MediaWatch: October 19, 1998
Table of Contents:
NewsBites
Invisible Espy
As the first cabinet officer to go on
trial for corruption in office since the Harding
administration, one might conclude that Mike Espy warranted
some network attention. The former Agriculture Secretary stands
accused of accepting $35,000 in illegal gifts.
When the Espy trial began on October 1, only the Fox News Channel bothered to mention it that night with a full story by Rita Cosby. A five-day network drought of Espy coverage broke on October 6, when CNN’s Jim Moret discussed the explosive testimony of EPA Administrator Carol Browner. She said that Espy told her over drinks that new ethics rules were "a bunch of junk. I’m going to do like I did in Congress." Through the first two weeks of the Espy trial, ABC, CBS, and NBC ignored it.
Starr Fishing
Two networks jumped on an October 4 New York Times front page story to bolster Hillary Clinton’s "vast right wing conspiracy" charge.
On the October 4 World News Tonight, Mike von Fremd relayed the findings: "Starr says he first asked for permission to investigate the Lewinsky matter after learning about it from Linda Tripp. But The New York Times today reports that one of Starr’s lawyers was actually tipped off earlier by an attorney with ties to Paula Jones’ legal team. The Times says those lawyer are all members of a conservative legal organization called the Federalist Society that also found an attorney for Linda Tripp. This has given more ammunition to the First Lady’s claims that all of this is part of a vast right-wing conspiracy."
On his CNBC show Upfront Tonight, Geraldo Rivera wondered if "she were right about a conservative cabal plotting Clinton’s overthrow," insisting: "The finding raises the question of whether Mr. Starr lied, first to Janet Reno and later to Congress, when he claimed it was the phone call from Linda Tripp that triggered the request to expand the scope of this failed Whitewater investigation."
National Review’s October 5 Internet Update pointed out that some lawyers "helped Mrs. Tripp find a lawyer and conferred with Tripp’s friend Lucianne Goldberg about how to get her information to Starr. That’s it: basically, one phone call. Starr’s office did nothing about it."
NR added that the Times produced no proof to back up speculation that Starr’s office "could have been developing a strategy to persuade the Justice Department to expand the scope of the stalled Whitewater inquiry before the call from Mrs. Tripp." Perhaps most embarrassing, the Times claimed Starr helped with a friend-of-the-court brief in the Paula Jones case filed by the Independent Women’s Forum, even though the IWF never filed one.
A Life Sentence
A case of credit card fraud has been turned into the latest abortion battle, and on the October 8 CBS Evening News,
correspondent Diana Olick jumped into the fray. Olick opened:
"Locked inside this Ohio jail is a 21-year-old pregnant woman
who wants to have an abortion. Sitting inside this courthouse
is a judge who won’t let it happen." How? By sentencing the
woman to six months in prison.
Olick included a clip of her telephone interview with Yuriko Kawaguchi, who complained: "She did not give me the right to choose...she pretty much dehumanized me, she took away all my rights." Olick did allow Judge Patricia Cleary a chance to defend her position, saying she thought her sentence was charitable. As she closed her segment, Olick declared, "When Kawaguchi is released in about a month, she’ll be close to seven months pregnant, forced to have her child."
Olick clearly implied that Kawaguchi was only one month along in her pregnancy when sentenced to six months. In fact, AP reported she was already more than five months pregnant at the time of her October 6 sentencing, well into her second trimester. Although Olick never stated it aloud, an on-screen graphic suggested the full story, quoting the judge: "I’m saying she’s not having a second term abortion."
With credit for time served, Kawaguchi was only sentenced to two months. So, she really had plenty of time before sentencing to exercise her right to a first trimester abortion, a fact Olick chose to ignore.
