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
Janet Cooke Award: CNN's Ken Bode Throws Allegations At GOP Without Airing Response
"Politicized" Justice Department?
To take advantage of its all-day news schedule, CNN added a Special Assignment unit to prepare unique investigative reports. Unfortunately, some reports aren't unique or investigative, but long reports with the same faults as the other networks -- simplistic editorializations in ten minutes instead of two. Ken Bode's April 12 report was just such a failure, earning our Janet Cooke Award.
Bode selected an increasingly popular target, the Reagan and Bush Justice Departments: "For the last decade, the Justice Department was an ideological warehouse for conservative thinkers. At the same time, Justice became a political arm of the White House." Bode aired sound bites from Donald Ayer, a disgruntled former Justice official, and Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Bode explained: "The Department of Justice will always reflect the policy priorities of a President, but the Reagan-Bush Department went further, undermining laws the administration opposed."
Former Justice official Paul McNulty replied to MediaWatch: "What about the 1960s? Was the Johnson administration politicized because it 'undermined' racist laws? In the 1980s, we wanted to bring on reforms as well -- to correct oppressive regulation, restore a sounder reading of the Constitution, question discriminatory civil rights laws. Every administration is suppose to advocate policies in legislation and in judicial advocacy."
Bode never mentioned that the Clinton Justice Department is seeking to "undermine" the Federal Advisory Committee Act, declaring that Hillary Clinton is not a "non-government employee" so her task force can meet in secret. When asked about this contrast, Bode told MediaWatch: "There's nothing wrong with trying to change the laws. But in the last 12 years, when they lost a test, they went shopping for jurisdictions to try again, and in the meantime, refused to enforce the laws, saying a challenge was pending."
Bode caricatured the GOP record: "The Reagan-Bush agenda included a hard line on abortion, a rollback on civil rights -- trying to restore tax credits for segregated schools, for example -- also attempts to minimize affirmative action requirements." To explain this, Bode brought on liberal Ralph Neas of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. He aired no one defending Reagan policies.
As further proof of politicization, Bode argued: "On the notorious S&L scandal, there was tough talk, but lax enforcement. A government audit [by the General Accounting Office, an arm of Congress] now shows that two-thirds of those S&L cases have been dropped by federal prosecutors or the FBI. Of the 850 fines the government won for bank fraud, it has collected less than five percent."
Bode aired no one to defend the GOP record. "They never gave us a chance on that," former Bush Attorney General William Barr told MediaWatch. "The GAO privately acknowledged they had to come up with something negative [on the S&L prosecutions]. The reason it took so long was because every time they had a theory, it was shot down."
As to Bode's charge of lax enforcement, Barr responded: "We were prosecuting thousands of people in a very short time. We had a good record of convictions. Just because there's a criminal referral doesn't mean there's a criminal case." And the fines? "That's a red herring. The very nature of the fraud was either the dissipation of assets or puffing up the value of assets that they didn't have. The nature of the fraud was lack of value. So how do you collect?"
When asked why Barr and the other Attorneys General weren't in his story, Bode said Ed Meese and Richard Thornburgh were called, but Barr was not, "at least as far as I know," since Bode said a number of producers worked on the story. "I'll admit that it should have been done."
Bode's story also charged the Republicans with a racist pattern of prosecutions: "Another tactic which politicized Justice -- selective enforcement of the law. Democrats, and especially black mayors and Congressmen, believe they were targets of Republican U.S. Attorneys with political motives." Bode cited (and aired) Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, Rep. Floyd Flake, and even white Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards. Bode brought on none of the prosecutors or former Justice Department officials for the other side of this conspiracy theory.
When asked why, Bode explained that he did a major special report for CNN and even a special Larry King Live on the subject "two years ago, and I gave ample time for the other side to defend themselves." When MediaWatch suggested that a two-year-old story doesn't balance last night's news, Bode responded: "We had a lot of arguments about this [section on racist prosecutions]. Producers here thought it was too long. You thought it was too short."
MediaWatch also pointed out that black Rep. Harold Ford pressed the Clinton Justice Department to dismiss the jury in his case, which they did, causing a U.S. attorney to resign in protest. Bode explained "Harold Ford was left out of the story because the trial was coming to an end at that time and we didn't want to conflict with other news stories on that subject."
Paul McNulty told MediaWatch: "What's missing here is that decision-makers in these prosecutions are career people. The Justice Department has 95,000 employees. Only 135 are Washington-based political employees. Another 200 are U.S. Marshals or U.S. Attorneys. All the investigators are career FBI agents or career assistant U.S. attorneys."
Bode's story moved on to Clinton: "Clinton's first public office was Attorney General of Arkansas. He was aggressive, high- profile, populist...If the Justice Department will reflect President Clinton's policies, expect the new attorney general to be much stronger on civil rights enforcement, pay attention to environmental laws, support the rights of children, and a continued emphasis on crime and public safety." Bode aired no one taking issue with Clinton's years in Arkansas or his present policies.
Bode ended on a properly even-handed note, suggesting that Janet Reno's firing of 93 U.S. attorneys "raises suspicions that the Clinton administration is willing to put politics above enforcing the law." Bode let fired U.S. Attorney Jay Stephens charge politics were involved in taking him off the investigation of House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski. He also concluded that the Rostenkowski probe "has become a highly visible test of how political the Justice Department will be under Bill Clinton and Janet Reno." But Bode interviewed Reno and let her declare herself non-political in three soundbites. That's very unlike his treatment of Reagan-Bush officials, who were simply left out.
