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Bush's "Defiance" of Moderation; GOP Hit on Torricelli; Darling Daschle; Civil Rights Commission's Report Hyped; Felons for Gore
Bush hosted Jim Jeffords and other Senators from both parties to discuss the education bill but, warned ABC's Terry Moran, "today's display of bi-partisanship masks a certain defiance within the administration." NBC's David Gregory was concerned that "in the face of this power shift" there is "still among top Bush advisers defiance, even cockiness." CBS's John Roberts relayed how "Democrats are still wary of the President's renewed commitment to bi-partisanship," though that followed his very unusual acknowledgment that "conservatives...are now up in arms" over the massive spending in the education bill. More detail about these takes on the June 5 broadcast network evening shows: -- ABC's World News Tonight. Terry Moran
wrapped up his piece from the White House on Bush's meeting with
Senators: -- CBS Evening News. John Roberts actually
allowed criticism of Bush from the right: "The education bill, said
Jeffords and the Democrats, is a lesson in what's possible. With school
funding increased and vouchers left out, the bill is as much the
Democrats' as it is Mr. Bush's. Ironically, it's conservatives who
are now up in arms." -- NBC Nightly News. David Gregory asserted
that "this week the President has shifted gears to seem more
moderate" by appearing at a National Park to announce more money for
them and by highlighting funding for religious groups by helping to build
a Habitat for Humanity house. He then concluded:
Rather introduced the June 5 story, as transcribed by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth: "With the power shift in the Senate, attention is shifting to one member of the new majority: Democrat Robert Torricelli of New Jersey-and the possibility of what he sees as a Republican-motivated and led criminal investigation of him, could lead to yet another change of power back to the Republicans." Jones began: "Dan, Senator Torricelli believes the Republican-controlled Justice Department is out to get him." Jones proceeded to report that Torricelli will soon decide if he wants to request that the probe be moved to a special counsel and showed Torricelli back in April denying the charge that a man named David Chang gave him illegal gifts, including suits. Viewers saw a sound bite of a New Jersey tailor recalling he was told to give Torricelli 10 to 15 suits. Jones then noted: "Trying to avoid attacks of political partisanship, the Republican Attorney General John Ashcroft has recused himself along with four of his most senior aides." Back on camera in front of the Capitol, Jones ominously concluded: "This is high political drama. If Torricelli were to leave the Senate this year, the GOP Governor back in New Jersey would name a Republican, and that could give Senate control back to [pause, shaking head] the Republicans."
To view it as fax recipients saw it, access the Adobe Acrobat PDF version: http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/reality/2001/pdf/fax0605.pdf [2] The text of the June 5 Media Reality Check: When Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1995 -- after an election, not an inside-the-Beltway defection -- the media tried hard to deflate his triumphant moment. Bias flashback: "You called Gingrich and his ilk, your words, 'trickle-down terrorists who base their agenda on division, exclusion and fear,'" Bryant Gumbel, then co-host of NBC's Today, reminded Democratic leader Dick Gephardt on January 4, 1995, the day the last party changeover became effective. "Do you think middle-class Americans are in need of protection from that group?" This morning, as Democrats prepared to seize the Senate, the networks gave no Republican the chance to rain on the liberals' parade, and no host infer-red that incoming Senate leader Tom Daschle is surrounded by "ilk," is a divisive "terrorist" or poses a threat to middle-class taxpayers. Instead, ABC and NBC celebrated Daschle's rise with gushing profiles which were completely devoid of criticism of the one-man coup that roiled the Senate, or of any other aspect of the liberal Daschle's partisan career. "If you happened to catch Tom Daschle at a South Dakota airport, you'd never guess he's about to become the most powerful man in a Capitol full of very large egos," NBC's Lisa Myers enthused on Today. "Once a year, this unpretentious Midwesterner drives across his prairie state alone, without any aides, visiting all 66 counties. At home and in Washington, Daschle, who is 53, is described by colleagues as mild-mannered, straightforward, even nice." Myers assured viewers that Daschle will be an effective champion of liberal causes: "Beneath the friendly exterior is a shrewd, tenacious politician with 23 years in Congress, skilled at holding his party together...Married to a former Miss Kansas with three grown children, Daschle is adept at striking just the right political note." NBC even raised the prospect that Daschle could duplicate the performance of the last Democratic majority leader, George Mitchell who, Myers related, "was what one Bush aide called 'a partisan pit bull,' regularly ripping then-President Bush to shreds. Some Republicans now worry that what Mitchell visited on the father, Daschle will visit on the son." On Good Morning America, ABC's Claire Shipman used some of the same talking points to compliment Daschle: "Being underestimated is the story of Daschle's political life, but as his colleagues and adversaries always discover, he may be 5 feet, 7 inches and mild-mannered, but he has a steely determination behind his consensus-building style. Every year, the self-labeled 'Prairie Populist' methodically visits all 66 counties in his home state. Last week, he found himself in Lake Preston, where he was full of chuckles for the locals' jokes." ABC and NBC could have pointed out that Daschle's partisan assaults of the past five months are wildly at odds with his advice that both parties must "work together." Daschle delighted in condemning President Bush's delay of strict new arsenic standards, even though he voted with 18 other Democratic Senators in October 2000 for a similar delay. That audacious bit of hypocrisy has been widely disseminated by Rush Limbaugh, among many others, but ABC, CBS and NBC have so far failed to include it in their hyped environmental coverage. On the May 27 Meet the Press, NBC's Tim Russert uniquely challenged Daschle for his condemnation of a GOP fundraiser held at Vice President Cheney's residence; Russert informed viewers that Daschle had charged donors $5,000 each to join him at the top of Mount Rushmore. National Review later reported that Daschle's declaration to Russert that such excursions are done "regularly...almost every week," isn't true, according to their interviews with National Park officials. But none of these criticisms were voiced this morning, as the networks greeted Daschle's ascendancy with bouquets, not barbs. END Reprint of Media Reality Check
CNN made the point during an interview segment on Inside Politics with a commission Democrat and the Chairman of the Florida Republican Party. CBS did not pick up on the story on either The Early Show or CBS Evening News. None of the ABC or NBC stories pointed out, as did FNC's Brian Wilson on Special Report with Brit Hume, that though the commission draft claims blacks were ten times more likely than whites to have their ballots rejected, the report ignored "the fact that the number of Florida black voters participating in the last election was up nearly 70 percent over 1996." Instead of ignoring the vitriolic report released as part of a liberal political agenda, ABC's Nightline devoted its entire Tuesday show to it. While host Chris Bury acknowledged how not all members saw it ahead of time and reporter John Donvan conceded that neither Florida Governor Jeb Bush or Secretary of State Katherine Harris were allowed, as promised, to review it in advance of its public release, Donvan vouched for its import: "In the report's own words it is the 'most extensive investigation to date.'" Donvan somberly relayed the draft report's
unsubstantiated allegations and innuendo about how while there was no
nefarious "conspiracy," the "system did discriminate."
After a sound bite of Florida Republican Jim Smith arguing that since
Republicans were not provided with an advanced copy, the report is a
political hit job, Donvan proceeded to outline the case made in the leaked
copy. He began with a hanging clause: "Voter error is not mentioned"! The irrational dismissal of that most likely cause is what should have been Nightline's focus. With many blacks voting for the first time, thanks to an intensive NAACP voter drive, many made errors, such as seeing nothing wrong with voting for two presidential candidates. Nightline's Chris Bury went on to interview Commission Chairwoman Mary Frances Berry, officially an "independent" though Donvan noted she was a Gore donor, and its only Republican, Abigail Thernstrom. The commission now has four Democrats, three independents and one Republican. But that "independent" category includes Berry who is to the left of most Democrats. For a list of the eight commissioners and bios for each, go to the commission's Web site info page and scroll down a bit: http://www.usccr.gov/cominfo.htm [3] Here are the headings for each member as listed on the USCCR Web page: Presidential Appointees(4): Mary Frances Berry (Chairperson) Cruz Reynoso (Vice Chairperson) Yvonne Y. Lee Victoria Wilson Congressional Appointees (4): Christopher Edley, Jr. Elsie M. Meeks Russell G. Redenbaugh Abigail Thernstrom END Web page reprint Earlier in the evening, World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings announced: "The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, in a draft report which was leaked to the press, says that Florida's handling of last year's presidential election was marked by 'injustice' and 'ineptitude.' Black voters, it says, were ten times more likely than whites to have their ballots rejected, though there was no conspiracy. There are more Democrats on the Commission and the senior Republican says she hasn't even seen the report." In the morning, MRC analyst Jessica Anderson observed, Good Morning America news reader Antonio Mora noted during his 8am update: "In what's immediately become a controversial follow-up to last year's presidential election, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission reportedly has found that Florida unfairly penalized minority voters. According to published reports, the commission sharply criticizes top Florida officials without claiming, though, that they deliberately disenfranchised minority voters. The commission is dominated by Democrats and The New York Times quotes its two Republican members as saying they were not consulted on the report." (See below for why ABC cited "two Republican members.") NBC's Today, however, skipped over the obviously political leak as MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens noticed news reader Ann Curry didn't tell viewers how the Republican member didn't see the report: "The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has reportedly found that last November's Florida election was unfair to minorities. According to today's Washington Post the Commission found that blacks were nearly ten times as likely as whites to have their votes rejected. The Commission puts much of the blame on unequal access to modern voting equipment, but found no evidence of conspiracy." That front page June 5 Washington Post story by Robert E. Pierre and Peter Slevin breathlessly began: Florida's conduct of the 2000 presidential election was marked by "injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency" that unfairly penalized minority voters, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has concluded in a report that criticizes top state officials -- particularly Gov. Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris -- for allowing disparate treatment of voters. Unequal access to modern voting equipment and "overzealous efforts" to purge state voter lists most harshly affected African Americans in the state that decided the November election for President Bush, the commission declared in a 167-page final draft report obtained by The Washington Post. The inquiry found no "conclusive evidence" that officials "conspired" to disenfranchise minority and disabled voters. Fifty-four percent of votes rejected during the Florida election were cast by black voters, according to the report, scheduled for a commission vote Friday. African Americans accounted for 11 percent of voters statewide. "The disenfranchisement was not isolated or episodic. State officials failed to fulfill their duties in a manner that would prevent this disenfranchisement," said the report, the product of a six-month investigation. "Despite the closeness of the election, it was widespread voter disenfranchisement and not the dead-heat contest that was the extraordinary feature in the Florida election."... END Excerpt To read the entire story, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20918-2001Jun4.html [4] While the post assigned two reporters, it only took one New York Times reporter, Katharine Q. Seelye, to realize the political agenda behind the leak. Her piece, in which she identified a commission member as "Republican" who is listed as an "independent" on the USCCR Web page, opened: A fractured United States Commission on Civil Rights has prepared a sweeping broadside against Florida officials over last year's presidential election, calling them "grossly derelict" and saying their "lack of leadership" led to the disenfranchisement of countless Floridians, a majority of whom were African-American. But not all members of the commission have been involved in putting together the report, which was to be made public on Friday. The two Republican appointees who serve on the eight-member commission said they had not been consulted and suggested that with the report being obtained early by the news media today, the report itself could well be overshadowed, making it unlikely that there would be a resolution about what happened in Florida. One of the two Republican appointees, Russell Redenbaugh, said the report's conclusions of discrimination were not supported by the evidence. Mr. Redenbaugh said the early release of the report was intended to further the political agenda of the chairwoman, Mary Frances Berry, who supported former Vice President Al Gore.... END Excerpt For the entire story, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/05/politics/05VOTE.html [5]
A "Scrapbook" item in the June 11 Weekly Standard recalled how a front page Washington Post story last week highlighted how "at least 2,000 felons whose voting rights had been automatically restored in other states were kept off the rolls and, in many cases, denied the right to vote." After a bunch of anecdotes from victims, the same story included this one sentence: "At the same time, some felons who should not have been allowed to vote slipped through and cast ballots." As the bewildered Weekly Standard asked, "Some?" The May 28 Palm Beach Post reported: Thousands of felons voted in the presidential election last year, despite a three-year, $3.3 million campaign by state officials to keep them off the voter rolls. A Palm Beach Post computer analysis has identified more than 5,600 people who voted on Nov. 7 though they appeared to perfectly match names on a statewide list of suspected felons. Each of these voters had exactly the same name, date of birth, race and gender as a felon identified by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. These illegal voters almost certainly influenced the down-to-the-wire presidential election. It's likely they benefited Democratic candidate Al Gore: Of the likely felons identified by The Post, 68 percent were registered Democrats.... END Excerpt (This story is no longer online.)
As National Review's "Washington Bulletin" suggested, file that under "Department of Self-Parody." -- Brent Baker [6] >>>
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President
Bush must do more to acquiesce to "moderates" if he hopes to
please the network White House reporters who on Tuesday night scolded the
administration for its "defiance" of the new reality of a
Democratic-controlled Senate.
The CBS
Evening News finally caught up with the probe of New Jersey Democratic
Senator Robert Torricelli, but only so Dan Rather could taint the
investigation by referring to it as what "he sees as a
Republican-motivated and led criminal investigation of him." Reporter
Phil Jones piled on, asserting that "Torricelli believes the
Republican-controlled Justice Department is out to get him," before
concluding by shaking his head as he warned that Torricelli's
resignation "could give Senate control back to [pause] the
Republicans."
Text of
a Media Reality Check compiled by the MRC's Rich Noyes and distributed
on Tuesday afternoon, titled, "Bouquets, Not Barbs, For Darling
Daschle: NBC's Lisa Myers: "This Unpretentious Midwesterner...Is
Adept At Striking Just the Right Political Note."
Whoever
gave the media a copy of a draft report from the liberal-dominated U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) achieved their goal on Tuesday of
making its left-wing assessments -- of how the Florida presidential vote
was marred by "injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency" which
disproportionately hurt blacks -- the news of the day as ABC and NBC
picked up on it after a summary of its harsh criticism of Florida
Republicans ran in the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles
Times. Neither the Washington Post or Los Angeles Times, MRC analyst Ken
Shepherd noticed, bothered to point out how the sole Republican on the
commission never saw the draft before it was delivered to the media, a
fact acknowledged by ABC's Good Morning America and Nightline, but not
by World News Tonight or NBC's Today.
FNC's
Brit Hume observed Tuesday night that in neither Tuesday's Washington
Post story, which listed how Florida's felon purging system improperly
denied the vote to some, or one last week about problems with the felon
purging, told readers about how the Palm Beach Post determined over 5,000
felons voted. And 68 percent were registered Democrats.
Newsweek
reporter/columnist and MSNBC commentator Jonathan Alter in a June 4 story
by Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz about personal attacks on
journalists emanating from online sites: