MediaWatch: September 1994
Table of Contents:
Reporters Side with Bill
When White House correspondents from the TV networks convened on CNN's Larry King Live on August 18 to discuss press coverage of President Clinton, three out of the four agreed Clinton was getting a raw deal. Why? CNN's Wolf Blitzer fingered the usual suspects: "I think they basically hate him, the elements of the extreme far right....They just don't like his position on gut issues as far as the far right in concerned."
ABC's maverick Brit Hume suggested most reporters basically side with Clinton's philosophy of governing: "There exists still a rather widespread feeling among reporters in this town that this President has set out to do the right thing, which they didn't feel about Ronald Reagan or George Bush, and that if he is able to accomplish even a fraction of this, there will be a tremendous round of applause from the media in this town."
CBS's Rita Braver disagreed: "I think most reporters think that there are problems in this country, such as the fact that more Americans are losing health care everyday, and the fact that crime continues to be a problem. And they're sympathetic to somebody figuring out a way to solve these problems. That doesn't necessarily mean they sign on to how he's going to do it."
Hume replied: "But to some, to many reporters, and it's why they're drawn to covering government, life is a series of problems to be solved by government. And all I'm saying about that is that, for an activist President, that sentiment redounds to his benefit."
NBC's Andrea Mitchell proved Hume's assessment: "He doesn't get credit for a lot of the good, positive things he's done. Somehow he's the opposite of Ronald Reagan. The message is not getting through... The economy is in better shape...He should be getting some credit for the economy."
Indeed, on Larry King Live August 3, Los Angeles Times Washington Bureau Chief Jack Nelson had argued: "I think we make too much of polls...the economy's doing well, he's accomplished a lot." Ted Koppel opened the August 16 Nightline: "He is receiving little or no credit for his accomplishments. He has after all, cut the deficit, slashed about a quarter of a million jobs out of the federal bureaucracy, presided over a strong economy with low inflation, and one would think, some points at least for boldness of vision on welfare and health care reform."
But how does Clinton's treatment compare to Reagan? As Ted J. Smith documented in his study The Vanishing Economy, as the economy boomed from 1982 to 1987, the number of TV economic stories dropped by two-thirds, and the negative tone intensified, from 4.9 negative stories per positive story in 1982-83 to 7 to 1 in 1986-87.
