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
Save Papers by Making Them Liberal
The New Muckraking
The Washington Post Magazine of April 18 contained Post media reporter Howard Kurtz's suggestions for improving America's newspapers -- by making them more liberal. Among recommendations in the excerpt from his new book, replacing conservatives with liberals: "Liberate the Op-Ed pages...we need to restrict the soporific lectures of Henry Kissinger and Jeane Kirkpatrick and throw open the gates to new, vibrant, even radical voices."
He complained, "we swarm like bees into an agency like HUD after the place has been looted, then buzz off in search of the next calamity." Instead, Kurtz advocated the press "set the agenda" and cited those sacred liberal cows: "the Pentagon's $640 toilet seat, or John Sununu's frequent flying" as evidence the press must "unearth things the authorities don't want the public to know."
Newspapers must "Turn the writers loose...when Maureen Dowd of The New York Times cast a spotlight on sexism in the Senate during the Clarence Thomas hearings, it was an event that had everyone buzzing." One October 1991 Dowd story contained quotes from eight angry feminists, but none from Thomas supporters. That would explain Kurtz's troubling conclusion that papers should: "Break the shackles of mindless objectivity...If that amounts to activist journalism, so be it." The problem is, too many papers have already taken Kurtz's advice.
