MediaWatch: June 1994
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: June 1994
- Network Contrast of Hill and Jones Show Dramatic Differences in Coverage, Tone
- NewsBites: Festival of Hate?
- Revolving Door: Selling Sarbanes
- Media Mourn 17-Count Indictment as Tragedy for the Country
- DDT, Eco-Racism Threats?
- Blaming the Victim?
- Raines Rains on Reagan
- Janet Cooke Award: Newsweek Hailed Hill, But Questions Jones' Credibility and Sexual Behavior
Network Contrast of Hill and Jones Show Dramatic Differences in Coverage, Tone
From I Am Woman to Who's That Girl?
Those partisans who declare Bill Clinton receives the harshest media treatment ever should compare network coverage of Paula Jones' sexual harassment suit with Anita Hill's charges against Clarence Thomas.
To determine the difference, MediaWatch analysts compared news stories on Jones and Hill on five network evening shows (ABC's World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, CNN's World News, NBC Nightly News, and PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour) and three morning shows (ABC's Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and NBC's Today). On both morning and evening shows in the first five days of the Hill and Jones affairs, Hill's story received more than four times as much coverage as Jones' story.
Evening Shows. On Sunday, October 6, 1991, Anita Hill's story broke. In the five days before hearings began (October 6-10), all the networks led with Hill every night except CNN, which led with the story three times. (Due to football, NBC had no East Coast show on the 6th). The five programs aired 67 stories in five days on the charges (averaging more than 13 per day).
When Paula Jones announced her charges on February 11 this year, only ABC reported the story -- for 16 seconds. That's 67 to 1. None of the evening shows touched it again until May 4, the day The Washington Post ran its long-delayed investigation of Jones. CNN's Wolf Blitzer led World News with it. ABC and CNN read brief stories on May 5. On May 6, the day Jones filed suit, all five networks covered the story, but none led the newscast with it. Only ABC and PBS did more than one story. In the first six days of the Jones story -- May 4-9, the networks reported 15 stories, or less than three stories a day, for a Hill-Jones ratio of 67 to 15.
Only another six stories aired in the rest of May. In total, the number of Hill stories in five days (67) outnumbered the total of all evening news stories on Gennifer Flowers (14), Troopergate (22), and Paula Jones (21) combined.
CBS had the most dramatic contrast -- 17 stories on Hill's charges, to one on Jones. On May 6, Rita Braver's story came fifth, and featured no more detailed description of Jones' charges (Clinton exposed himself and asked for oral sex) than that she accused Clinton of "soliticing sexual favors." CNN had the least contrast, with a ratio of 14 to 7.
ABC had a ratio of 15 to 5, but the tone of ABC's stories was less favorable to Jones. On May 8, Sheilah Kast reported on a poll showing most Americans didn't care about Jones' charges. On May 11, five days after the filing, ABC's Jim Wooten did a story on how Jones' claim of suffering professionally from the charges were challenged by state pay records. None of the networks have done investigative stories on the holes in Hill's charges.
The tone and direction of network stories differed greatly. Although each network relayed GOP charges of a smear or dirty politics, none of the 67 stories on Hill questioned her personal or financial motives. By contrast, ABC, CNN, and NBC all forwarded attacks on Jones' motives by Clinton lawyer Robert Bennett or sister Charlotte Brown, or both. None of the networks ever reported on affidavits filed with the Senate questioning Hill's motives or credibility.
While the Jones stories fizzled (from seven stories on May 6 to none the next day), the Hill story exploded (from three stories on October 6 to 19 stories on October 9). This could be a result of process: after two days of incessant media coverage, Hill hearings were scheduled, while Jones' trial could be postponed for years or dismissed. But in Hill's case, producers got creative with new story angles. ABC reported on sexual harassment on Capitol Hill and read passages from seven newspaper columnists; CBS did a story on women's groups mobilizing. CBS and CNN both did biographies on Hill, and NBC focused on black reaction to the affair. Thirteen of the first 67 stories were feature stories on sexual harassment.
Creativity died with the Jones charges: no features on sexual harassment, no story sampling Washington reaction, no biography on Jones. ABC and CNN reporters did features on a possible Clinton legal defense fund. After the study period, ABC's Jeff Greenfield was the only one to note women's groups not mobilizing.
Morning Shows. From October 7-10, the morning shows aired 66 news stories and 18 discussion segments on Hill's story, building up from 12 news stories (updates every half hour on all three networks) on Monday morning to more than 20 stories on each of the other three days.
On the Jones story, the morning shows aired only 14 news stories and 8 discussions. NBC did the most, with 11 news updates and 3 discussions. (Four of the updates came on the Saturday Today, which didn't air in 1991.) By contrast, the others barely touched it: ABC had two stories and two discussions, and CBS had only one news story and three discussions. Unlike the Hill coverage, most of the discussions (including all three on CBS) asked one question about the Jones case and moved on. For example, on May 5, CBS This Morning co-host Harry Smith asked: "Paula Jones, the state employee who is going to try and get President Clinton on charges of sexual harassment, is this the real deal or is this the creation of Arkansas arch-nemesis Cliff Jackson?"
Like the evening shows, the tone of the discussion differed: in Hill's case, attacks on Hill were an attack on all women, but Jones was simply a political tool. On the October 8, 1991 Today, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell pronounced: "What's at stake here and what is on trial, I think, is the Senate of the United States, that all-male institution but two, but for two female senators, the institution, the Democrats, in which, actually closed the doors on House members, members of Congress, women who marched over to try to express their views yesterday and were locked out."
On Today this May 4, Al Hunt of The Wall Street Journal said of Jones: "This woman, I have no idea about the details, she has been used as sort of a puppet by the right, by the political right that wants to discredit Clinton, which I think certainly detracts from her credibility."
