MediaWatch: November 1992

Janet Cooke Award: CBS Reporter Eric Engberg, Running on Empty

WILLIE HORTON HILARITY

Willie Horton still haunts the national media. Soon after George Bush was elected, network reporters began routinely showing an ad with Horton's face, falsely labeling the commercial a "Bush ad." (Bush ads never featured Horton's name or picture.) But none of the networks came forward and made the explicit charge that the independent expenditure campaigns (like the National Security PAC) were working hand in glove with the Bush campaign. That is, until CBS reporter Eric Engberg's October 14 report. For coming up with nothing more than silly innuendo, Engberg wins the Janet Cooke Award.

Dan Rather introduced the CBS Evening News story: "CBS News has learned that a major congressional probe of possible illegalities is under way...Eric Engberg has spent six months independently looking into this case."

Engberg began: "It was the most racially charged, divisive TV ad in the history of presidential campaigns. It worked. The Willie Horton commercial of 1988, blaming Michael Dukakis for a black criminal's attack on a white couple, gave George Bush a big shove toward victory. But the Horton ad also raised questions about racism and dirty politics that still haunt the electoral process like a ghost."

This is the media gospel -- that Bush won by "appealing to racial fears." But Washington Post pollster Richard Morin questioned that worn theory in a September 27 Sunday "Outlook" section article, citing "substantial evidence [negative ads] didn't work four years ago. Bush's poll numbers in 1988 didn't budge during or after the Willie Horton ad controversy." Morin even quoted Clinton consultant Samuel Popkin: "There is no credible evidence showing that the Horton ad or the Boston Harbor ad affected the vote at all."

Engberg continued: "The President and his campaign officials have always denied any involvement with the ad, which was produced by a legally independent committee. But CBS News has discovered new links between that committee and the Bush organization which throw those blanket denials into question. There is also evidence that federal laws may have been violated. A congressional committee is now investigating what it calls serious allegations that financial disclosure and reporting requirements that might have exposed Bush links to the Horton ad makers were conveniently ignored."

Engberg told how Candace Strother, a "shadowy political intelligence operative," coordinated anti-Dukakis research at the Republican National Committee, and how she may have broken federal election law by contacting Elizabeth Fediay, the head of National Security PAC. Claimed Engberg: "When the Federal Election Commission conducted a limited investigation into that ad last year, Fediay's TV producer said a key source he used to write the ad was newspaper clippings he believed were obtained at the Library of Congress. But a check by CBS News revealed that one of the principal sources he listed, a newspaper from Massachusetts, was not available at the Library of Congress. There was one place in Washington where the clippings from that newspaper were readily available: the Bush campaign files."

How on earth could Engberg suggest that the only place the Horton story could be found in 1988 was the Bush campaign? Al Gore first raised the furlough issue in April. Then the largest-circulation magazine in the world, Reader's Digest, did its own Horton story in July. In fact, conservatives were distributing the Pulitzer- Prize winning Lawrence Eagle-Tribune series on Horton all over the country.

Engberg's "investigation" devolved into gossip: "Was there any connection? Someone thought so. A memo from the FEC's General Counsel, Lawrence M. Noble, details a tip he received from an anonymous caller claiming to be a GOP insider. The caller said: 'Candace Strother gave the material and information gathered on Willie Horton to Lily Fediay so the Bush campaign would not be connected to a racist ad.'" CBS has skewered the Bush campaign for raising questions about unsubstantiated charges, so why did Engberg report this anonymous tip without any proof?

Near the end of the story, Engberg asserted: "The committee is reportedly investigating charges Strother has received preferential treatment in a $100,000 a year job that didn't exist before she got it. The FEC never followed up on the report of the secret link between the Horton ad makers and the Bush campaign. The congressional investigators, with a second chance, appear to have a troubling new question on their agenda: Did the administration use a high-paying job on the federal payroll to make sure that the true story of Willie Horton would never be told?"

Again, for all his investigation, Engberg left only innuendo -- and a glaring double standard. For if CBS were really concerned with the spectacle of a woman getting a government job to hush up a scandal, why wouldn't they investigate how Gennifer Flowers suspiciously received a state government job in Arkansas, causing a promotion to be wrongfully denied to Charlette Perry, a black state employee? The taped evidence of Clinton's involvement in Flowers' employment (including his telling her to lie about his role in it) is arguably more concrete than Engberg's story.

When MediaWatch's Tim Graham asked Engberg if he would answer a few questions, this exchange ensued:

Engberg: "Well, if you can answer a couple of questions for me. Why should I spend one minute with a political, propagandistic rag like yours, number one? Number two, did Brent Bozell tell you to call?"

MediaWatch: "No, it's just the usual practice."

Engberg: "Oh, it is? Because, you know, you've got a real conflict of interest with Bozell on this. He was involved with the Willie Horton ad."

MediaWatch: "You're right."

Engberg: "So I was just kind of wondering whether maybe he's trying to figure out what I know about him."

MediaWatch: "Well, no. I was not put up to this. We just selected this..."

Engberg: "Oh, you don't work for Bozell?"

MediaWatch: "Yes I do."

Engberg: "Tell you what. You tell Bozell if he will call me and tell me the truth about the Willie Horton ad, I'll answer your questions. How's that for a deal?"

Engberg hung up. In his role as head of a PAC, MediaWatch Publisher Brent Bozell did produce a 1988 ad featuring Willie Horton. Bozell's ad had nothing to do with the National Security PAC, a fact one hopes even Engberg has learned. But in Engberg's story, facts weren't as important as conspiratorial whispers, a brand of journalism that's less solid investigative work than sensationalism worthy of Geraldo.

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