MediaWatch: March 1998
Table of Contents:
Only Clinton Pals Welcome
At ABC News, you can chat with the President, but you better not write about the Vice President. ABC reporter Bob Zelnick revealed in a February 24 Wall Street Journal op-ed he was forced to leave when he refused to stop writing a book about Al Gore to be published by Regnery. ABC News President David Westin told Zelnick "we cannot have a Washington correspondent writing a book about one of our national leaders whom that correspondent will undoubtedly have to cover."
Zelnick wondered: "Would I have faced the same problem if I were an avowedly liberal journalist undertaking a book that made conservatives mildly uncomfortable rather than a moderately conservative one writing about a liberal icon? Had the proposed title been Gingrich: A Critical Look at the Man and His Climb to Power, would I have been forced to choose between my book and my career? I rather doubt it. Nor does the double standard stop with books. My friend and former colleague Sam Donaldson is again covering the White House six days a week. On the seventh day he does not rest, but rather appears on This Week With Sam and Cokie, where he is free with his concededly liberal opinions. Sam is a gifted reporter, and in 21 years I have never seen evidence of deliberate bias in his work. I think ABC is wisely using his talents. But where is his conservative counterpart, licensed both to report and to ruminate?"
If you are a buddy of the President and can influence the flagship program, that’s fine. In Spin Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine, Howard Kurtz relayed this anecdote showing the close ties between an ABC News executive and Clinton: "Unlike many Americans, he didn’t watch the evening news. Clinton occasionally called a longtime friend from his gubernatorial days. Rick Kaplan, Executive Producer of ABC’s World News Tonight, a few minutes after the 6:30 program began, just wanting to chat. He seemed slightly surprised when Kaplan told him he was running a live newscast and would have to call him back."
Kaplan is now President of CNN, but while still with ABC Kaplan spent a night in the Lincoln bedroom. He told Electronic Media: "It’s nobody’s business." At ABC your personal views only matter if you’re conservative.
