MediaWatch: May 1997
Table of Contents:
Government Watchdogs' Spring Siesta
President Clinton's twisted knee may have caused him great pain, but the media effects were salutary. Scandal coverage was relatively intense in the wake of Al Gore's clumsy March 3 press conference until news of Clinton's injury came the night of March 11. Then in April, the Big Three coverage of new fundraising revelations lost all momentum with only CNN showing signs of staying with the emerging storyline.
MediaWatch analysts reviewed all March and April fundraising stories on the evening programs of ABC, CBS, CNN (The World Today), and NBC, as well as morning shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC.
Fully 75 percent of the Big Three's network fundraising reports in March came in the first 12 days. Those evening shows aired a combined 52 full reports and 20 anchor briefs in March, but 39 of those reports and 8 briefs came in the first 12 days. Matching what we found in February coverage, for a majority of broadcast days in March, ABC (19), CBS (14), and NBC (16) aired no evening story on the fundraising beat. CNN beat the other networks in intensity with 27 full reports and 25 anchor briefs. The morning shows aired 50 full segments and 46 anchor briefs but aired 37 of the segments and 36 briefs in the first 12 days. Combined, the morning shows had 48 days without a fundraising report.
In April, coverage dropped dramatically. The Big Three evening shows aired only 13 full reports and 6 anchor briefs. ABC led with nine reports and two briefs, CBS had three of each, and NBC just one of each. (Nonetheless, Tom Brokaw insisted in a May/June Columbia Journalism Review article on the softening of the NBC Nightly News: "There are no important stories we have missed.") The networks aired 71 evening newscasts without a fundraising story.
While CNN did more reports than the other three combined, their numbers fell to 17 full reports and 15 anchor briefs. The morning totals also plummeted, with 22 full segments and 14 briefs, adding up to a combined 72 mornings without a story.
That disinterest did not spread to Republican stories. When Democratic lobbyist Mark Siegel told The Washington Post in the March 19 edition that Rep. Dan Burton, Chairman of the House committee probing DNC fundraising, had "shaken him down" for $5,000 in donations from friends of Pakistan, all the networks aired full reports.
The networks leaped on the story of Newt Gingrich's $300,000 loan to reimburse the House ethics committee from Bob Dole. But when John and Alice Martin, the Florida Democratic activists who illegally taped and distributed a cellular phone call of Gingrich and other GOP leaders, agreed to plead guilty to wiretapping charges, the networks did nothing. Neglecting Democrats continues:
March 20: The Boston Globe reported: "On January 15, 1996, John Huang...received an extraordinary memo. It spelled out how to 'convert' Democrats to back favorable trade status for China. And, most mysteriously of all, it included a handwritten notation that the strategy was being discussed 'with the embassy,'" presumably the Chinese embassy. Network coverage? Zero.
March 21: USA Today explained the DNC may have to return another $200,000 in donations, as the paper had identified another 36 improper contributions: "In one case, a donor considered legitimate by Democratic auditors listed a used car lot as his home. In other cases, donors gave the address of a Buddhist temple as their address." Network coverage? Zero.
March 27: The Boston Globe wrote that Lebanese businessman Roger Tamraz "received support from Clinton for the general concept of his oil pipeline proposal in October 1995." Tamraz contributed $180,000. The Globe noted before its story "it has not been reported that Clinton announced support for a position sought by Tamraz after the businessman made his contributions." TV coverage? Zero.
March 30: The Boston Globe struck again with a Bob Hohler report that "27 corporations that sent executives on trade trips with the late Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown obtained part of a multi-billion-dollar commitment in federally guaranteed assistance from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation...what has previously gone unnoticed is the massive amount of OPIC support given to companies that traveled with Brown and donated money to the Democrats." Network coverage? Zero.
April 1: The Wall Street Journal broke a big story: "Charlie Yah Lin Trie, a central figure in the controversy over foreign contributions to the Democratic Party, received a series of substantial wire transfers in 1995 and 1996 from a bank operated by the Chinese government. The transfers from the New York office of the Bank of China, usually in increments of $50,000 or $100,000, came at a time when Mr. Trie was directing large donations to the Democratic National Committee." Network coverage? Nothing.
April 4: The New York Times discovered cocaine smuggler Jorge Cabrera "was asked for a campaign contribution in the unlikely locale of a hotel in Havana by a prominent Democratic fundraiser." When he returned to the U.S. days later, Cabrera gave $20,000 to the DNC from an account including proceeds from cocaine smuggling into America. Network coverage? Zero.
April 7: Developing further an April 3 USA Today story that Tipper Gore hosted a fundraiser that spurred a $25,000 donation from tobacco giant Philip Morris, CNN business reporter Kelli Arena announced "tobacco executives tell CNN Financial News they were solicited repeatedly by Democratic fundraisers. Two companies, R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris, complied when the national party told them to write their checks to state parties to avoid press scrutiny." On April 11 The Washington Postdeveloped the story further, noting the Democrats "channeled millions in contributions to state Democratic parties last year, effectively hiding contributions from tobacco, gambling and other special interests." Despite the networks' laser-beam focus on the tobacco industry, this scoop of Democratic hypocrisy got no story from ABC, CBS, and NBC.
April 8: The Washington Post reported the White House supplied "top-secret intelligence information to the Democratic National Committee to block a Latvian businessman with alleged ties to organized crime from attending a $250,000 fundraising dinner...The effort was successful, and the businessman, Grigori Loutchansky, who had been formally invited to attend the DNC fundraising dinner in 1995, was abruptly disinvited." Network coverage? Zero.
April 30: Attorney General Janet Reno faced a tough Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on why she failed to appoint an independent counsel in the fundraising scandal. But CBS and NBC devoted more time to Chelsea Clinton's college choice than Janet Reno's testimony. CBS gave Reno 19 seconds, NBC nothing.
