MediaWatch: March 1995
Table of Contents:
Abortion Only Splits GOP?
The Foster Disaster
Most reporters smelled a GOP gambit to avoid the issue that's always a sure loser in the media conventional wisdom: "That's a question that's allowed the President's political opponents to steer clear of the sensitive issue of abortion, to focus instead on credibility," Cokie Roberts intoned on the February 8 Nightline.
NBC Today's Jim Miklaszewski weighed in on February 9: "Clinton aides admit they...would ultimately win the war of public opinion over choice and help push Republicans further right from center." On February 15, as Foster's nomination began to slip, Connie Chung declared it a disaster -- for the GOP. "Republican use of the abortion issue against Dr. Henry Foster's nomination as Surgeon General seems to be backfiring tonight. The deep stress cracks over abortion policy are now starting to show inside the Republican Party."
Some reporters simply reserved stories for Foster's supporters. On the February 10 World News Tonight, ABC's George Strait said "Today, physicians around the country joined that fight, defending him, saying his record has been badly misrepresented." If anyone did that, it was the media.
In another unanimous story on February 13, Gwen Ifill asserted "Foster is known as a distinguished physician who helped rescue Meharry Medical College from the brink of extinction and helped found `I Have a Future,' a program designed to discourage teenagers from having babies....His supporters are bewildered that the church-going pillar of the community they know has somehow become a national symbol in the battle over abortion."
Never reported was the ob-gyn program at Meharry lost its accreditation in 1990 while Foster was at its helm. The "I Have A Future" program is also in question. The director refused to provide statistics to prove its success to The Washington Times.
