MediaWatch: June 1993
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: June 1993
- National Public Radio Anchor's Liberal Year at Weekend Today
- NewsBites: Tax Revolt?
- Revolving Door: Whiplash
- Clinton's "Serious" Deficit Cuts
- Hubbell's "Perception" Problem
- Myers on Euro-Pork
- Post's Ideological Double Standard
- Janet Cooke Award: Hard News Hillary's Pliant Press
Post's Ideological Double Standard
Careless Lispers
The Washington Post must think no two lisps are exactly alike. On March 18, the Post ran a front page story focusing on a Virginia GOP roast where Oliver North imitated a homosexual calling the White House, complete with lisp. Condemnation quickly followed, much of it from Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder. Yet on May 8, Post staff writer Donald Baker reported that Wilder donned his own lisp. Responding to a reporter's question concerning his future marital plans, "the Governor [Wilder] feigned a lisp and a limp wrist in replying, `Oh Don, you shouldn't have.'" While North made Page 1, the Post revealed the Wilder incident at the end of Baker's story on Page D7, in the Metro section.
Why the differing coverage for two comparable acts? "If Doug Wilder and Oliver North and the lispings in which they were involved, are peas of a pod, there's something odd about that pea patch," wrote former Post Ombudsman Richard Harwood on May 18. Harwood claimed, "if intent matters, these were not parallel cases. North spoke, with a political purpose, at a public meeting and invited press coverage." Harwood added, "Wilder on the other hand, has been so contrite that he lied about the episode, denying that it occurred."
Rich vs. Day
On May 9, reporter Spencer Rich passed on the findings of the Democrats' Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that a single-payer Canadian-style health system abolishing private insurance companies would save $24.3 billion in administrative costs. Despite the odd conclusion (government-run health care will save on paperwork), Rich quoted no critics of the CBO report.
Twelve days later, reporter Kathleen Day covered a health report from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) estimating one million Americans would lose their jobs if employers were forced to provide insurance for their employees. But Day spent more than half the story quoting critics and quibbling with the conclusions, saying the study "did not take into consideration" the health portion of workers' compensation may be paid by government, and "focused only on the short-term effects" of mandated health coverage.
