MediaWatch: January 1994
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: January 1994
- Conscientious Objectors to Trooper Allegations Jumped on Tower
- NewsBites: Bryant Confesses
- Revolving Door: Talbott Promoted at State
- Friend of Bill Takes Over at ABC
- Fascists, Communists on "Right"
- Boxing Helen Thomas
- TV Truth Squads Take the Day Off
- Janet Cooke Award: Newsweek Celebrates 60th Anniversary with Mostly Liberal Historical Essay
Boxing Helen Thomas
Asked "Do you sense a liberal bias in the press?" on the December 31 C-SPAN Journalists' Roundtable, UPI White House reporter Helen Thomas responded: "A liberal bias? I don't know what a liberal bias is. Do you mean do we care about the poor the sick and the maimed? Do we care whether people are being shot every day on the streets of America? If that's liberal, so be it. I think it's every- thing that's good in life, that we do care. And also for the solutions, we seek solutions and we do think that we are all responsible for what happens in this country."
A few minutes later Knight-Ridder Washington News Editor Stephen Smith explained: "I think Clinton was roughed up by the press this year. I don't think he got proper credit for a lot of the things that he did. But, oddly enough, I think that a lot of the criticism stemmed from disappointment. People, reporters who felt that Clinton was going to achieve certain things and had certain standards, and then felt let down by the way he performed in his stumbling phase; and they really pounced. Particularly after the campaign coverage, which I think had been puffy. I think that he did get a good campaign ride compared to Bush and then he paid the price later on."
Why the free ride during the campaign followed by disappointment once Clinton won? Smith suggested an answer: "I think if you went through the newsrooms of America and screamed out `will all Republicans please raise their hands,' you would go long and far without seeing many hands."
Hattori Unmasks Mao
CBS reporter James Hattori unmasked Mao Zedong's murderous reign, which has often been ignored by journalists while Mao was in power and after his death. The December 24 CBS Evening News piece marking the 100th anniversary of Mao's birth reported on official celebrations in China which "don't include Mao's shortcomings. No mention whatsoever of his failed economic and social policies which caused so much pain to countless millions of Chinese."
Unlike many reports on China, this one avoided interviewing any government officials. Instead, most of the talking heads in the piece were longtime political prisoners, American communist Sidney Rittenberg and author Nien Cheng. Mao's former doctor was also interviewed, charging that the Chairman was a philanderer.
Hattori described the war Mao waged against his people: "It was Mao's so-called `Great Leap Forward' to reform agriculture that resulted in massive starvation in the early 1960s, and as many as 30 million dead. Then he used his cult popularity to spark the `Cultural Revolution,' leaving millions more dead, purged, or imprisoned."
