MediaWatch: November 1995
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: November 1995
- Chopping at the Competition
- NewsBites: Festering Foster
- Revolving Door: Gergen: Still a Clintonite
- Media vs. a Balanced Budget
- Gramm Should Die?
- The 800-Word Antidote
- Networks Ignore Foley, Gephardt Nipping at Newt...Again
- Janet Cooke Award: Mainstreaming the Million Man March
Chopping at the Competition
Even before the elections of 1994, some reporters were turning up the heat of accusation on talk radio. On November 4, CBS Evening News anchor Connie Chung complained: "There is a lot of anger in the air these days. If you have any doubt tune in to talk radio, where there's often more shouting than conversation." Reporter Richard Threl-keld proceeded to impugn talk radio as "a kind of air pollution as close as your car radio" which consists of "a daily dialogue of hate and anger."
Is this attack on the competition typical? MediaWatch reviewed ev-ery 1995 news story on political talk radio on four evening news shows (ABC's World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, CNN's World News, and NBC Nightly News). Stories with a disparity greater than 1.5 to 1 in the reporter's statements of one side or the other were categorized as pro- or anti-talk radio. Stories within the ratio were called neutral.
The MediaWatch study found that of the 22 stories in the time frame, negative stories aired about three times as often as positive ones: 14 were negative, five were positive, and three were neutral. ABC aired a neutral piece and two negative attacks after the Oklahoma City bombing. CBS was the most negative, with six negative stories to one positive, beating out NBC which had a ratio of three negative to one positive and one neutral. The most balance came from CNN with three positive, three negative, and one neutral story.
The study confirmed that Threlkeld represents how the networks portray the rise of talk radio: Not as a positive development which has provided a forum for many divergent voices, including those of conservatives who feel their views are ignored or disparaged by the networks, but as a divisive source of hate and negativity. On January 3 NBC's Bob Faw provided time for promoters and detractors, but did include this zinger: "The issue is whether what's going out over the airwaves here and elsewhere is fanning the flames, is making the situation worse, that talk radio is not democracy in action, but democracy gone amok."
That week a San Francisco station decided to replace its liberal hosts with conservatives, prompting negative stories from two networks. CNN's Rusty Dornin declared: "KSFO radio dumped its talk show mix last week and made a switch to the far right of the dial -- all attitude, all the time."
"It is not just Congress that is taking a sharp turn to the right. The surge to the right on Capitol Hill is making waves all over the country on openly politically partisan and sometimes racist radio," Dan Rather announced January 4. CBS reporter John Blackstone, equating conservatism with anger, then intoned: "Even San Francisco, famous for its left-wing sympathies, took a harder edge this week." Blackstone concluded with the discovery that the station wasn't conservative, just greedy: "Should Americans feel comforted or betrayed, knowing that at least some of those angry and committed voices on the air may be committed mainly to a dollar?"
Just two days later CNN's Bruce Morton allowed talk hosts to defend themselves, as he presented both sides: "Some say talk shows are America's newest political town meetings. Certainly they can influence issues, can produce floods of mail to congressional offices. Critics say truth is the first casualty on talk shows and that the hosts have an agenda."
January also brought the only upbeat CBS story, a look at positive audience reaction in Boston to libertarian-conservative host David Brudnoy's revelation that he has AIDS. But even that story drew this introduction from Dan Rather: "The hottest thing on the radio these days is the call-in talk show. Most of the hosts are self-described conservatives, what their opponents call reactionaries, and their topics are about what you might expect. Well, something quite unexpected happened on one of these programs, and perhaps the only thing more surprising than the host's revelation was the audience reaction."
The Oklahoma City tragedy led the President on April 24 to denounce "promoters of paranoia" on the "airwaves." Peter Jennings relayed: "Clinton did not say so specifically but he clearly had the words of many ultra-conservative talk radio hosts in mind. All you have to do is listen to some of them to hear how they react to those with whom they do not agree."
Jackie Judd blurred regular commercial hosts with shortwave broadcaster, Mark Koernke, whose violent rhetoric attracted Timothy McVeigh, the accused bomber. Judd summed up the medium: "On talk radio shows today across the country, it was a free-for-all of anger and fingerpointing. In Detroit, a caller actually claimed the administration benefited from all this...Talk show host G. Gordon Liddy advised listeners to shoot first and ask questions later...Liddy, one of radio's most militant hosts, said even in the
aftermath of Oklahoma, he has no responsibility to cool the rhetoric." Judd did not explain that Liddy meant shooting in self-defense.
Tom Brokaw said Clinton appeared to aim at "talk radio programs that cater to the far right of the political spectrum" and that talk had "achieved a machine gun reputation in recent years." NBC's positive story came on April 25, in which Ollie North, Rush Limbaugh and Phil Gramm were allowed to criticize Clinton's assertion.
A CBS promo featured G. Gordon Liddy: "The words are shocking... What he says may not be illegal, but is it dangerous? Has free speech gone too far? Hate radio under fire, and firing back -- the story tomorrow on the CBS Evening News." Introducing that story the next day with a visual that read "Hate Radio," Rather once again tainted an entire profession: "Even after Oklahoma City, you can turn on your radio in any city and still dial up hate talk: extremist, racist, and violent rhetoric from the hosts and those who call in. President Clinton, among others, suggests that all this violent talk risks encouraging violent action. But is there any law to stop them from pumping out that venom?" Anthony Mason concluded: "Many people are saying it's time to turn down the volume on talk radio."
When talk hosts convened in late June, CBS focused only on an award Liddy received. Rather began: "The big game is a convention of big mouths. They're all in a twitter about an award to one of their members. He's the former convicted Watergate felon who's now on the air promoting the shooting of government agents."
Reporting from the convention for CNN, Lisa Price discovered "Staight talk. Lively conversation. Talk radio and a rapidly growing nationwide audience." But that was the exception to the rule in 1995, as the networks were not disposed to see talk radio as just another way of informing the public in a democracy: they saw it as an enemy which must be discredited.
