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"Social Security Money at Risk?"; Surplus "Erased" by Tax Cut; Reporters "Reviled" Helms; Wishing Helms Would Die from AIDS Corrections: The August 22 CyberAlert quoted CBS News reporter Bob Orr as saying: "Helms, who reached the height of his power as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, could be brusk..." Brusk should have read "brusque." The August 21 CyberAlert referred to Connie Chung's former magazine show on CBS as "Eye to Eye with Connie." They weren't that informal. The show was titled Eye to Eye with Connie Chung.
ABC's Vargas irrationally raised the security of Social Security as, without any basis in reality, she tried to scare naive viewers. She teased at the top of World News Tonight: "Gambling with the federal budget surplus. Billions of dollars evaporate into thin air. Is your Social Security money at risk?" Of course, no Social Security money is any more at risk this year than in any previous year. For years revenue from the FICA tax which exceeded pay outs was spent on other federal programs. This year with a surplus the debate is whether to again use it for other programs or to apply it toward paying down the national debt. Either way, Social Security recipients won't see a dime of it. But ABC never explained that. Instead, both ABC and CBS warned of the dangers President Bush's Social Security private investment plan poses in transition costs and in the supposedly likely reduction in benefits. Neither network addressed the propriety of the government running a surplus during an economic downturn and both only made passing references to the role of spending, but only in the future, not how it has already contributed to a smaller surplus. After highlighting how Democrats blame the tax cut, ABC's Terry Moran noted: "But White House officials insist the money is there, and the only real threat to the budget comes from congressional overspending." CBS's Plante observed that Bush will "say if the money's not there, Congress can't spend it." As National Review Online pointed out, end of the year appropriation bills last year cost more than either the revenue lost from the economic downturn or the tax cut. -- ABC's World News Tonight. Elizabeth Vargas announced, as taken down by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth: "In Washington today, the federal budget surplus has all but vanished. That is what the new figures from the White House Office of Management and Budget show. It is a rather incredible headline, and it amounts to a staggering change in the political landscape. It is also something that affects every American and every level of government. ABC's Terry Moran is at the White House. So, Terry, where did the money go?" Moran answered: "Well, that is the
question of the moment, Elizabeth, and one that is bound to spark a nasty
political battle. When the Bush administration came into office, they
inherited one of the strongest fiscal pictures in a generation, and while
today's numbers show that the budget is still in surplus, especially
counting Social Security, they also show the situation has deteriorated
very, very rapidly. Today the administration's budget director placed
the blame squarely on the economy." Vargas then asked: "Terry, as the White
House was releasing these numbers, President Bush's Social Security
commission was meeting again in Washington. How will these new budget
figures affect the efforts to restructure Social Security?" -- CBS Evening News. Anchor John Roberts set up a full story: "Now to the incredible shrinking federal budget surplus. New figures from the White House today show that, not counting what's set aside for Social Security, the surplus has shrunk to just $2 billion. That's down $122 billion since April. Democrats are howling. The White House says not to worry." From Crawford, Texas, Bill Plante intoned, "It's official: the government surplus has been virtually erased by the President's tax cut and the economic slowdown. But to the Bush administration the glass is still half full." After a soundbite of Mitch Daniels arguing the
government is awash in money, Plante countered: "But the
administration's latest budget forecast shows virtually no surplus over
and above Social Security, either this year or next. And it says that
means any new spending would require cuts from other programs. Democrats
say the projections are still too optimistic and they blame the President
for squandering the surplus with his tax cut." Plante then warned: "The President's commission to reform Social Security, which met today, support Mr. Bush's proposal to allow workers to put some of their payroll taxes in private accounts. But a report today from the Congressional Research Service says the President's solution would undercut Social Security's financing. The study says if that happens people retiring in the next two decades could see cuts in their benefits of almost eleven percent." Plante concluded: "Democrats in Congress will fight the President on private Social Security accounts and on the budget they'll say that his long-range projections are unreliable. He'll say, if the money's not there, Congress can't spend it." The August 22 Washington Bulletin,
"National Review's Internet Update," by John J. Miller and
Ramesh Ponnuru, pointed out:
(That CyberAlert item relayed how broadcast network viewers heard negative caricatures on Tuesday night of Jesse Helms. CBS's Bob Orr stressed how he "has opposed abortion rights, AIDS funding, and even the Martin Luther King holiday" and "opponents have accused him of using race to win elections." NBC's Lisa Myers highlighted his "race-baiting" and insisted his willingness to "fight...help for AIDS patients" made "him a hero to many conservatives." ABC's Claire Shipman called him "unrepentant about his support for American segregation.") On Wednesday morning, MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens noticed, Fineman admitted that "it's possible that both Nicaragua and El Salvador would be sort of relic communist regimes were it not for his staunch opposition to them. He helped give rise to the presidency of Ronald Reagan." But those comments came only after he asserted the White House was pleased to see Helms go since he conflicted with their effort to make the GOP seem moderate: "I think you could hear the sigh of relief all the way from here to Crawford, Texas. Not that this is a slam dunk for the Republicans by any means. If former Democratic Governor Jim Hunt decides to run a lot of people think he could win even against Elizabeth Dole. But, but Jesse Helms even though he's a, a huge figure in the rise of the modern Republican party had become kind of an inconvenient presence for George W. Bush who wants to show that this is a moderate Republican Party. I don't think the White House was looking forward to having to defend and campaign with Jesse Helms were he to run. And I think behind the scenes they were quite active in making it clear to Helms that it was time for him to go." Later, Today co-host Matt Lauer reminded
Fineman that NBC's Lisa Myers had described Helms as "Senator
No," but wondered "what were some of the issues he was 'Senator
Yes' on?"
In 1997, for instance, George Stephanopoulos called him a "terrorist." In 1995 NPR's Nina Totenberg wished he would die: "If there is retributive justice, he'll get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it." And in 1994 Bryant Gumbel claimed Helms had earned "the disrespect and disgust of people from coast to coast." As Hume suggested on his Special Report with Brit Hume: "Perhaps few powerful figures in Washington have been more, I don't know if it's too strong a word to say, reviled within the Beltway by the usual institutions. I can't think of a reporter I knew, other than perhaps you and Fred Barnes, Bill [Kristol], that admired Jesse Helms. He did not get good news coverage, he did not have favorable press at any time." Juan Williams, a former Washington Post reporter, recalled during the same panel segment on Hume's show: "He once allowed me to follow him around and we did a magazine piece. He later said it was the biggest mistake of his career." Here's an excerpt from that piece by Williams, a Helms profile in the October 28, 1990 Washington Post Magazine: "What Helms has done is taken the words 'North Carolina values' -- a beautiful phrase that evokes the small-town, good-hearted sense of place that one feels when one travels the state -- and redefined them as the values belonging to a certain group of North Carolinians, mostly white, mostly male, mostly unhappy with the changes of the last 30 years. To Helms and his supporters, 'North Carolina values' seems to translate into a status quo view of the world in which blacks, women, and poor people know their stations in society." Hard to imagine why Helms would regret that kind of fair and balanced reporting. Below are some more Helms-bashing media quotes gathered from the MRC's Notable Quotables [3] newsletter, starting in 1990, when Helms beat Harvey Gantt to win re-election and followed by 1994 quotes when reporters feared his rise in power after the GOP takeover of the Senate and so tagged him as "ultraconservative" and an "extreme conservative." > "I think the question there, I mean
there are several of them, but one of them is whether old time Southern
racist politics can work, because Helms really let loose this week with
some base, hate, racist ads." > "This has really been a
heart-breaking race....What happened here was a very strong racial message
from Jesse Helms in the closing ten days of the race and it focused on
something that we've found, found previously in Louisiana with the David
Duke campaign." > "In victory, Jesse Helms was no more
gracious than he had been during his slashing campaign...Gantt's
surprisingly strong showing will encourage more black candidates to run
for office, but this contest also proves that race is still a powerful
issue in American politics." > "Everybody seems to agree on the
general dimensions of that race, and we also seem to get common agreement
that it is going to be one of the most important indicators of whether we
have progress in racial voting or not." > "On Foreign Relations, North
Carolina's archconservative Jesse Helms may move to slash foreign aid --
and try to redirect Clinton's Haitian and Cuban policies." > "Ultraconservative, he is likely to
seek cuts in foreign aid and U.N. contributions." > "North Carolina archconservative
Sen. Jesse Helms will head the Foreign Relations committee...Another trap,
some say, is overplaying the far right's social agenda." > "Jesse Helms, 73, who was first
elected in 1972, has been the avenging angel of extreme conservatism in
the Senate on everything from abortion, pornography and school prayer to
left-wing governments around the world." > "The Senate will be different, too,
with archconservatives like Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond taking control
of key committees." > "With Republicans taking control of
Congress in January, Senator Jesse Helms is slated to be the new chairman
of the Foreign Relations Committee, a prospect that is embarrassing to
many Republicans. His two most recent outbursts against the President are
just the latest in a long line of outrageous remarks that have earned
Helms the disrespect and disgust of people from coast to coast." > Inside Washington host Tina Gulland:
"I don't think I have any Jesse Helms defenders here. Nina?" This quote was a runner-up in the "I'm a Compassionate Liberal But I Wish You Were All Dead Award (for media hatred of conservatives)" category in the MRC's Dishonors Awards for the Decade's Most Outrageous Liberal Bias. > "I think North Carolina is a test in
the great divide in the Republican conservative movement. There's the
politics of hope personified by Jack Kemp and there's the politics of hate
personified by Jesse Helms." > Sam Donaldson: "I think Governor
Weld has done this country a service in a sense, even though I think that
he's been shot down in the ocean now, and that is by allowing the country
to see Senator Helms in action. Over the years I've run into him two or
three times at receptions here and he's the most gentlemanly, courtly,
friendly, pleasant individual you would ever hope to meet. But, when you
see him in action, you see beneath that courtliness beats the heart of a
dictator and I think the country is appalled." > James Warren, Chicago Tribune Washington
Bureau Chief: "I also find interesting this revisionism about Senator
Helms. We've sort of turned his dogmatism and bigotry into now, the
iron-willed principle of a man of the right." (Not wanting to force taxpayers to pay for art is "bigotry"?) > "He had deep roots in the
conservative traditions of the Old South. In his campaigns, Helms had been
known to exploit the race issue for political advantage, which is exactly
how slave owners and conservatives used to dominate Southern
politics."
An excerpt from the August 22 New York Post story by Steve Dunleavy, which referred to "White Plains County." Since there is no White Plains County in New York, I assume he meant a Westchester County court building in White Plains: The Gumbel rumble ended yesterday in divorce -- leaving the $6 million-a-year man half the man he once was. The newly ex-Mrs. Bryant Gumbel, June, got the pair's Upper East Side apartment and plush Westchester estate during a hearing before Judge Mark Dillon in White Plains County Court. But there is apparently more -- millions of dollars more -- to come for June, in a settlement that will basically split the millionaire newscaster's fortune down the middle, sources said. Gumbel, 52, emerged from the courtroom on the seventh floor and said with a smile: "I'm just happy to have my life back."... June's lawyer, Barry Slotnick, declined comment on the settlement, citing the fact that it is sealed. He has estimated that the news star's estimated worth is $20 million. June, 51, had accused the CBS star of being a "serial adulterer" after Gumbel shacked up with leggy blonde Hilary Quinlan, 41, a former researcher for Goldman Sachs. In the final act of chutzpah by the "Early Show" anchor, she said, Gumbel had asked a judge for sharing privileges of the Westchester house where June was living after he walked out on her. The reason was, "He wanted to take his girlfriend there and be near his golf club," said June, who has two kids with Gumbel.... The bad memories, she said, include Gumbel trying to put the financial squeeze on her and even refusing to pay their teenage son Bradley's telephone bill. END of Excerpt To read the entire New York Post story, go to: http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/2607.htm [4] I'll consider the loss of his homes and $10 million or so bucks his fine for all his biased reporting over the years. -- Brent Baker [5]
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New
federal budget surplus numbers show the second largest one in history, but
ABC and CBS on Wednesday night portrayed it as practically zilch. ABC
anchor Elizabeth Vargas declared on the August 22 World News Tonight:
"In Washington today, the federal budget surplus has all but
vanished." CBS Evening News anchor John Roberts set up a story:
"Now to the incredible shrinking federal budget surplus." Bill
Plante immediately placed blame, "It's official: the government
surplus has been virtually erased by the President's tax cut and the
economic slowdown."
Wednesday
morning on Today, Newsweek's Howard Fineman acknowledged some of the
positive contributions of retiring Senator Jesse Helms, a subject
studiously avoided in network stories the night before as detailed in the
August 22 CyberAlert: 
Jesse
Helms was "reviled within the Beltway," FNC's Brit Hume
observed Wednesday night as he noted that he couldn't "think of a
reporter I knew...that admired Jesse Helms." Indeed, a quick perusal
through the MRC's archive located numerous examples of hate-filled
invective fired at Helms by the same journalistic class which has
castigated conservatives as "mean-spirited."
Bryant
Gumbel's divorce was finalized on Tuesday and the New York Post reported
that the judge awarded his Westchester home, a Manhattan apartment and
half of his $20 million fortune to his spurned wife.