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NBC Ignored Nuclear Data Transfer; Nets Avoid Implicating Clinton >>> May 3 MediaWatch now online thanks to the MRC's Sean Henry and Kristina Sewell. Check out the front page article, "Short Shrift for Clinton's Contempt" and the Review of gun control advocacy: "Colorado Tragedy Exploited for Politics." MRC analyst Jessica Anderson contributed a page 4 piece on how ABC's GMA became a forum for daycare "experts" to tout the French system and champion Hillary Clinton's Senate bid. The On the Bright Side article highlights how "ABC Focused on Teen's Faith." Plus, Newsbites on ABC's presentation of the wonderful benefits of taxes, how all but FNC skipped a development in the China scandal and how CNN has dropped Peter Arnett. To read these pieces, go to: http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/mediawatch/1999/mw1999archive.html [1] <<<
Two days after the March 6 New York Times first broke the China spying story, NBC News VP and Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert told John Hockenberry on MSNBC why he immediately jumped to book Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Shelby on Meet the Press the next morning: "I said, 'This is dead serious. Why aren't people reacting to it?' Front page of the New York Times on Saturday. I assumed by Sunday the country would be aghast by it and talking about it. And that's why we reached out to Senator Shelby." So how did NBC react to this latest New York Times bombshell about how many enemy nations had access to 40 years worth of U.S. nuclear research and expertise and that the spying continued well into the Clinton years? Not one syllable about it on NBC Nightly News Wednesday or Thursday night. NBC's total
coverage: This 15-second item on Today during the 8am news update on April
28 caught by MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens: What did NBC find more newsworthy? Wednesday's Nightly News featured a full story on congressional testimony by a professor, who NBC's Robert Hager relayed, calls the "threat of increasing hurricanes our nation's greatest natural hazard for the future." Apparently NBC News is more concerned with hurricanes than nuclear annihilation. Not even MSNBC cared. No mention of this story on MSNBC's The News with Brian Williams on Wednesday night, reported MRC analyst Mark Drake. Other network: ABC's World News Tonight ran a full story and CNN's The World Today featured two pieces. GMA also gave it 20 seconds. See item #2 for details. The CBS Evening News briefly mentioned the New York Times story in introducing its own exclusive with national lab scientists confirming lax security. See Item #3 below. None of the morning shows aired anything about it Thursday morning, though by then they had a full day to book expert guests. Here are some excerpts from the April 28 New York Times story by James Risen and Jeff Gerth which NBC found unnewsworthy: A scientist suspected of spying for China improperly transferred huge amounts of secret data from a computer system at a government laboratory, compromising virtually every nuclear weapon in the United States arsenal, government and lab officials say. The data -- millions of lines of computer code that approximate how this country's atomic warheads work -- were downloaded from a computer system at the Los Alamos, N.M., weapons lab that is open only to those with top-level security clearances, according to the officials. The scientist, Wen Ho Lee, then transferred the files to a widely accessible computer network at the lab, where they were stored under other file names, the officials said. The Taiwan-born scientist transferred most of the secret data in 1994 and 1995, officials said. American experts said the data would be useful to any nuclear power trying to replicate this country's atomic designs. But one American scientist said the codes and accompanying data were not, by themselves, sufficient to produce an exact copy of an American weapon. American officials said there was evidence that the files were accessed by someone after they were placed in the unclassified network. Other evidence suggests that this was done by a person who improperly used a password, the officials said.... Although Lee had been under investigation in the W-88 case for nearly three years, Los Alamos officials failed to monitor his computer use and let him retain his access to nuclear secrets until late 1998.... President Clinton was first told of the new evidence by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on March 31. During a subsequent meeting at the White House residence in early April, the president told Richardson to "get to the bottom of it," Richardson recalled in an interview Tuesday.... The huge scale of the security breach has shocked some officials, and has prompted a new sense of urgency in the FBI to solve the Los Alamos spy case. The bureau is now pouring additional agents and resources into the investigation. The evidence of transfers from his office computer provided the basis for an FBI search of Lee's home on April 10, officials said.... The fact that the huge data transfers were not detected until the last few weeks has sparked outrage among officials who wonder why computer use by a scientist already under suspicion as a spy was not being closely watched by Los Alamos or the FBI.... The information improperly transferred by Lee included what Los Alamos officials call the "legacy" codes. According to John Browne, director of Los Alamos, the legacy codes consist of computer data used to design nuclear weapons, analyze nuclear test results and evaluate weapons materials and the safety characteristics of America's nuclear warheads.... The legacy codes can be used to help design nuclear weapons through computer simulation, and so are valuable on their own. But they become more valuable when combined with specific performance data, which would then enable someone to generate a computer simulation of American warhead designs.... The legacy codes and the warhead data that goes with them could be particularly valuable for a country, like China, that has signed onto the nuclear test ban treaty and relies solely on computer simulations to upgrade and maintain its nuclear arsenal. The legacy codes are now used to maintain the American nuclear arsenal through computer simulation.... It was not until last month, just a few days before he was fired, that the FBI finally asked for and received Lee's authorization to search his computer, officials said. Once the bureau saw the transferred files in the unclassified computer network, investigators realized their significance. Within days, Richardson was briefed, and he then told the President and shut down the lab's computer systems for two weeks. But the FBI still encountered delays in winning Justice Department approval to seek a court-ordered search of Lee's home, officials said, and did not conduct the search until April 10. END Excerpt To read this story in full, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/042899china-nuke.html [2] To read April 29 follow-up stories on congressional anger and the value of the disclosed data, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/042999china-nuke-code.html [3] Both stories include a list of past New York Times stories on Chinese espionage with links to each. Please note: You must be a New York Times online registered user to access these pages.
Incredibly, though ABC and CBS, unlike NBC, covered the Times story, neither implicated the Clinton administration. ABC's Barry Serafin even allowed Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to scapegoat low-level officials at the labs. A little background on Clinton obfuscation. At his March 19 press conference Wendell Goler of FNC asked Clinton about charges that nuclear secrets leaked during his term. Clinton replied: "There has been no espionage at the labs since I have been President. I can tell you that no one has reported to me that they suspect such a thing has occurred." At the April 8 joint press conference with Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, Larry McQuillan of Reuters asked Zhu about charges of human rights abuses and then turned to Clinton, suggesting he did not deliberately mislead but was a "victim" of bad staff: "At your last formal news conference you spoke about these allegations of Chinese spying and you said it mainly dealt in the 1980s, that there were no indications that it involved your presidency. In the wake of today's New York Times report can you still make that statement or are you concerned that perhaps you were misled or had information withheld from you about the extent of the allegations." Clinton shot back: "I noted that even the article acknowledged that the alleged espionage might not have been connected to the national labs, which is the question I was asked in the press conference." Note that Clinton issued this seeming denial on April 8. The New York Times reported in its April 28 story: "President Clinton was first told of the new evidence by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on March 31." Wednesday night on FNC's Special Report with Brit Hume Goler noted how Clinton had responded to his question by denying spying took place under his watch. CNN ran two full reports on The World Today. First, Pierre Thomas summarized the Times story. Second, David Ensor reviewed the impact of the data transfer. But this is all CNN mustered on the role of the Clinton administration: "And with Energy Department officials saying that Wen Ho Lee may have been transferring the top secret data for 12 years, up until 1995, it now looks as if the Clinton administration may have to share some of the blame for doing too little about security at the weapons labs." Wednesday morning ABC's Good Morning America allocated just 20 seconds to the New York Times story, however World News Tonight delivered a full report, but one that failed to include anything about the role of the Clinton administration in impeding the investigation. Barry Serafin led
into a soundbite from former Ambassador Lilley by reporting:
"Although it is not known whether the Chinese obtained the nuclear
technology files, a former U.S. Ambassador to China believes it is likely
that they did." In fact, instead of holding the Clinton administration accountable, Serafin allowed Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to scapegoat lab employees: "Why did this individual so long have a security clearance, not be disciplined, not be dealt with in a way that he couldn't jeopardize our national security? Lab officials dropped the ball here." (Those who heard Rush Limbaugh on Thursday will recall that a caller told him about this Richardson blame-shifting, but he could not find the actual quote in Hotline or elsewhere. Well here it is.)
Sharyl Attkisson
began her April 28 report: "The scientists who spoke exclusively with
CBS News, work at Lawrence Livermore in California, one of the labs where
intelligence officials say the Chinese stole sensitive weapons data in
recent years." But Attkisson
didn't pursue the angle of the scientist's charge that security was
loosened when Clinton entered office. In fact, she never referred to he
administration or Clinton. Instead, Attkisson moved on, explaining how the
two anonymous scientists have the highest security rating --
"Q-clearance." Attkisson detailed the lax security: Attkisson added
that "self patrolling became tougher a few years ago" when
badges were re-designed, making low-clearance badges look much like Q
badges. "But the biggest threat may lie in the ability of hundreds of
Q clearance workers to simply carry out reams of secret documents,"
Attkisson revealed before the scientists explained how scientists can
enter and exit without ever encountering a guard so they could load up a
briefcase with secret files. +++ Hear, and sort of see, the scientists disclose the bad security with their voices altered and a lampshade blocking their faces. By about noon ET Friday the MRC's Kristina Sewell and Sean Henry will post in RealPlayer format, on the MRC home page, a chunk of this CBS story. Go to: http://www.mrc.org [4]
Friday morning Today devoted the entire 7am half-hour after the news update to Katie Couric's interview of President Clinton taped on Thursday afternoon. She stuck to what can be done to prevent school violence, failing to ask anything about China. NBC probably landed the exclusive by agreeing to stick to the one subject. But Today usually isn't so willing to hand over editorial control to a guest. In the April 30 Washington Post TV reporter Lisa de Moraes noted that Calista Flockhart, star of Fox's Ally McBeal, canceled her scheduled Monday Today show interview when NBC refused her request to not ask if she's anorexic. "'We said this is not something we'd agree to do and they said, 'Then she won't do the show,' a Today spokeswoman said."
Wednesday night
CBS did not devote an entire story to a victim's faith, but did
highlight the topic in a story reviewing the status of some of those who
were seriously injured. On the April 28 CBS Evening News reporter Cynthia
Bowers told viewers:
Here are some excerpts from the illuminating April 28 story by CNS staff writer Ben Anderson: Riding the shock-waves of last week's Colorado high school shooting, President Bill Clinton Tuesday announced a broad legislative package to expand existing firearm regulations and further restrict access to guns. But will the proposed laws that the Clinton Administration said are designed, in part, to reduce violent crime, be able to short circuit events like those at Columbine High School? An analysis of current gun control laws suggests that the answer is no, and one Member of Congress said that poor enforcement of federal gun laws is allowing too many guns into schools. CNS has identified 18 current federal and state gun control laws that were violated by the perpetrators of the Colorado school rampage. Had the two teenage suspects not killed themselves, as authorities believe happened, they would have been tried and faced penalties that could have kept them behind bars for the rest of their lives. Columbine students Dylan Klebold, 17, and Eric Harris, 18, allegedly used several types of firearms to kill 12 students and one teacher before killing themselves. Among the weapons found were two sawed-off shotguns, a HiPoint 9mm semi-automatic carbine and an Intratec TEC-DC9 semi-automatic handgun, according to investigators.... Federal law prohibits possession of a "sawed-off" shotgun or rifle, such as those found at the scene of the Columbine murders. A violation carries a prison term of up to 10-years, with fines reaching $10,000. U.S. law also forbids possession of a firearm on school property, a violation which could mean five years in prison.To discharge a firearm on school grounds with reckless disregard for another's safety could result in another five-year sentence. Under Colorado law, intentionally aiming a gun at another person is illegal, as is displaying a gun in public with the intent to alarm. A number of laws also cover the use of bombs, such as those found by investigators of the Littleton shootings. Under federal law, simply possessing a "destructive device" such as the bombs planted around the school carries a 10-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine for each offense. Manufacturing a "destructive device" is worth another 10 years and a $10,000 fine. The penalties for the use of such bombs are compounded if they're part of a murder, carrying a sentence of life in prison or the death penalty. Colorado law also forbids possession of an "explosive or incendiary device." Increased penalties are imposed if it is used to commit a felony. The acts of using a gun or bomb to further a crime carry penalties of 10 and 30 years imprisonment, respectively. The penalty for subsequent convictions is 25 years imprisonment for using a firearm, and life in prison for using a bomb.... END Excerpt of CNS story To read the whole
piece, go directly to: http://www.conservativenews.org/InDepth/archive/199904/IND19990428b.html [7]
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The New York Times revealed in a Wednesday morning, April 28, front page
story that suspected spy Wen Ho Lee "improperly transferred huge
amounts of secret data from a computer system at a government laboratory,
compromising virtually every nuclear weapon in the United States
arsenal." The transfers occurred during Clinton's first term, thus
contradicting his claim that all the spying took place in the 1980s.
As the New York Times article excerpted above reported, the latest
allegations center around events in 1994-95. Directly implicating the
Clinton administration, the Times revealed that even after the FBI
discovered the secret data transfer, "the FBI still encountered
delays in winning Justice Department approval to seek a court-ordered
search of Lee's home."
CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer only allocated a few seconds to the
New York Times story detailed above in item #1, but CBS did deliver an
exclusive talk with three scientists at the Livermore national lab about
lax security. Two wished to remain anonymous, so CBS altered their voices
and allowed a lampshade to block viewers from seeing their faces as they
sat on a couch.
Today accommodated Clinton's topic preferences but the show doesn't do
the same for others.
Is considering the role of religious belief catching on at the networks?
The April 27 CyberAlert detailed how ABC's Peggy Wehmeyer examined how
church and faith turned around the life of one of the Columbine victims,
observing: "Today at Cassie Bernall's funeral friends and family
celebrated the strength of one young girl's faith." To watch a clip
of Wehmeyer's story via RealPlayer, go to: 
The media have eagerly passed along calls for more gun control in the wake
of the Columbine High School tragedy, but as the MRC's Conservative News
Service determined, the shooters broke at least 18 current federal and
state gun control laws. To read examples of gun control advocacy by the
networks, check out the Review in the May 3 MediaWatch. "Colorado
Tragedy Exploited for Politics: Networks Identify 'Gun Culture' as the
Culprit." Go to: