MediaWatch: June 1993

NewsBites: Tax Revolt?

Tax Revolt? "Tax revolt. You probably haven't heard that phrase in years, not since the anti-tax wave that started in California and swept the nation a full decade ago. Well, it could be starting up again in a somewhat different form," Dan Rather declared on the May 19 CBS Evening News. But CBS' idea of a "tax revolt" isn't taxpayers pushing politicians to lower taxes. A tax revolt for CBS means bureaucrats trying to escape budget cuts by scaring taxpayers into accepting tax increases.

In the May 19 piece on California, reporter John Blackstone stated: "Tina Kirschbaum was the victim of a budget cut when she was stopped by carjackers...The sheriff's station Kirschbaum raced to in a Los Angeles suburb had been closed by budget cuts." On May 14, reporter Bill Whitaker found "California law enforcement is the latest victim of the state's bruising recession and the citizen's refusal to pay higher taxes. All across the Golden State, thieves, drug offenders, non-violent criminals of all stripes are due to go free."

Herbert's On-Air Column. Bob Herbert, NBC reporter and newly named New York Times columnist, believes throwing more money at American cities will solve their myriad problems. On the April 30 Nightly News "America Close-Up" segment, Herbert stated: "The neglect of the cities accelerated mightily in the 1980s." Worse, according to Herbert: "Clinton's first modest attempt to help the cities failed when Congress refused to pass his economic stimulus package. For urban America, it was a terrible sign." Because of this failure, "The tragedy of the cities goes on. The Clinton Administration has no specific urban policy and scarce funds seem to be going elsewhere. If Los Angeles was a wakeup call, America must have rolled over and gone back to sleep."

Herbert ignored cities such as Raleigh, San Jose, and Arlington, Texas which, while others declined, grew dramatically because of lower taxes and smaller city government, not liberal "urban policy." He also ignored an unpleasant fact cited by Stephen Moore in a February Cato Institute study: "Since 1989, domestic spending across the board, including spending on urban aid, has exploded...In real terms, cities and states received more federal money in 1992 than in any previous year."

NPR: No Putrid Republicans. In the May 14 Washington City Paper, former Washington Times reporter Glenn Garvin recounted listening to National Public Radio in one week in mid-April during the boiling stimulus battle. "During the first three days of the week, NPR ran 11 stories on Clinton's campaign for the package, all of them centered around speeches by the President or Al Gore...It wasn't until the afternoon of April 15, the fourth day I listened to the network, that I heard a Republican voice on the subject of the filibuster." Even then, Garvin reported, the GOP analyst wrongly conceded defeat. NPR (and ABC) reporter Cokie Roberts found "more than a little racism" in anyone who opposed the package's aid to the cities.

Garvin discovered that Roberts also found racist code words in a special congressional election in Mississippi. Roberts reported: "This is where you really see the words 'city' or 'inner city' become something of a code word for race. The white candidate, who's a Republican, is saying that his opponent is a liberal from the city, as opposed to himself, who's a conservative from the country. And that's just sort of a way of letting people know that the opponent is black." Garvin called Roberts "ridiculously wrong," pointing out the district was majority-black, and the winning Democrat, Bennie Thompson, ran on the idea that only a black could represent a majority-black district.

Smith's New Math. CBS has goofed again, decrying nonexistent immunization budget "cuts." Two years ago on Face the Nation, then-host Lesley Stahl blamed a measles outbreak on "Reagan-era budget cuts." On the May 2 Sunday Morning, reporter Terence Smith asserted: "In 1989, after nearly a decade of federal budget cutbacks for immunizations, the previously successful measles vaccination program broke down." The Centers for Disease Control reports spending actually rose from $32 billion in 1980 to $186 billion in 1990, and $257 billion in 1992. Some "cuts."

Medical Masquerade. In the raging debate over health care, CNN is giving voice to all sides of the issue -- from the left to the far left. In a May 24 story on Hillary Clinton's task force, CNN's John Holliman included two interviews: "health care expert" Bob Brandon of Citizen Action, and the ubiquitous Ron Pollack of Families USA, which Holliman identified as a "consumer group." In reality, both men represent groups pushing a Canadian-style system of government rationed health care that outlaws insurance companies. With such objective expert analysts, who needs conservatives?

Colorado Dreaming. NBC reporter Roger O'Neil has played along with gay activists' anecdotal evidence in his coverage of Colorado's Amendment 2, which prohibits localities from enacting "gay rights" legislation. On the May 24 Nightly News, O'Neil quoted a lesbian couple who "have felt the discrimination of hatred" and "says the discrimination, although mostly subtle, has gotten much worse since Colorado voters decided seven months ago to ban gay rights laws at the state and local level." Without offering any evidence to support that generalization, O'Neil concluded with another anecdote: "Kris...is afraid if gay rights are not protected in Colorado, she and other homosexuals might be forced back into the closet again, to protect their jobs."

On November 14, 1992, another O`Neil story featured speculation about the effects of Amendment 2, again without any statistical proof. He said: "Business owners have reported that gay bashings have been on the rise since the vote." In contrast, The Washington Post, no haven for gay-bashers, reported on May 30: "Gay-bashing reports in Colorado have dropped since passage in November of a measure against gay rights protections, state authorities said in announcing 54 anti-gay hate crimes were reported...In the same period last year, 61 attacks with 86 victims were reported."

Dream or Reality? When Defense Secretary Les Aspin announced his decision to redirect funding for SDI to a ground-based Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, the media cheered the end of ignorance. ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings began smugly on May 13, "with the end of a dream, some would argue a pipe dream, that the United States could leapfrog its enemies and become invulnerable to nuclear attack...In simple language, Star Wars is dead." The same day, CNN's Jamie McIntyre reported that, "In the end, Star Wars was simply an idea whose time came and went." Daniel Schorr reported on National Public Radio on May 15, "President Reagan's impossible dream of ten years ago, the impenetrable shield is dead 30 billion dollars later."

While a few reporters acknowledged the symbolic value SDI had in arms negotiations, none acknowledged the arguments of conservatives such as Angelo Codevilla who, in the May 10 National Review, argued it was political and bureaucratic obstacles, not technological impossibilities, that prevented the deployment of a system. Codevilla wrote: "If God grants us a year or so to react, our country will not lack the technologies for self-defense."

NBC's Bad Trip. NBC's Today show dropped in on 1968 for the week of May 10. Throughout the week they paraded leftist activists across the screen as a fair representation of a "turbulent year," as if conservatives weren't alive in the year Richard Nixon won the White House.

On May 12, Jamie Gangel interviewed "three people who thought they could change the world, and one graduate of the class of 1968 who just might." Gangel interviewed Eric Foner, a leader of the Columbia protest who is now a professor in the building he occupied; Sharon Cohen, a student protester at the University of Wisconsin, now a Vice President at Reebok in charge of funding "human rights organizations"; Tommy Smith, who is best remembered for his Black Panther salute at the Mexico City Olympics; and President Clinton.

The next day, Bryant Gumbel interviewed former Black Panther leader and Congressman Bobby Rush and NAACP lawyer Elaine Jones. The one exception was their May 11 coverage of the Vietnam War, with former New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan and General William Westmoreland. Jamie Gangel said the joke about the 60's was "if you remembered it you didn't live through it." Thanks to NBC, we got a good view of what we never missed.

Healy Squeals. Add former Boston Globe Executive Editor and Washington Bureau Chief Robert Healy to the list of New Republic Clinton-Gore Suck-Up Award candidates. Gore accepted a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Earth in the Balance. In a May 17 column on Gore's speech, Healy was beside himself with praise. Gore was introduced by historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., "who noted that there was a time in American history when it was the norm to have distinguished vice presidents such as Adams and Jefferson. After a period of less-than-distinguished men in the office, it is good for the nation to have a literate one."

Healy went on to praise the Clinton administration as almost divine. "Clinton and his staff might be better off taking a day off. As one of the comics said about the Clinton staff, even God rested on the seventh day." Taking a parting shot at former President Reagan, Healy admitted the Clinton staff may be arrogant, but "It is better for the nation that it deal with the arrogance of youth, which will be tempered with experience, than a President who falls asleep right after lunch."

Editors Concede Bias. Several surveys over the past decade have proven members of the media are liberal and/or Democrats. MediaWatch has come across a survey with a twist: It found newspaper editors and publishers realize those personal views impact news coverage. Last September the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) commissioned a poll of 94 editors, 89 publishers and 22 executives carrying both titles. The NAA asked: "Do you believe there's bias in the general media's political coverage?" Yes, responded a slight majority of 51.7 percent. Those who responded affirmatively were then asked "toward which agenda, onservative or liberal?" 70.8 percent said liberal. Just 7.5 percent said conservative.

Analyzing their own segment of the media, however, they saw less bias. The NAA question: "Do you believe there's a bias in newspapers' political coverage?" This time, 59.5 percent responded no and only 37.1 percent said yes. Of those who said yes, 61.8 percent saw a liberal slant, 25 percent said bias went against both agendas and 13.2 percent claimed the bias favored the conservative agenda.

Blocking Brock. Some remain unshaken in refusing to cover David Brock's book The Real Anita Hill. At U.S News & World Report, reporter Ted Gest, who wrote a piece summarizing Tim Phelps' pro-Anita Hill book Capitol Games last year, told MediaWatch he rejected the notion "that because we wrote about Phelps, we have to write about Brock...We covered both sides of the story in our big article last fall, and Brock wouldn't talk to us at that time."

ABC's Good Morning America spokesperson Kathy Reif told MediaWatch the crew spent two weeks in Australia and New Zealand, and a Brock interview would now be too dated. Reif also argued that Phelps' appearance (a tough interview with Charles Gibson) came because his book was first, and he'd been leaked the Hill story. When asked if Phelps' book was better than Brock's on merit, Reif answered "we don't consider things like that."

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