MediaWatch: June 1992
Table of Contents:
Revolving Door: Dukakis at the White House
Dukakis at the White House. During an appearance on the May 8 C-SPAN Journalists' Roundtable, 29-year-old Newsweek White House reporter Clara Bingham reminisced about the Great Society: "It means ancient history, I'm afraid. It also means something I think about wistfully. I wish there was an administration now, or even within my adulthood, that cared so much." A few minutes later, host Brian Lamb offered a clue to Bingham's reverence for the Democrat by revealing her job during the last presidential campaign season: Tennessee Communications Director for Michael Dukakis for President. After joining Newsweek's Washington bureau in late 1989, in September 1991 she moved to the White House as the magazine's number two on that beat under Ann McDaniel.
Liberal Journalistic Activism. On May 16 thousands converged on Washington to demand more taxpayer money for cities. The Save Our Cities march was the brainchild of Osborn Elliott, Editor of Newsweek from 1961 to 1976 and Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism from 1979 to 1986. In The Boston Globe, columnist Tom Oliphant explained: "Last summer, Elliott brought his idea of a March on Washington to the executive committee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors....Thanks to another titan of journalism's activist period (The Globe's retired Editor, Thomas Winship), Elliott was in touch with this year's conference President, Mayor Ray Flynn of Boston." During the rally, Elliott declared: "We hold accountable Republicans who have savaged our urban schools, our housing, our health care, our social services. We hold accountable Democrats who have collaborated in this butchery... We hold accountable those who waste our billions on a military with no enemy to fight. America, hear our cry."
Campaigning for Richards. In the just-released book Storming the State House: Running for Governor with Ann Richards and Dianne Feinstein, author Celia Morris described a "dog-and-pony show" caravan for Richards. Among those participating in the September 1990 road trip on behalf of the successful Democratic Texas candidate was Judith Davidson Moyers, who runs Public Affairs Television, the company behind virtually every Bill Moyers show on PBS. Morris wrote that Judith Moyers' "two-minute spiel" from the loudspeakers of a Winnebago, "was a classic piece of political persuasion." Currently, she and her husband hold the title of Co-Executive Editors of the ongoing Listening to America PBS series. She served as Executive Producer of January's Minimum Wages special on how jobs created during the 1980s don't pay enough.
Off to España. President Bush has nominated Richard Capen, former Publisher of the Miami Herald, to be U.S. Ambassador to Spain. After leaving the paper in 1989, Capen became Vice Chairman for business information and cable television properties for Knight-Ridder, owner of the Herald. During the Nixon Administration, Capen served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for legislative affairs.
