MediaWatch: May 1995
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: May 1995
- Network News Dominated by Arguements and Soundbites Against the GOP Contract
- NewsBites: Brownout
- Revolving Door: Burke's Back
- McVeigh: Newt's Protege?
- Hosts Blamed For Bombing
- Welfare Reform Ripoff
- Today Sounds Like Talk Radio?
- Janet Cooke Award: Sticking Up for Regulatory Overkill
Hosts Blamed For Bombing
Blasting Talk Radio
Even before President Clinton criticized radio talk shows, reporters had targeted hosts for culpability in the April 19 Oklahoma bombing. Just four days later, on the April 23 Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer asked White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta: "There's been a lot of anti-government rhetoric, it comes over talk radio, it comes from various quarters. Do you think that somehow has led these people to commit this act? Do they feed on that kind of rhetoric?"
When Clinton articulated his criticism the next day, ABC's Peter Jennings surmised "he clearly had the words of many ultra- conservative talk radio hosts in mind." Jackie Judd then showed excerpts of "anger and fingerpointing" on shows before concluding that "President Clinton's plea to lower the volume seemed lost today in all of the cross talk."
On April 25, Today's Bryant Gumbel slyly noted that "while no one's suggesting right-wing radio jocks approve of violence, the extent to which their approach fosters violence is being questioned by many observers, including the President."
Two papers weighed in. In a Washington Post column that morning, political reporter David Broder was more specific: "The bombing shows how dangerous it really is to inflame twisted minds with statements that suggest political opponents are enemies. For two years, Rush Limbaugh described this nation as `America Held Hostage' to the policies of the liberal Democrats, as if the duly elected President and Congress were equivalent to the regime in Tehran. I think there will be less tolerance and fewer cheers for that kind of rhetoric."
In an April 26 front page Los Angeles Times "news analysis," Nina Easton declared: "The Oklahoma City attack on federal workers and their children also alters the once-easy dynamic between charismatic talk show host and adoring audience. Hosts who routinely espouse the same anti-government themes as the militia movement now must walk a fine line between inspiring their audience -- and inciting the most radical among them."
Time's Richard Lacayo added in the May 8 issue: "In a nation that has entertained and appalled itself for years with hot talk on the radio and the campaign trail, the inflamed rhetoric of the '90s is suddenly an unindicted co-conspirator in the blast."
