MediaWatch: May 1992

Looting a Rational Response to a Decade of Greed

BLAMING THE RIOT ON REAGAN

As South Central Los Angeles went up in flames, reporters didn't hold the individual perpetrators responsible. Instead, many tried to convince viewers that the rioting was a rational response to the conservative policies of the 1980s. Today's Bryant Gumbel blamed Ronald Reagan as soon as he could, asserting the morning after rioting began: "We keep looking for some good to come out of this. Maybe it might help in putting race relations on the front burner, after they've been subjugated for so long as a result of the Reagan years."

That evening, on the April 30 NBC Nightly News, John Chancellor discussed the impact of the '80s on blacks and whites: "Both groups have been shaped by American politics over the last dozen years. Politicians have fanned these flames with code words about `welfare queens,' `equal opportunity,' and `quotas.' Language designed to turn whites against blacks. With two-party politics that favored the rich and hurt everyone else." The next morning on Today, Gumbel claimed the violence was "fueled by the frustration and anger that accompanies feelings of inequality and despair." Gumbel also blamed the rest of the country: "Taking their cues from Washington, most Americans over the past dozen years have chosen to ignore the issue of civil rights, and the growing signs of racial division."

On C-SPAN's May 1 Journalists' Roundtable, Philadelphia Inquirer Washington reporter Alexis Moore agreed: "Somebody who is in elected office ought to have enough guts to say I know I may lose the election, but this is the result of the past ten, twelve, fifteen years of neglect, this is the result of putting selfish [sic] and greed ahead of the needs of us all." Moore insisted tensions "have been cynically exploited by the past two Presidents" who have "encouraged not only misbehavior by police officers, but misbehavior by people in higher office. When you allow those who are supposed to be protecting the law to break it, when you ignore people with briefcases stealing millions and millions of dollars in the form of the S&Ls, when you pretend that Iran-Contra really didn't happen, you are encouraging people to do anything they want to do as long as it benefits them."

USA Today reporter Richard Wolfblamed it all on a four year old television ad: "We mentioned Willie Horton earlier. That kind of ad obviously plays into this whole situation. When you have such a calculus going on in the political community about how to set one group against another, you can actually exacerbate racist feelings."

"What effect did the Reagan-Bush, then the Bush years, have on the lives of black Americans?" Peter Jennings asked on May 4. "It won't be easy for the Democrats to argue that it's simply a matter of spending the right amount of money," he added, but the following stories did just that. Using numbers from the liberal Center for Budget & Policy Priorities, Rebecca Chase argued that during the 1980s "While the numbers on welfare increased, the value of the assistance fell by more than 30 percent. During the same time, other federal spending in the cities also dropped. Subsidized housing fell 82 percent. Job training, 63 percent. And programs to develop new business, down 40 percent."

Next, George Strait charged: "In the last ten years, federal and state budget cuts have caused the whole medical infrastructure in America's inner cities to become unraveled. There are fewer dollars for immunizations; fewer hospitals, fewer clinics, fewer doctors, and fewer blacks have health insurance."

ABC failed to consider the argument that welfare spending has encouraged dependency. As to ABC's claims, The Washington Post noted on May 6 that federal spending on income security programs has jumped in constant 1991 dollars from $125 billion in the late 1970s to nearly $175 billion this year. Spending on immunization programs have grown from $32 million in 1980 to $186 million in 1990. And in the '80s, the percent of black families with real incomes over $50,000 jumped from 8.2 to 13.2 percent, while those under $15,000 fell from 40 to 38 percent.

What legacy will the media assign to the L.A. rioting? Well, on the May 6 Today, Katie Couric asked Pat Buchanan: "Many are afraid the L.A. riots are going to be the 'Willie Horton' of this campaign. Are you afraid they're going to have a very divisive effect? Does that concern you or are you playing that up?"

Clift demanded more spending: "We ought to pay attention to people that we have neglected through a dozen years of Repub-lican policies that have ignored the domestic agenda."

How about considering individual responsibility? During ABC's 20/20, Hugh Downs insisted: "We should avoid focusing exclusively on the rage and inappropriate behavior of oppressed and frustrated people who started these riots."

Finally, Bill Blakemore charged: "In a recent study, 44 percent of urban school buildings were judged simply too old and many of those have had virtually no maintenance since 1981. Between $100 and 160 billion would be needed just to bring school buildings up to minimum standards."

"President Bush does not have a great track record with many black Americans, beginning with the use of the controversial Willie Horton ads in the '88 presidential campaign through his initial veto of civil rights legislation. Mr. Bush will have to go a long way to convince skeptical blacks that he is concerned about the way America's criminal justice system treats them."

Gumbel: "During the 80s nobody even talked about it. It was like everything was fine. If we shut up, it would all go away."

"We live in a country where inner cities are increasingly black and Hispanic, where suburbs are increasingly white. Two Americas, each afraid and hostile to the other. So, it's not a big surprise that the jury in suburban Simi Valley sided with the white policemen, just as it's no surprise that the blacks in downtown Los Angeles rioted." Chancellor then identified the culprits.

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