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Global Warming Over Missile Deal; "Conservative" Catholics and "Conservative" Arlen Specter; Schieffer's McCain Campaign Part 2 1 Simpson opened the July 23 World News
Tonight/Sunday: In contrast, CBS Evening News anchor Randall Pinkston considered the arms control understanding more relevant than global warming, as he opened the broadcast: "A surprise announcement from Genoa Italy today. President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to link talks aimed at cutting stockpiles of offensive nuclear weapons, Mr. Putin's goal, to negotiations on Mr. Bush's proposed space-based missile defense system." Over at 30 Rock, John Seigenthaler began the NBC Nightly News: "Good evening everyone, an unexpected ending to the G-8 summit in Italy today. During a one-on-one meeting between President Bush and Russian President Putin, the two men struck a deal on nuclear arms, an agreement that could give a boost to President Bush's plans for a missile defense shield and could mean a reduction of the nuclear arsenals in both countries."
In a Sunday CBS Evening News piece, Attkisson noted that "the conservative leadership of the Catholic Church" opposes it and Bush's effort to appeal "to the Catholic leadership also shores up support among non-Catholic conservatives." As viewers saw video of liberal Republican Senator Arlen Specter, she asserted that "even conservative Senators" are pushing Bush to approve the research. Yes, Arlen Specter is apparently considered a "conservative" by CBS News. But she failed to apply any tag to a spokeswoman for Catholics for a Free Choice, a very liberal group. Attkisson began her July 22 report by noting
how Bush maintains that his decision will be a "moral not a political
one." She intoned: "He's getting advice from across the
political spectrum -- from scientists who support the research because it
could unlock cures for many diseases, to the conservative leadership of
the Catholic Church which opposes it because it requires the destruction
of embryos."
On Inside Washington, produced by Washington, DC's Gannett-owned CBS affiliate and carried by many PBS stations, the reporters and columnists all agreed. In a discussion of Republican Senator Bill Frist's proposal to fund the research, but with many restrictions, Newsweek's Evan Thomas exulted: "I cheered when I saw that....I sort of secretly hoped that the White House put him out there to have him run up a trial balloon." NPR's Nina Totenberg hoped "that we not sort of let know-nothingism dominate our federally-funded science." Here's the exchange, on the show from this
past weekend, prompted by Frist's recommendations, starting with
columnist Charles Krauthammer who in the past has urged respect for those
who are opposed because they consider human embryos to be life: "He
made a great speech in which is basically came out in favor of stem cell
research, but with a lot of restrictions. And I think it's because
he's a physician that he how easy it is for other people, politicians
and others, to over-awed by scientists who come clamoring and say I've
got to have x, y and z because I'll cure everything. He knows there's
a lot of hype and yet he made a speech in support of it. I think it will
be a decisive event." So much for having panelists who represent both sides of contested issues. In Washington's press corps there only is one credible position on this subject.
A week earlier, just after the House failed to vote on the House version of McCain's "campaign finance reform" bill, Schieffer wrapped up his July 15 show by ruminating: "McCain has been saying all along he has no plans to run for President as a third-party independent candidate. But doesn't this give him the perfect excuse? The script writes itself. Both parties are so beholden to the big-money interests, it will take someone else to clean up the mess." For a more extensive quote, go to: http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20010716.asp#4 [2] Now fast forward to the July 22 Face the
Nation. Schieffer's lengthy polemic in the form of a question to Lott: "Some people," that would be me, think that passing McCain's bill which would increase the influence and power of the media, because it would remain unregulated while all other speech would be controlled, is Schieffer's number one goal. Lott seemed to see through Schieffer's "some people" attribution: "I think that a lot of this is excitement by the press because Senator McCain is involved in the campaign finance reform issue."
Her total income tax payment last year was probably a spit in the face. Williams set up the July 20 story: "President Bush took time from the summit today for a video hook-up home, saying help for the flagging economy is on the way. That would be in the form of the first batch of tax rebate checks in the mail now. But NBC's Lisa Myers tells us tonight some taxpayers are already feeling disappointed." Myers began by showing video of Vice President Cheney "leading the cheers" at an IRS facility printing check before she showed a soundbite of Bush from Italy: "For all those who feel their taxes and bills are too high and they could use a little help, help is on the way." Myers cautioned: "Words that may not sit
well with 32 million Americans notified by the IRS this week they do not
qualify for any rebate at all because they didn't pay enough income taxes.
Lauri Sceena, a single mom with two children who is working and going to
college, was shocked to learn she gets nothing." Finally, she found someone who appreciated
getting their money back: "Still, for many of the 77 million
Americans getting the full rebate, the money is most welcome." Myers concluded: "The White House still thinks the rebates will be an economic and political plus, despite bruised feelings along the way." (My $300 rebate check arrived in the mail on Saturday. Though I'm in the zone of the IRS's Philadelphia office, in what may soon fuel left-wing complaints about Bush getting too much credit, under "United States Treasury," the check lists its origin: "Austin, Texas." And in what is sure to rile liberals, across the bottom are these words: "Tax Relief for America's Workers.")
But as Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby noticed, buried in the New York Times story on which the network reports were based, was the admission "that rapid increases in fuel economy standards for cars in the early 1980s may have contributed to thousands of additional deaths, as automakers sharply reduced the size and weight of vehicles." Jacoby suggested the lead of the story should have been that "making cars more fuel-efficient also made them more deadly." As recounted in the July 18 CyberAlert, on
July 17 CBS and NBC pushed President Bush to hike fuel standards for
"gas-guzzling SUVs." Dan Rather rued how "it's been years
since the U.S. government last set fuel efficiency standards" but, he
hoped, "that could soon change." NBC's Brian Williams steered
Bush: "With increasing numbers of Americans telling opinion pollsters
the President needs to get tougher on environmental protection, tonight
the White House may have its chance." For more on these stories,
nether of which credited the New York Times, go to: "Smaller cars are killer cars" declared the headline over Jacoby's July 19 column. An excerpt: A panel appointed by the National Academy of Sciences, The New York Times reported in a Page 1 story on Tuesday, is going to recommend an increase in the mandatory fuel efficiency of new vehicles, especially pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. The story appeared just as the House Energy and Commerce Committee took up a bill to promote conservation by, among other things, making fuel standards more stringent. Playing up the report on Page 1 gave a boost to Democrats who insist that the bill doesn't go far enough in regulating pickups and SUVs. Sounds like Washington journalism and energy politics as usual. But buried inside the story -- in the 16th paragraph, on Page C2 -- was a startling admission: "The report mentions that rapid increases in fuel economy standards for cars in the early 1980s may have contributed to thousands of additional deaths, as automakers sharply reduced the size and weight of vehicles...." In other words, making cars more fuel-efficient also made them more deadly. Stop the presses!.... Currently, automakers must hold each year's fleet to an average efficiency of 27.5 miles per gallon for passengers cars and 20.7 miles per gallon for light trucks. The only realistic way to meet that standard -- and avoid a steep penalty -- has been to downsize much of the fleet: A small, lightweight car requires less fuel than a big, heavy one.... The result, observes Sam Kazman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington think-tank that has long decried CAFE's dangers, is that the average passenger car has shrunk by more than 1,000 pounds since 1978. Fuel-efficiency standards are the reason big station wagons all but disappeared from American roads. "Too many people were buying them," Kazman says. "It was throwing off the fleet's CAFE average and triggering big fines. So manufacturers basically stopped making a car that motorists wanted to drive." But as cars have shrunk, the death toll has grown. In 1999, USA Today analyzed government crash data and found that in the 25 years since fuel-efficiency standards were first imposed, 46,000 people had died in crashes they would have survived if they had been driving bigger cars. Small cars - those no larger than a Chevy Cavalier or Dodge Neon - accounted for 18 percent of all vehicles on the road, the paper found, but they were responsible for 37 percent of automobile fatalities.... END Excerpt For Jacoby's column in full, go to: The July 17 New York Times paragraph he quoted went on, not surprisingly, to counter with a point advocated by liberal environmentalists: "The report mentions that rapid increases in fuel economy standards for cars in the early 1980's may have contributed to thousands of additional deaths, as automakers sharply reduced the size and weight of vehicles instead of improving their engines. But making large sport utilities lighter may make roads safer by reducing the death rate of other motorists, federal research has found." Naturally, neither the CBS or NBC story directly touched on how size reductions have contributed to more deaths. CBS's John Roberts only allowed as to how "the auto industry has long argued it could make more fuel-efficient vehicles, but would sacrifice size and performance." NBC's Campbell Brown hinted at the issue:
"But the automobile industry argues tougher standards will increase
cost and lower the performance of SUVs by forcing the automakers to build
smaller, lighter trucks. One consumer group funded in part by the industry
says that makes safety a factor."
MRC analyst Brian Boyd caught the exchange which occurred at the end of the July 20 Early Show just after Assuras, who is white, and Mitchell, who is black, plugged their Saturday morning program. In fact, Assuras's skin tone was about the same complexion as Mitchell's: Russ Mitchell, outside and standing next to
Assuras: "Join sister Thalia and I tomorrow on the Saturday Early
Show. You guys have a great weekend."
In his "In the Loop" column in Friday's Washington Post, Al Kamen disclosed how Rebecca Cooper, the off-air ABC News reporter who "had lunch with Condit a day after Levy's disappearance," was "formerly a top aide to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson." Kamen revealed she "was one of the staff in the room at the Watergate when Richardson, then-ambassador to the United Nations, interviewed" Monica Lewinsky "to offer her a job in New York." Salon.com reported the week before last that Cooper maintains this lunch took place on Wednesday May 2, but that the time line initially released by Condit's office placed him with her during the early evening hours on Wednesday May 1 -- the time when Chandra Levy probably disappeared. Finally, my connection to the Chandra Levy case. Out of the hundreds of apartment and condo buildings in Northwest DC, she rented a condo at "The Newport" at 1260 21st St. NW -- the very same building where from 1983 to 1985 I shared with two roommates a unit on the third floor. For those somewhat familiar with the District, "The Newport," with its green awning now frequently shown on TV, is on the west side 21st St. just north of New Hampshire Avenue and M St. and just south of N St. The nearest network television neighbor to Chandra's home? Ironically, given the CBS Evening News avoidance of her disappearance, the CBS News Washington bureau is just around the corner at 2020 M St. NW. -- Brent Baker [5] >>>
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Burying the
lead. Sunday night CBS and NBC led with President Bush's breakthrough
with Russian President Putin on missile defense, but ABC anchor Carole
Simpson found more important the failure of G-8 summiteers "to
resolve sharp differences over global warming" as she skated over the
Bush-Putin deal in order to assert that "the summit may be remembered
more for the violence in the city's streets."
To CBS
News reporter Sharyl Attkisson those opposed to embryonic stem cell
research are "conservatives," whom she labeled three times, but
those in favor of it weren't deserving of a label.
A
significant enough portion of the public is opposed to embryonic stem cell
research to cause it to have become a much debated issue in Washington, DC
with President Bush wrestling with which way to go. But on one of the
weekend pundit shows featuring a panel of journalists there was unanimity:
approve the funding for the new research.
In a
question to Senator Trent Lott on Sunday's Face the Nation, Bob
Schieffer cited the idea that John McCain should run for President as a
suggestion being forwarded by "some people." But it appears the
"some people" are really just himself.
Before
anyone received their tax rebate check NBC had stressed the downside, as
anchor Brian Williams complained about how "some taxpayers are
already feeling disappointed." On Friday's NBC Nightly News,
without citing how little if any they had paid in income taxes, Lisa Myers
highlighted "a single mom with two children who is working and going
to college," who "was shocked to learn she gets nothing,"
as well as another single mom who "calls her tiny rebate a spit in
the face."
Last
week CyberAlert highlighted how CBS and NBC, to push Bush to adopt a
policy favored by environmental liberals, picked up on an upcoming
National Academy of Sciences report expected to urge an increase in the
Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for cars and light trucks/SUVs.
Race
consciousness in the morning. The dark tan Thalia Assuras got during a
vacation prompted Bryant Gumbel on Friday morning to raise the specter of
"driving while black" police harassment as he quipped of her
tan: "If you get pulled over on the highway you know it's
great." Her Saturday Early Show co-host Russ Mitchell soon joked:
"Trying to get a cab with her is impossible."
It's a
small world: The ABC News off-air reporter, whom Gary Condit used as an
alibi, is a former aide to UN Ambassador Bill Richardson who was in the
room when he interviewed Monica Lewinsky for a job in New York City to get
her away from the White House. And I've decided to reveal my personal
connection to Chandra Levy.