MediaWatch: January 1996
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: January 1996
- Same Liberal Song, Second Verse
- NewsBites: The Silent Veto
- Revolving Door: If You Cant Boost 'Em
- The Shutdown Soap Opera
- Today Gushes Over Hillary
- Nightline's True Story
- Brinkley Agrees Media are Liberal Paula Zahn is "Overloaded"
- Janet Cooke Award: Newt Gingrich, Political Liability
The Shutdown Soap Opera
December brought a second shutdown of the federal government, and with it came the networks' ratings-grabbing specialty: hanky-waving sob stories of shutdown "victims."
On December 22, a week into the shutdown and before paychecks were delayed, Jack Smith mourned on World News Tonight: "The shutdown now has a human face. Joe Skattleberry and his wife Lisa both work for the government. Both have been furloughed. They can't afford a Christmas tree."
NBC's John Palmer warned on the December 29 Today: "The shutdown is affecting more people's lives every day in places like Grand Teton National Park, where furloughed park employees worried about mortgages, car payments, and credit card bills have begun filing unemployment benefits. In California and in dozens of other states, serious cutbacks in food programs are threatened unless the budget crisis is resolved soon." Later, David Bloom added: "The shutdown continues. The pain spreads. The pressure grows for Washington to end America's worst budget crisis."
On January 2, CBS Evening News reporter Scott Pelley compared budget negotiators to bombers: "In April, terrorists tried to kill them. Today, politicians stopped their paychecks. In Oklahoma City's Social Security office, they're being ordered to work for nothing....The bomb broke Beverly Rankin's ankle. Politics is breaking her bank."
That night NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw mourned: "Far from the marbled halls of Congress and the elegant furnishings of the White House, this government shutdown is about a lot more than politics. It's about people and their real needs."
NBC's George Lewis found an Indian health clinic in San Diego: "Two-thirds of the clinic's budget, $95,000 a month, comes from the federal government. Without that money, the clinic can't meet its payroll. The people who run this clinic fear that if it has to close its doors, many of the 4,000 patients who seek treatment here will not look elsewhere. Ron Morton says traditionally, Native Americans do not like to accept handouts." But didn't NBC just say the clinic is two-thirds funded by the federal government? Morton later asserted that "if this budget is not signed there are people who are going to die."
Bryant Gumbel preached at the start of the January 4 Today: "Although some politicians have foolishly suggested the fact that we are going on about our business despite the absence of the workers says maybe they weren't needed anyway, we will show you how some average Americans are suffering each and every day as a result of what is now 20 days of the government shutdown."
