MediaWatch: May 1992
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: May 1992
- Favoring "Abortion Rights"
- NewsBites: No Homeless Hype
- Revolving Door: Brown Bombast
- Looting a Rational Response to a Decade of Greed
- Blackmail and Intimidation of Sources: OK with PBS
- Actually Backed Thomas
- ABC and PBS Act as Co-Conspirators
- A Half Million Here?
- Janet Cooke Award: PBS on the October Surprise: Oops
Actually Backed Thomas
MISSING WOMEN
Democrat Lynn Yeakel's upset victory in the Pennsylvania Senate primary gave reporters another opportunity to insist that women are mad as hell over Anita Hill and aren't going to take a 98-percent male Senate anymore.
The morning after the election, USA Today reporter Judi Hasson wrote: "Yeakel now faces two-term Sen. Arlen Specter, who angered many women when he grilled Hill." Really? On the same morning, The New York Times reported that a state poll taken shortly after the hearings showed that 24 percent of the women said Specter's performance made them more likely to vote for Specter, while 23 percent said they were less likely.
In fact, polls showed more women supported than opposed Clarence Thomas. After the hearings, a USA Today survey found that 45 percent of women believed Thomas, while only 26 percent believed Hill; 55 percent of women wanted Thomas confirmed, compared to 29 percent who did not. But the night after the Yeakel win, CBS reporter Scott Pelley declared: "They are marked men, the Senators who confirmed Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court despite allegations of sexual harassment." Pelley left out that NOW didn't support any of the seven moderate GOP women running for the Senate in 1990.
Reporters should remember the 1990 example of Pennsylvania State Auditor Barbara Hafer, who lost to pro-life Democrat Bob Casey, 68 to 32 percent. The day after that gubernatorial election, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported: "Hafer's hoped-for support from abortion-rights activists hardly helped her cause...an ABC exit poll reported that 66 percent of female voters opted for Casey."
