MediaWatch: May 4, 1998
Table of Contents:
NewsBites
Exemptions for Al Gore. When it came to spending the
taxpayer's money Al Gore was among the Senate's most generous,
but when it came to donating his own cash the Vice President
was less charitable. While the weekend TV talk shows were
abuzz, ABC and CBS morning and evening newscasts remained mum.
NBC's David Gregory highlighted the hypocrisy on the April 16 Today show:
"Al Gore and his wife Tipper are no grinches when it comes to
giving of themselves. Touring tornado damage, building homes for the
poor, feeding the homeless. But when it comes to giving their
money 1997 was a down year. A single line in the Vice
President's 1997 income tax return says the Gores gave $353 to
charity. $353 out of an income of nearly $200,000. That's less
than they spent for example on pest control, $389, and it's
raising some eyebrows." NBC Nightly News also aired a story the next night, as did CNN.
Burton Bashing.
When House Government Operations Committee Chairman Dan Burton
(R-Ind.) called Bill Clinton a "scumbag" in an Indianapolis
newspaper interview session, both ABC and NBC reported it and
liberal ranking member Henry Waxman's shocked reaction to it.
On April 23, Today's Ann
Curry introduced a Gwen Ifill story on Burton's comments: "The
Congressman who heads the House committee investigating
campaign financing is in trouble. This after some remarks he
made about President Clinton...It's not the most dignified way to
describe a fellow lawmaker."
ABC's Asha Blake introduced a Good Morning America
story the same morning: "A controversy has erupted over some
unusually caustic comments made by a top Republican about
President Clinton....Ann, things appear to be getting
personal." Ann Compton reported: "Such personal name-calling is
forbidden on the floor of the House, where the President's
defenders called Burton's words outrageous and vile."
But last December, when committee member Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) compared
Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz forgetting to mention that he
is a Republican to Kurt Waldheim, who "conveniently forgot
several years when he was a Nazi," not one of the broadcast
networks touched it.
Math Problems. In April,
the Senate took up a Republican proposal for tax-free education
savings accounts, and TV reporters took up class-baiting.
CBS's Dan Rather didn't even give the Republican side on the
April 21 Evening News: "President Clinton today attacked
a Republican proposal in Congress. This Republican proposal would let
people set up education savings accounts that earn tax free
interest. The President said this GOP version benefits the rich
and private schools at the expense of already decaying public
schools."
On CNN's The World Today April 22, anchor
Martin Savidge noted the GOP plan, but endorsed the Democrats'
worry that "tax breaks for private tuition would benefit the
wealthy at the expense of public education. And Democrats have
numbers on their side. A Treasury Department report says 70
percent of the benefits would go to just the top 20 percent of
income earners." Savidge ignored the Heritage Foundation's
argument that "nearly 60 percent of the children whose families
qualify for these accounts are from households making less than
$50,000 a year."
These outlets neglected to mention that the
GOP program, (which allows families to deposit after-tax
income into interest-bearing savings accounts) is eligible only
to families making under $95,000 a year. Census Bureau figures
show the top 20 percent of income earners begins at $75,000.
So the only "rich, wealthy" folks referred to by CBS and CNN
are families earning from $75,000 to $95,000 a year.
Contrast
the media's reaction to the GOP plan to their response to
Clinton's own college tuition proposal, the education tax-credits
program known as HOPE scholarships. By the same Treasury Department
analysis CNN used to criticize the GOP, Clinton's HOPE plan also
unfairly benefited the top twenty percent of earners, since
even those making $100,000 a year were eligible. Network
mention? None.
