MediaWatch: May 1993
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: May 1993
- CBS Stands Apart from Other Networks In Promoting Clinton Stimulus
- NewsBites: Eleanor and Evidence
- Revolving Door: Stern Justice
- Networks Ignore Protest Platform, Explicit Sex Talk, and Hate Speech
- Today's Double Standard
- Eye on School Choice
- Save Papers by Making Them Liberal
- Janet Cooke Award: CNN's Ken Bode Throws Allegations At GOP Without Airing Response
Revolving Door: Stern Justice
Attorney General Janet Reno's choice to deliver her message to the public: Carl Stern, long-time NBC News Supreme Court and legal affairs reporter. In early April, Reno named Stern Director of Public Affairs, a position that does not require Senate confirmation. Stern's been with NBC News in Washington since 1967.
He should fit in well with the new Democratic administration. In 1988 Stern referred to William Brennan, Thurgood Marshall and Harry Blackmun as "liberal justices," but to Antonin Scalia as "ultra-conservative." When Bush nominated David Souter in 1990, Stern reported "Judge Souter's given high marks for intellect, but marks that are not so high for a rather narrow view of constitutional rights...there are a number of cases that some groups will regard as troubling, in the church-state area, in the women's rights area, in the age discrimination area, a certain insensitivity will certainly be explored at length in the Senate hearings."
Reprehensible Williams
As MediaWatch reported last month, former Bush Administration Defense Department spokesman Pete Williams joined NBC News just before Stern left. In true revolving door fashion, Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert (former counselor to Mario Cuomo) assigned Williams to cover Stern's old beat at the Justice Department.
NBC's hiring decision didn't sit well with Newsday TV critic Marvin Kitman. In a March 29 column, Kitman charged: "Williams was one of the architects of the most reprehensible press censorship policies we've ever had....He was a champion of those two Georges -- Bush and Orwell." A bit later, Kitman raved: "It's a natural fit in a way. Here is a network news division that has blown up a truck in a story that winds up making GM look innocent. And in one of its first public acts after drafting a list of reforms to restore its credibility, hires a man who was paid for seven years to lie to the public."
Still raving, Kitman concluded: "The oddest thing is that nobody batted an eyelash at the hiring announcement on March 18. The most reprehensible act of the decade, and nobody protests or even cares. The barbarians are in the gate, for Pete's sake."
MediaWatch called Kitman to ask whether he was similarly enraged when David Burke, Chief of Staff to Senator Ted Kennedy during Chappaquiddick, was named President of CBS News in 1988. Or when Tom Johnson, Deputy Press Secretary to Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam War, became President of CNN in 1990. Kitman's assistant said she didn't recall any such columns, but would pass along the message. Kitman did not call back.
White House Advancement
Anne Edwards, Director of the White House Television Office for Jimmy Carter, is back in the White House press office. She now oversees the press advance operation, making press arrangements for presidential trips.
Since her last trip through the White House gate she spent four years as a CBS News Washington bureau assignment editor, followed by a stint with the Mondale-Ferraro campaign. Mondale's loss sent her back to the media as a Senior Producer with National Public Radio. Last year she headed the Clinton-Gore campaign press advance operation.
