MediaWatch: November 1993
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: November 1993
- Media Foundations Give Generously to Liberal Groups in the Bush Era
- NewsBites: Time Off Course
- Revolving Door:"Conservative" Advised Bill
- Reporters Knock GOP Campaigns, Puff Liberal Chances
- "Images Exact A Price"
- Adding Up Bush's Bills
- Local, NBC Reporters Involved
- Janet Cooke Award: CNN's Brooks Jackson Denounces RNC Ad On Clinton Plan as "Misleading" and "Wrong"
Adding Up Bush's Bills
While the networks rooted for their passage, ABC has discovered the costs of George Bush's legislative accomplishments. In an October 27 World News Tonight "American Agenda" report, Barry Serafin detailed the costs unfunded mandates impose on local governments: "A new survey finds just 10 federal mandates like the Clean Air Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act are costing cities $6.5 billion this year. Over the next five years, the cost will be $54 billion."
Serafin focused on the city of Columbus, Ohio: "Police say because of the Disability Act, they are not allowed to determine if an applicant is physically qualified until after a lengthy series of written exams and background checks. The extra cost -- $150,000 a year. Another example -- to prevent soil contamination, federal law requires that old underground fuel storage tanks be dug up and removed. That will cost $880,000 -- money that the city says could have been used to hire 24 additional firemen. Federal environmental laws alone cost every household here $856 a year."
Serafin allowed Rep. Henry Waxman to defend unfunded mandates before concluding with Sen. Dirk Kempthorne: "if laws are important enough to enact, he says, they should be important enough to pay for."
Roberts on Robbery
Rampant fraud and theft in U.S. embassies sparked an investigation by Deborah Roberts. On the October 26 Dateline NBC she announced: "Some embassy officials are getting perks the State Department never dreamed of....hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and property are simply disappearing from U.S. embassies every year." Roberts explained: "Take Grenada, where the American embassy has six cars. Trouble is, there are only three U.S. officials there...in Panama, big-ticket items got away, like air conditioners and safes, $90,000 worth of property hasn't been seen for three years."
Roberts also reported the State Department's lack of interest in catching the thieves: "Remember all that missing property in Panama? Part of it was a $3,000 dining room table set which later turned up in the Virginia home of one of the embassy officials. He even charged the government four thousand dollars to ship it there." As for the thief, Roberts revealed: "The government took back the dining set, and the State Department told us the officer was disciplined, but he kept his job."
