MediaWatch: November 1996
Table of Contents:
The GOP Shutdown?
The networks had a ready answer for why Bob Dole lost, suggesting it happened because the public bought the Democratic spin that House Republicans were responsible for the government shutdown. Of course, the media kept repeating that Democratic spin in its own reporting, neglecting to mention that President Clinton refused to sign any budget resolution to keep the government operating. It started before the election. On the October 18 World News Tonight, ABC's Cokie Roberts relayed without challenge: "With the help of millions of dollars from organized labor, Democratic challengers constantly remind voters that these freshmen supported Newt Gingrich and that together they shut down the government."
In a roundtable on the November 3 This Week with David Brinkley, ABC's Sam Donaldson asked fellow panel member George Will: "Are you going to shut down the government again? Did that strategy work?" (Donaldson repeated himself on election night, saying Dole's loss wasn't his fault because Gingrich "helped engineer a shutdown" that "scared the country.") Looking back at the 1996 campaign on the November 4 This Morning, CBS's Bill Plante contemplated: "You think the campaign began here, at the Democrats' made for TV convention? No way. It really began with this year's State of the Union address. The President already knew he'd have no opponent in New Hampshire and the Republicans had just stumbled badly by shutting down the government."
The bias continued on election night. CNN's Bernard Shaw declared: "The Republican Party actually helped William Jefferson Clinton in that comeback, especially when they voted to shut down the Congress [sic]. The American people said they Republicans went too far. We did not send you to Washington to shut down the federal government." On the morning after the election, CBS This Morning anchor Troy Roberts theorized: "Often abrasive, Gingrich never mastered the fine art of compromise. Less than a year after he rode into Washington in triumph, he was on the defensive. His gambit to shut down the government over the budget backfired. Seizing the moment, President Clinton quickly became the voice of centrist reason."
