MediaWatch: November 1992
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: November 1992
- Selective Post-Debate Truth Squads
- NewsBites: Mandate for What?
- Revolving Door: Clinton's Network Help
- Networks Say "Extreme" GOP Convention at Fault
- Bush Loss is Reagan's Fault
- NBC's Ross Dogs Dems
- Simon's Sermons
- Janet Cooke Award: CBS Reporter Eric Engberg, Running on Empty
NBC's Ross Dogs Dems
While many in the media have worked to highlight GOP scandals, NBC's Brian Ross has stood out from the crowd by digging up details on the Democrats. On the October 9 Nightly News, Ross picked up on some hypocrisy by Al Gore: "Al Gore gets a lot of applause for his criticism of junk bonds...He even blamed junk bond dealers for President Bush's veto of the family leave bill."
Ross then noted: "But five years ago, when Gore was preparing to run for President, he received tens of thousands in campaign contributions from the junk bond industry." Ross pointed out that Gore got $20,000 from Thomas Spiegel, a junk bond dealer whose financial dealings helped bring down an S&L. Ross displayed a letter Gore wrote to Spiegel in which Gore praised Spiegel for his financial skills. Confronted by Ross, Gore downplayed his relationship with Spiegel (who has since been indicted for fraud), contradicting his own records.
Ross concluded: "There's no record that Gore took any official action in Congress to benefit junk bond dealers. And the junk bond industry gave similar contributions to dozens of other Democrats and Republicans. What makes the contributions to Gore noteworthy is that he's now campaigning for Vice President claiming he and Bill Clinton are different from all of the others."
Threlkeld's Clinton Cut
Richard Threlkeld of CBS was the only network reporter to dedicate a story to sorting out Clinton's middle-class tax cut proposals. On October 23, Threlkeld outlined the shift in emphasis from January, when "his [Clinton's] promise to cut taxes on the middle class by 10 percent was a big deal," to the Democratic convention, when "the tax cut wasn't 10 percent anymore" and "not such a big deal," to October, where "the middle class tax cut sort of got lost altogether."
Unlike many of his colleagues, who cite economic figures from liberal sources such as the Economic Policy Institute and Citizens for Tax Justice, Threlkeld balanced the Clinton campaign spin with a soundbite from Daniel Mitchell of the Heritage Foundation. Mitchell refuted Clinton's previously unchallenged claim that he could raise $150 billion from only the top 2 percent of taxpayers.
