MediaWatch: June 1997
Table of Contents:
Revolving Door: Repudiating Molinari
Republican Congresswoman Susan Molinari's decision to resign from the House of Representatives this summer to slide into a co-host slot of a new fall show, CBS News Saturday Morning, raised indignant cries from journalists about the blurring of the line between the media and politics, worries not expressed when a liberal goes through the revolving door.
"The GOP News from CBS," read the headline over a May 29 New York Times editorial which argued that "CBS has reduced the wall," between news and politics "to dust." The CBS decision in April to hire former Senator Bill Bradley, a Democrat who may become Molinari's co-host, failed to generate a condemnatory editorial. In fact, many more liberals than conservatives revolve between media and political slots. The MRC's Revolving Door count now stands at 323 liberals/Democrats versus just 83 conservatives/ Republicans. The latest liberal example came May 28, the same day as CBS announced Molinari's hiring: ABC News named Jim Williams, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's Press Secretary since 1992, as a correspondent.
Molinari is hardly the first political operative to join CBS News. While Molinari's influence would be limited to one show, Senior Political Editor Dotty Lynch oversees the entire network. Lynch directed polling for George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy, the Democratic National Committee and the 1984 Mondale campaign, all before joining CBS in 1985. David Burke, President of CBS News from 1988 to 1990, served as Chief of Staff to Senator Ted Kennedy from 1965 to 1971. In 1995 President Clinton brought him along to California to, as the Wall Street Journal described, "provide political and communications tips." Last year Clinton named Burke to a board overseeing international broadcasting, but none of this raised a peep of protest.
Indeed, revolvers with the most influence are the ones the public knows the least about. In a May 30 Los Angeles Times story, reporter Jane Hall observed that "TV news executives argue that former politicians can provide viewers with valuable insights into the way government and politics really work." She then offered the recollection of CNN President Tom Johnson: "As Lyndon Johnson once said [about the group of Ivy League academics in his Cabinet], 'It would help if one of you had been elected sheriff.'" Shaw failed to mention that Johnson knows what Lyndon Johnson said because he once toiled as a Special Assistant to President Johnson. On the June 1 Fox News Sunday, National Public Radio's Mara Liasson complained: "I think it's disturbing. I mean, she's is not going to be a commentator or a part of a show where she's clearly identified with her partisan point of view she's going to be an anchor. And I think it means, it sends the message that there's no such thing as journalism anymore." Liasson's NPR colleague, Nina Totenberg, raged on Inside Washington: "This really makes me want to puke."
Neither bothered to mention that current NPR President Delano Lewis raised money for Washington, DC Mayor Marion Barry; previous President Douglas Bennet headed the Agency for International Development for President Carter and left NPR for an Assistant Secretary of State slot under Clinton; and Bennet had replaced Frank Mankiewicz, an operative for George McGovern.
