MediaWatch: November 1993

NewsBites: Time Off Course

Time Off Course. Time's "Health Report" found "Good News" for Americans in "The Week" section October 18: "The number of measles cases in the US plummeted from 27,786 in 1990 to just 2,237 last year. Apparently the epidemic that raged through the preschool population after President Reagan cut funds for immunization has finally run its course." The bad news for Time? The Centers for Disease Control told MediaWatch spending rose from $32 million in 1980 to $186 million in 1990 and by 1992, it was up to $257 million. Maybe rewriting the Reagan years, like Time and other media have done, will eventually "run its course."

No Fuss Over Russ. Former House Sergeant of Arms Jack Russ, the man who ran the now-defunct House bank, agreed to plead guilty to three felony counts in October, including one for embezzling more than $75,000 from the bank. CNN's Inside Politics and the PBS MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour reported this story on October 5, as did the October 6 Washington Post. But ABC, CBS, and NBC failed to report this latest development at all.

Why such scant coverage? Perhaps reporters were a bit embarrassed. In 1992 several dismissed the scandal's significance.

"Since nothing illegal was done, no interest was gained, no taxpayers' dollars spent, do you think this issue is being overblown?" asked Bryant Gumbel of House Speaker Tom Foley on the March 13, 1992 Today. "It has no merit as a really good scandal. There's no public money involved. It was a lousily run bank and that's stupid and probably someone should pay for that, but it's not major," said National Public Radio's Nina Totenberg on the March 14, 1992 Inside Washington. Finally, in the April 17, 1992 Washington Post, reporter Guy Gugliotta declared: "None of this was anyone's fault." Well it now seems something illegal was done, it was major, and it was someone's fault, yet no one would know it from ABC, CBS or NBC coverage.

Phillips' Foreign Favorites. In the weeks following the unveiling of President Clinton's health care reform package, CBS reporter Mark Phillips boarded the foreign-is-better bandwagon. Phillips began his September 29 Evening News report on British health care with a compliment: "In a London apartment the other night was what the Clintons might consider a health care reformer's dream scene: Esther Ward in labor, in her own home, two midwives in attendance, no doctors. It may seem basic, even primitive, but it seems to work." It works, Phillips reasoned, because in Britain, "Births cost less than half what they do in the U.S. and the families pay nothing directly....And in the end, who can argue with success? Statistically, the success rate, measured in pregnancies ending in healthy babies, is actually higher in Britain than in the U.S."

While linking the prevalence of healthy babies in Britain to the reduction in doctor's services, Phillips also characterized Sweden's socialized system as a model for American reformers. In an October 12 report, Phillips asserted, "U.S. costs have continued to skyrocket, while those free-spending, socialized- medicine Swedes have actually gotten their costs to go down." He then went on to describe the Swedish cost cutting mechanisms: increased freedom in choosing doctors, and competition among hospitals. Phillips paradoxically noted, "It's amazing how a little financial incentive can make a system work." Trumpeting such amazing socialist ingenuity, Phillips never mentioned the word capitalism or phrases like "market solutions."

Country in Crisis? The "award-winning reporters of The New York Times" set out to tell Americans "what might -- or might not -- be done to fix a health care industry on the brink of collapse." In the book Solving America's Health Care Crisis: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Your Family's Economic Security, the Times compiled an analysis of health care from several reporters. Chapter titles in the book, edited by Erik Eckholm, a member of the Carter State Department team, include: "The Spreading Insecurity," "Inner City Meltdown," "Japan: Cradle to Grave, No Frills," and "Hawaii: It Can Be Done."

Several of the contributing reporters looked to other countries which, the Times said "handle health care better than we do." A prime example -- the chapter "Canada: Care and Compromise." Reporter Elisabeth Rosenthal told the story of Len Quesnelle, "a beneficiary of one of the world's most comprehensive health insurance programs, the Canadian national health plan, which uses tax money to provide medical care to everyone at no charge." In 1989 Mr. Quesnelle had a heart attack and in 1991 he had a triple bypass. "During his eighteen month ordeal [he] often had to wait weeks for tests and treatment, and he almost had a second heart attack in the three month wait for his surgery. Such delays, typical in Canada for certain costly procedures, would be considered imprudent, if not malpractice, in the United States."

Instead of viewing this as an intolerable problem, Rosenthal praised the system. Immediately after telling Quesnelle's story she wrote: "At a time when some thirty-seven million Americans lack insurance, the Canadian health care system serves as a taunting reminder that with a few compromises it is possible to provide quality care for everyone, and for less money. In Canada there are few machines to blast apart kidney stones, but no women go without prenatal care. There is no Mayo Clinic, but there are also no emergency rooms teeming with people who cannot afford a family doctor." Maybe Rosenthal should question which country is in "crisis."

Missed MacKinnon Opportunities. Radical feminist Catharine MacKinnon's new book, Only Words, describes her view of women's lives: "You grow up and with your father holding you down and covering your mouth so another man can make a horrible searing pain between your legs. When you are older, your husband ties you to the bed and drips hot wax on your nipples and brings in other men to watch and makes you smile through it." She suggested some doctors may "enjoy watching and inflicting pain during childbirth" and that sexual harassment "begins in your family."

In an October 18 New Republic book review, Judge Richard A. Posner pointed out MacKinnon also wrote that pornography oppresses women, so it is a bigger danger than communism because "pornography [is] more than mere words, while the words of communism are only words." But the media have elevated her to the "mainstream." She served as a commentator for NBC during the Thomas-Hill hearings and Peter Jennings praised her "dedication to laws which serve men and women equally" in naming her "Person of the Week" in October 1991.

She recently appeared on the October 6 CBS This Morning. Co-host Paula Zahn dwelled on informational questions such as "Why do you think porno and hate propaganda are a violation of our civil rights?" Like most MacKinnon interviews, it didn't delve into her real beliefs. Concluding the interview, Zahn wondered: "Why do you think so many people find your views so radical?"

Needing Soviet History 101. Boris Yeltsin's use of force in response to the communist coup in Moscow provoked indignation among some in the media, who compared the level of violence to that of 1917, but ignored the grim historical record of successive Soviet regimes. NBC reporter Dennis Murphy vastly overstated Yeltsin's crackdown on the October 9 Nightly News: "President Boris Yeltsin...is conducting an old-fashioned Russian purge of his opponents. Jailed, hustled out of town, censored, Soviet institutions dissolved." To bolster his claims, Murphy showed political analyst Andrei Kortunov, who predicted "more authoritarian trends in the near future." The day before, Paula Zahn declared on CBS This Morning that "Moscow went through its worst violence since the Russian Revolution, 76 years ago."

While Yeltsin responded to an armed uprising aimed at derailing democracy, both Murphy and Zahn seem to have forgotten the "old- fashioned" purges which Joseph Stalin orchestrated on a massive scale. In his 1990 book, The Great Terror: A Re-Assessment, historian Robert Conquest estimated from recently released Soviet figures that between January 1937 and December 1938, 8 million Soviet citizens were arrested, of which 1 million were executed, and 2 million died in camps. "On a single day, December 12, 1938," wrote historian Alan Bullock in Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, "Stalin and Molotov sanctioned the execution of no fewer than 3,167 prisoners."

Smolowe's (Sarcasm!) While many parents are concerned with the abysmal state of education, Time Associate Editor Jill Smolowe mocked attempts by religious conservatives to participate in local school boards in order to improve school curricula. In the November 1 issue, Smolowe asserted: "Ever since the religious right first began targeting local school board races in 1990, religious conservatives have monopolized many school agendas with challenges that say more about the parent's political and religious beliefs than their children's education. Should students be molded into `global citizens'? (Unpatriotic!) Should Halloween displays in classrooms feature witches? (Paganism!) Should kids be instructed to take a deep breath before an exam? (New Age religion!) Should classes hold mock elections? (Usurpation of parental authority!)"

Although liberal teachers' unions and bureaucrats have monopolized and politicized public schools curricula for years, Smolowe portrayed conservatives as the real enemy. She accepted the status quo without question, and ridiculed opposition. "Teachers in districts where the religious right has gained a strong voice complain that politicking and endless debate over curriculum impede their work. In Xenia, Ohio, two religious conservatives tie up meetings with arguments against self-esteem programs (Weakens respect for parents!) and sex education (Undermines abstinence!)" Her sarcasm did not extend to her sources, such as when she called People for the American Way "an anti-censorship watchdog group." (Leftists!)

Ginsburg vs. Thomas. Supreme Court reporters began the new term comparing Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas. On October 8, Los Angeles Times reporter David Savage wrote: "Ginsburg has emerged as the new star on the bench....Ginsburg's snappy style and impressive grasp of the legal complexities stands in sharp contrast to virtually all other newcomers to the court." Savage added: "Ginsburg's performance contrasts vividly to that of Justice Clarence Thomas, the justice who preceded her to the court. Thomas rarely participates in the arguments. Now beginning his third year on the bench, Thomas usually rocks back in his chair and seemingly pays little attention to the arguments. In three days on the bench this week, he did not ask a single question. While Ginsburg quizzed the lawyers in the mine safety case, Thomas rubbed his eyes often and gazed at the ornate ceiling."

On October 13, The Washington Post's Joan Biskupic wrote: "But as is his way in most court hearings, Thomas leaned back in his chair, often looking up at the ceiling, his demeanor distant." On the same day's CBS This Morning, Eric Engberg noted: "Yesterday Ginsburg took part in a spirited legal discussion while Thomas sat impassively, occasionally scribbling notes, saying nothing."

If reporters had cared about the behavior of justices at oral arguments before now, they might have explained how Thurgood Marshall was inattentive and hard of hearing. They didn't. But in his book Turning Right, Savage wrote Marshall "was in the view of many law experts, the greatest American lawyer of the twentieth century."

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