MediaWatch: July 1996
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: July 1996
- Medicare: The Story with 1,060 Errors
- NewsBites: Humorless Howard
- Revolving Door: Chancellor's Last Spin
- Slow Out of the Gate on Filegate
- Families First Favored
- Coia and the Mafia
- Double Standard on Rumor
- Janet Cooke Award: Poor Joan of Arc Can't Get Private Help
Janet Cooke Award: Poor Joan of Arc Can't Get Private Help
Reporter Bob Woodward promoted his new book The Choice with a colorful anecdote of Hillary Clinton, under the guidance of psychic Jean Houston, speaking in the White House solarium to Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi. Woodward reported the friendship clicked when Houston said Hillary "was reversing thousands of years of expectation, and was there upfront, probably more than virtually any woman in human history -- apart from Joan of Arc."
Reporters at Newsweek and ABC sympathized with the First Lady in covering Woodward's psychic scoop. For employing a very different approach than their coverage of Nancy Reagan's use of an astrologer, Newsweek and ABC earned the Janet Cooke Award.
Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Evan Thomas acknowledged the Nancy Reagan parallels of Hillary's psychic friends, but countered critics and comedians July 1: "A long-time searcher for spiritual meaning, Mrs. Clinton had conjured conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt long before she met Dr. Houston. Mrs Clinton is not even the first First Lady to dabble in psychics or mediums: the wives of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, John Tyler, Woodrow Wilson, and Warren G. Harding all tried, in one way or another, to communicate beyond the grave. Unlike Nancy Reagan, Hillary never tried to use psychic powers to influence her husband."
Thomas added: "To many women, Hillary Clinton is not a cold-eyed conspirator, but a martyr." He quoted Mrs. Clinton's fans at a Boston fundraiser for the Clinton campaign saying Hillary's "being bashed by the press" because "a lot of people don't like a strong woman." Thomas concluded that to these voters, "Hillary looks just the way she does to her philosopher friend, Dr. Houston -- as a Joan of Arc figure, persecuted for her righteous crusade."
If it seems hardly noteworthy for liberal Hillary to be popular in Massachusetts, the June 21 Boston Herald's account of the fundraiser presented a less than popular figure. Reporter Joe Sciacca quoted a Democratic operative: "They couldn't give tickets away. A lot of people got [free tickets]. Even the applause lines were off. A lot of people are getting concerned." Thomas told MediaWatch: "Our reporter Martha Brant was there and saw it first-hand. They certainly were enthusiastic Hillary-lovers at this lunch...I don't think the point's negated if they had difficulty selling tickets."
This is not the spin Newsweek gave the Nancy Reagan story, revealed in former chief of staff Don Regan's book For the Record. In the May 16, 1988 issue, George Hackett and Eleanor Clift did allow Mrs. Reagan's press secretary, Elaine Crispen, to ask: "If she could get a little comfort and consolation from astrology, why not?" But they also forwarded other spins: "Scientists showed less tolerance for the President's participation in what they consider medieval superstition. `How can you control a science budget of billions of dollars when you believe in nonsense of this magnitude?,' says James Kaler, professor of astronomy at the University of Illinois." Hackett and Clift added: "Criticism also rumbled from fundamentalists, who liken astrology to Satan worship. `This is the last straw for a lot of religious people who treated Reagan as their political savior,' said conservative columnist and former Moral Majority vice president Cal Thomas."
Newsweek failed to try these lines of attack on Mrs. Clinton's Methodist commitments. (It could have been done: Washington Times reporter Julia Duin did interview several disappointed Methodist theologians and evangelicals -- and some Methodist defenders -- on June 25). But that might have clashed with Newsweek religion reporter Kenneth Woodward's October 31, 1994 verdict that "Hillary Rodham Clinton is as pious as she is political. Methodism, for her, is not just a church but an extended family of faith that defines her horizons." He called the Clinton era . Sam Donaldson reports the White House will not take the Regan book lying down."
Donaldson was straightforward instead of sympathetic, airing both critics and supporters: "This new, unflattering portrait of the First Family is producing new, often humorous, unfavorable public reaction which political opponents are clearly savoring.... Reagan loyalists are incensed....Reporters like Helen Thomas are just glad to be informed." Donaldson ended: "Presidents and their wives look to their place in history and to the Reagans, Regan's book doesn't help." Both outlets were reasonably fair (if a little jokey) with the Reagans, but any damaging tidbit on the Clintons, no matter how trivial, seems to inspire an entirely different approach: damage control. Remember when reporters used to provoke damage control, not practice it?
