News & World Report, David Whitman challenged the mayors' report and detailed how liberal mayors are reconsidering right-to-shelter laws over their potential to create increased local homelessness.
