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Congress Not Networks Examined; Wealthy Anti-Tax Cutters Promoted; Geraldo Rationalized Pardon; After Eight Years Media Find Scandal 1 On the NBC Nightly News Tom Brokaw featured self-serving soundbites from the executives with CBS News President Andrew Heyward avoiding any responsibility: "It took the nation, not the networks, the nation, five weeks to pick a President." NBC News President Andrew Lack urged the Congressman to "look at the problems that the voters experienced on election day. As a journalist I wish I had." Wednesday afternoon the three cable news networks switched live from Senate hearing on the Rich pardon to the House Commerce Committee hearing and stayed with it until 6pm ET on FNC and a bit longer on MSNBC and CNN, thus wiping out CNN's Inside Politics. Full stories on the hearing ran on FNC's Special Report with Brit Hume and Fox Report as well as on CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports and CNN Tonight. MSNBC's The News with Brian Williams featured a two-minute segment of soundbites set up by anchor Forrest Sawyer. Now some more on how the three broadcast network evening shows handled the February 14 hearing: -- ABC's World News Tonight. Peter Jennings plugged the upcoming story right at the top of the show before the lead story on the Rich pardon hearing: "Good evening. It was a busy day in the Congress. Our bosses, who run the network news divisions, got a going over for our mistakes on election night, and we'll get to that one in a minute..." Linda Douglass provided a full report, starting with clips from election night, including this one from Dan Rather which elicited chuckles in the room: "Sip it, savor it, cup it, photostat it, underline it in red, put it in the album, hang it on the wall, George Bush is the next President of the United States." Douglass ran soundbites of critical comments from a Democratic and a Republican Congressman as well as clips of ABC News President David Westin promising to insulate exit polling analysis from competitive pressure and NBC News President Andrew Lack arguing the flawed balloting system is the real story. She wrapped up by noting widespread interest in a uniform national voting time. -- CBS Evening News. Dan Rather read this 29-second item, sans any soundbites or anything critical of the networks, about 20 minutes into the show: "News executives were summoned before Congress today about errors the networks, including this one, made projecting the winner of the last presidential election and about changes they'll be making for future elections. The executives said the errors were not intentional, not politically motivated and in the case, especially of the Associated Press's Lou Boccardi, made clear the belief that under the First Amendment it is not the role of Congress to investigate news organizations. Some of the executives expressed support for the idea of a single, national poll closing time." -- NBC Nightly News. Tom Brokaw reviewed what
happened on election night and then got to the day's events: Viewers then saw four back-to-back soundbites, with
only the first in any way critical of the networks. The next two could be
categorized as self-serving comments which avoided the subject of the
hearing and the last was a bit of sucking up from the committee chairman: But that "self-evaluation" is just the area CBS and NBC avoided in their stories on the hearing.
During the 7am news update on the February 14 GMA news reader Antonio Mora, MRC analyst Jessica Anderson observed, announced: "President Bush's call to repeal the tax on large estates is reportedly under fire from some of America's richest people. The New York Times reports the group -- including Warren Buffett, David Rockefeller and Bill Gates's father -- is urging Congress not to repeal taxes on estates and gifts. They say repeal would enrich the heirs of billionaires, while hurting families who struggle to make ends meet." A few hours later on the NBC Nightly News Tom Brokaw publicized the effort: "A surprise for Washington policy makers in another area tonight: Some of America's wealthiest citizens and best known are launching a major campaign against eliminating the estate tax, the so-called death taxes that can keep a great deal of wealth from being passed on to their heirs. Why would they do that? NBC's David Gregory is at the White House tonight." Gregory actually provided a fairly balanced piece, starting with how the group claims too much inherited wealth is bad for the country. Gregory explained how the group is headed by Bill Gates Sr., father of Microsoft's Bill, who says the tax encourages charitable giving. After soundbites from Bill Senior and George Soros, Gregory took time to explain how Bush calls it unfair and believes it hurts small business owners trying to pass on the enterprises they have built. When your son is a lot wealthier than are you maybe you lack an appreciation for not having him lose half your estate to the government.
Both CBS's Bob Schieffer and NBC's Pete Williams emphasized how Clinton administration Justice Department pardon lawyer Roger Adams testified about getting a post-midnight call, in the early morning hours of January 20, in which he learned of the pardon for Rich and an associate. The two networks played a soundbite of how Adams recalled he was not told they were fugitives, just that "they had been living abroad for several years." ABC's Jackie Judd relayed the same quote but without a soundbite. To give you a flavor of the network coverage, here's how the three broadcast networks set up their February 14 evening shows stories, as transcribed by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth: -- ABC's World News Tonight. Peter Jennings began: "Good evening. It was a busy day in the Congress. Our bosses, who run the network news divisions, got a going over for our mistakes on election night, and we'll get to that one in a minute. Another committee is still investigating former President Clinton's last minute pardons, and we begin with that because there's a new development. The U.S. Attorney in New York City, Mary Jo White, has launched a criminal investigation. She wants to know whether Marc Rich, the billionaire fugitive, tried to buy the pardon that he got in the final hours before Mr. Clinton left the White House. ABC's Jackie Judd has been covering the Senate hearing today. Jackie, in the case of the New York Attorney, U.S. Attorney, does this mean Mr. Clinton himself might be called?" -- CBS Evening News. Dan Rather declared: "As for tonight's late-breaking political development in this country, the U.S. Attorney here in New York has launched an investigation into President Clinton's last minute pardon of Marc Rich, the fugitive financier. This could involve examination of bank, phone, and other records for any evidence that the pardon was bought. Basically, the Federal Attorney wants to follow the money. In Washington, the Republican-controlled Senate took testimony in its own investigation of the Rich case. CBS's Bob Schieffer has the latest on that." -- NBC Nightly News. Tom Brokaw announced at the top of the show: "Good evening. President Bush now thinks it's time to move on from that controversy about Bill Clinton's pardon of that wealthy fugitive Marc Rich, but congressional Republicans aren't ready to give up just yet. And today, reports the U.S. Attorney, whose office prosecuted Rich, will open her own investigation."
The February 14 story by reporter Philip Shenon
began: "A major financial company has canceled negotiations with
former President Bill Clinton over hiring him for a speech, fearing it
would be drawn into controversies swirling around Mr. Clinton since his
departure from the White House, people involved in the negotiations said
today. Wednesday night on the CBS Evening News Dan Rather
noted, after Bob Schieffer's story on the Senate hearing: UBS Warburg used to be named Union Bank of Switzerland, the country where Rich is "living abroad."
Matt Lauer started by asking: "Let me start off
by asking you both the simplest questions, probably the hardest to answer.
Geraldo, start with you. Quick answer: Why did Bill Clinton pardon Marc
Rich?" Lauer soon suggested: "Alright basically we got
a bunch of scenarios here. A.) He truly believed Marc Rich deserved a
favor, B.) or a pardon. B.) He was mislead or misinformed on the facts.
C.) There was some national security interest at stake here or D.) He got
something in return. What have I left on the list? Anything else?" A bit later Rivera launched into an attack on
Garrison: "The problem with the right is you only investigate when
it's Bill Clinton. How about Caspar Weinberger's pardon by George H. Bush?
I mean if you, if you criticize that publicly then you have standing to
criticize this pardon." Lauer soon interjected: "Let me interrupt, let
me interrupt here for a second. Let me interrupt. Geraldo you said that,
you know, the people on the right just love to criticize Bill Clinton. But
let's talk about the Democrats here. Let's talk about guys lie Joe Biden
who called this 'indefensible,' Diane Feinstein called it, 'a major
mistake.' Barney Frank put it frankly and called it 'contemptuous.'
They're not even Democrats lining up to defend this pardon."
To view an Adobe Acrobat PDF of the one-page report,
go to: Now the text of the February 14 Media Reality Check [3] which recalls how journalists denigrated the news value of some previous Clinton misbehavior: Like nearsighted umpires who don't find their eyeglasses until after the game is over and the cheating team has hauled their trophies (and a truckload of furniture) up to Chappaqua, liberal journalists have finally found the Clinton scandal beat. "It's not the usual critics who make this Clinton scandal different; it's the usual supporters," CBS's Jim Axelrod noted during Monday's Evening News. He meant Democrats like New York Senator Charles Schumer, who bravely condemned as "wrong, wrong, wrong" the now-powerless former President's pardon of an anti-American billionaire fraudster whose ex-wife gave more money to the DNC than even some Chinese generals. But Axelrod could have been talking about his colleagues in the press -- the media have only now found their voice after nine years of ignoring evidence, minimizing charges, and smearing those who accused Clinton of unethical or criminal conduct. Back in 1993, the CBS Evening News didn't show viewers a single second of more than ten hours of taped interviews reporter Scott Pelley conducted with Arkansas state troopers who alleged that Gov. Clinton used them to procure women for adulterous affairs. "We just felt, not to sound pompous in any way, but it didn't rise to the level of something that we wanted to put on the Evening News," Pelley later told political scientist Larry Sabato. CBS and NBC refused to cover sexual harassment allegations made against Clinton by Paula Jones in February 1994, while ABC's World News Tonight offered a brief report and no follow-up for months. "I would much rather that this story didn't exist," ABC's John Donvan confessed on CNN's Talkback Live back in September 1997. "I think there are Clinton haters who would like to be able to use this issue to hurt him....I would much rather be talking about much larger issues." Remember the Reagan years, when the media howled that any "appearance of impropriety" was a serious ethical breach? That standard was forgotten in the last eight years. "So a couple of White House aides helped [potential anti-Clinton witness] Webster Hubbell find work, and he did find work, some of it with Democratic donors," NBC's Jodi Applegate remarked in April, 1997. "It may not look good, but is there any proof anything was done wrong?" The media defined the Lewinsky scandal as mainly about sex, not law-breaking; some even found it sexy: In 1998, Good Morning America's Lisa McRee told a guest, "Women who've been polled seem to put it behind them as well, and are willing to move on and forget about it. Is that because Bill Clinton's been such a great President whom they elected in great part, or is there something I want to say almost sexy about a man who can get away with things over and over again?" Perennial apologist Eleanor Clift insisted Clinton couldn't possibly have raped Juanita Broaddrick. "Where is this going to go except among all the Clinton haters and the right-wing conspiratorialists? It's great fodder, but you know, you proved the guy's a cad, you're not going to prove he's a violent criminal," she told the rest of the McLaughlin Group in February, 1999. So former Clinton spokesman Joe Lockhart was probably stunned when NBC's Katie Couric grilled him Tuesday morning. "It's interesting that you blame the Republican attack machine," she lectured. "Doesn't President Clinton have to take responsibility for some of his actions here?" After nine years of loaning their airwaves to Clintonites who ran down all of the President's accusers and enabled him to avoid responsibility for his actions, it's a marvelous coincidence of timing that the first Clinton (non-sex) scandal that finally got the watchdogs' attention didn't begin until January 20, 2001. END Reprint of Media Reality Check. -- Brent Baker [4] >>>
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Right at
the top of World News Tonight ABC's Peter Jennings mentioned the House
hearing on TV coverage of election night, but Dan Rather gave it just 29
seconds buried deep in the newscast. He avoided any network wrongdoing as
he delivered a brief lecture about how the "executives said the
errors were not intentional, not politically motivated and...made clear
the belief that under the First Amendment it is not the role of Congress
to investigate news organizations."
ABC and
NBC jumped on the news that some wealthy people are opposed to eliminating
the estate tax. On Good Morning America on Wednesday ABC highlight a New
York Times story on the organized campaign to oppose Bush's plan and the
NBC Nightly News featured a full story Wednesday night.
ABC and
NBC led Wednesday night with the Senate hearing into the Marc Rich pardon
and the late breaking news about how the U.S. Attorney in New York, Mary
Jo White, had launched a criminal probe of any illegalities related to
President Clinton's decision to pardon Rich. CBS aired a full story
after leading with the investigation of the Hawaii submarine accident.
The
decision by UBS Warburg, parent company of Paine Webber, to withdraw from
negotiations to get Bill Clinton to speak was given passing mention
Tuesday night by ABC and NBC in their stories on Clinton in Harlem. CBS
caught up Wednesday night with a short item read by Dan Rather. But none
of the broadcast networks picked up on a Wednesday New York Times story
about how a UBS executive had written a letter to Bill Clinton urging him
to pardon Marc Rich.
An extra
hour of Today allowed for another forum for Geraldo Rivera to defend Bill
Clinton, MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens noticed. Wednesday's Today
featured Rivera as the Clinton-defending guest alongside former prosecutor
Greg Garrison during the first half of the third hour of the February 14
Today.
The text
of a Media Reality Check fax report compiled by the MRC's Rich Noyes and
distributed Wednesday afternoon titled, "Finally Discovering
Clinton's Dirty Deeds: After Years of Disparaging Ex-President's
Critics as Cynical Haters, Media Now Notice Bill's Bad Side."