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
Janet Cooke Award: Mainstreaming the Million Man March
When it comes to left-wing protest marches, the networks often prefer public relations to reality. The marches are "mainstreamed" -- purged of extreme rhetoric, hate speech, and other public opinion-crashing embarrassments.
For example, two January 1991 marches against the Gulf War featured flag-burning and cheering for Iraq, but the networks aired average Americans speaking in moderate tones. ABC producer Juliet Cassone admitted to MediaWatch: "We were looking for mainstream demonstrators."
If Americans followed the October 16 "Million Man March" on C-SPAN, they would have seen the whole picture -- inspirational calls to self-reliance, fatherhood and community service, as well as angry attacks on whites and Jews and bizarre numerology theories. For ignoring the extremism and hate speech of Farrakhan's march, a dramatic contrast from its coverage of conservative events, ABC's World News Tonight earned the Janet Cooke Award.
Littered among the positive messages from the podium were negative ones. A young girl ended a Farrakhan-amended poem by calling blacks "God's divine race." Greenpeace's Damu Smith blamed "rich white men in power" for "wreaking havoc on our community," including "rolling back voting rights" and "putting toxic waste in our communities." Former U.S. Rep. Gus Savage (D-Ill.) declared: "Blacks should atone not for our anger, but for not being angry enough at the growing racism and incipient fascism of white America. We should atone for not developing more political independence, more cultural identity, and more control of our economy, in defiance of white power, in defiance of Jewish influence....White dreams have crippled many black children and white values have maimed many black families because the selfishness and greed of whites do not serve us well."
Then there was the hours-long address by Louis Farrakhan. Among his remarks: "In the middle of the mall is the Washington Monument, 555 feet high. But if we put a one in front of that 555 feet we get 1555, the year that our first fathers landed on the shores of Jamestown, Virginia as slaves. In the background is the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials. Each of these monuments is 19 feet high. Abraham Lincoln is the 16th President. Thomas Jefferson is the 3rd President. And 16 and 3 makes 19 again." These were a few of Farrakhan's errors: the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials are much higher than 19 feet, and the first blacks arrived at Jamestown in 1619.
Farrakhan also claimed God told him to organize the march: "There is no prophet of God written of in the Bible that did not have a defect in its character. But I have never heard any member of the faith of Judaism separate David from the Psalms because of what happened in David's life, and you never separated Solomon from the building of the temple because they say he had a thousand concubines, and you never separated any of the great servants of God, so today, whether you like it or not, God brought the idea through me."
How would ABC have covered Pat Buchanan decrying "Jewish influence" or Pat Robertson claiming he was selected by God? After Buchanan's 1992 GOP convention speech, Jennings immediately suggested: "Took a number of shots at Hillary Clinton. Didn't get that altogether accurate, but that'll come out in the debate as time goes on." ABC's Prime Time Live investigated Pat Robertson's finances last October. By contrast, ABC didn't fact-check Farrakhan's address, or investigate his financial empire (documented last March by the Chicago Tribune), including $5 million from Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.
In devoting almost the entire October 16 World News Tonight to the march, Peter Jennings downplayed Farrakhan: "We begin here in Washington today with a massive demonstration of black togetherness that was much more, and perhaps much different, than its original speakers had intended...the hugely popular entertainer Stevie Wonder may have got this crowd's mood right when he said that this was bigger than any one leader." Minutes later, he repeated: "For most of the hundreds of thousands who came here today, the event far overshadowed the man who organized it." Jennings went on: "But Louis Farrakhan delivered the keynote address, if you can call it that, on the Mall this afternoon, and it made an enormous impression."
Reporter Ron Claiborne insisted: "The entire day was spiced with lavish praise for the Black Muslim leader, from the podium....praise from many in the crowd...But others insisted the occasion was more important that Farrakhan or any individual." Claiborne summarized that in a "sometimes rambling speech, Farrakhan urged black men to change their destructive behavior, behavior responsible for crime, drug abuse and broken families." ABC aired only Farrakhan calling for atonement and urging the audience to "join some church, synagogue, temple, or mosque that is teaching spiritual and moral uplift."
Jennings ended his show: "It would be astonishing if this public performance by Farrakhan were to end or even minimize the controversy which he inspires in the country as a whole, but it would be a terrible mistake not to recognize that here today he inspired many people, and in a broader sense, as one participant here after another has reaffirmed, this day, at this time and at this place, really did mean unity over division." That's odd, considering speakers like Gus Savage. Would ABC hail a march for white "unity" which disparaged blacks?
With the exception of President Clinton's cautious remarks, World News Tonight aired no one questioning Farrakhan in any of its nine stories. When asked by MediaWatch for comment, ABC spokesman Arnot Walker sent a transcript of a mid-afternoon breaking-news segment that included Farrakhan opponents Rep. Gary Franks (R-Conn.) and David Friedman of the Anti-Defamation League. Asked why he wouldn't answer questions about ABC's coverage, Walker replied: "Until you start reporting by unbiased standards -- maybe we'll talk to you someday."
During the march, Jennings claimed: "We will, as always, put our confidence in the Park Police." But when Farrakhan complained the "racist" U.S. Park Police crowd estimate of 400,000 was false, ABC News took the unprecedented step of hiring an "expert" to challenge the Park Police: Farouk El-Baz of Boston University, a geologist who analyzes aerial photographs. El-Baz had never counted a crowd before, but estimated there were 870,000 attendees, with a margin of error up to a million.
From October 19-27, World News Tonight and Good Morning America hyped their own number in 12 stories. In promoting the march and its hate-spewing leader, ABC acted more like a publicity arm of the Nation of Islam than an "objective" news source.
