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
Eye on School Choice
In an April 13 "Eye on America" segment, CBS reporter Wyatt Andrews explained the predicament of inner-city parents locked in a fight against school bureaucracies: "Like thousands of parents who find the public school lacking, the Jenkins want school choice, the system where parents get publicly funded vouchers to send their kids to private schools. What's unique is that the Jenkins are part of a wave of recent lawsuits in which poor, inner-city parents are suing to get their money out of the school system."
Andrews detailed the desolation of urban schools that has caused parental action: "These inner-city parents are arguing that even after years of attempted reform, these inner-city public schools are still hopeless, that many of them are unsafe, that most eighth graders still don't read at grade level, and that the dropout rates are horrific."
The segment also showed the reaction school choice receives from both sides: the education bureaucrats with their predictions that vouchers will destroy the public schools, and the parents who responded, "All this foolishness about it's going to destroy the public schools. The school system is already destroyed." Pointing out the hypocrisy of some who oppose school choice, Andrews noted: "In this era where President Clinton himself has kept his child out of public schools, the Jenkins will now ask the Illinois Supreme Court to declare it is their civil right to do the same."
Where the Jobs Are
Economics reporter Robert Krulwich answered a question many reporters are asking: Why isn't the economy creating more jobs? On the April 1 CBS This Morning he answered: It's the government, stupid.
Krulwich first suggested mandated benefits might be to blame: "Hiring new workers is expensive...If you hire a worker, like this yarn worker here, and you pay him $25,000 a year, after you've added in the standard benefit package -- Social Security, unemployment insurance, workman's comp, state training, retirement benefits, paid vacations, sick days, parental leave, and health -- this worker costs the boss $35,000. That's 40 percent more than his salary." But he concluded: "Benefits have been expensive for years and bosses have kept hiring people so something else is going on."
Krulwich then zeroed in on a big fear of business owners -- possible new taxes. "Bosses are watching the President and asking themselves, `What's going to happen when Clinton's plan goes through?' There's so many costs coming their way."
Krulwich pointed out "Clinton is proposing: higher corporate taxes, higher income taxes, higher energy taxes, higher minimum wage, higher working training costs, probably higher payroll taxes for health. When you look at this list what would you do if you were a boss? Logic says you wait, right? ...That is exactly what bosses are doing all over the country."
