In This Issue
If you Impugn, You Are Immune; NewsBites: The Alexis Nexus; TV, Print Outlets Slow to Recognize China Missile Scoop; OverHolster Overhauled; Revolving Door: NBC's China Waiver Saver
If you Impugn, You Are Immune
Two months ago, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz reported that National Journal
writer Stuart Taylor was considering a job offer from
Whitewater counsel Ken Starr as he wrote about the Lewinsky
affair. All the interviews Taylor gave in the weeks that
followed (including ABC's April 5 This Week and April 13 Good Morning America) raised the issue of his professional conduct. PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
dropped Taylor as a regular over the flap, but kept liberal
historian Doris Kearns Goodwin despite her appearance in an ad for
Al Checchi, a Democrat running for Governor in California.
Taylor was a reporter, Lehrer claimed, while Goodwin was a
commentator.
But when media ethics controversies
arise over supporters of Clinton instead of media critics,
the rest of the national media fail to ask questions. The New York Times
reported journalists bought champagne for Clinton aides
upon the dismissal of the Paula Jones case. (One journalist
buying was New York Times reporter R.W. Apple.) But
no one made an issue of that. Similarly, ABC reporter
Linda Douglass's close friendship with Clinton crony
Webster Hubbell and his wife Suzanna (noted in the last MediaWatch)
was never raised as an ethical controversy. Here are some
of the other neglected scoops about the ethics of Clinton
allies:
1. KENNETH BACON LAYS AN EGG.
The news media jumped on the story that Linda Tripp, who
taped Monica Lewinsky, failed to disclose to the Defense Department
an arrest on her public record, according to New Yorker writer Jane Mayer. The Weekly Standard's
Tucker Carlson first questioned the propriety of the
Pentagon's release of Tripp's federal security-clearance form
in the March 30 issue ("Linda Tripp's Pentagon Papers"),
followed up in the May 18 issue by Jay Nordlinger ("Bacon
Tripps Up"). The New York Post's new columnist, former Clinton adviser Dick Morris, also pushed the story.
The scandal centers on Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon, who joined the
Clinton administration after spending decades as a reporter
for The Wall Street Journal (where Jane Mayer was a
colleague). Pentagon aide Clifford Bernath told investigators
for Judicial Watch, the conservative legal foundation, that
Bacon ordered the leaking of the Tripp file to Mayer.
On May 21, Washington Times reporter Bill Sammon
noted not only had Bacon admitted to Judicial Watch that he
orchestrated the Tripp release - a violation of the Privacy Act - but
that Bill Clinton promised in 1992, when the Bush State
Department investigated Clinton's passport file, that "If I
catch anyone using the State Department like that when I'm
President, I'll fire them the next day." TV coverage? Zero.
2. HAIR-RAISING FACTS ABOUT SALON.
The Web site Salon drew notoriety for repeated attacks on Whitewater counsel Ken Starr, The American Spectator,
and conservative philanthropist Richard Scaife. Howard Kurtz
filed a long Style section profile on the Web-zine in the April
24 Washington Post. But Philip Terzian reminded readers in the May 11 Weekly Standard: "In March 1988, Jonathan Broder was fired from his job as Middle East correspondent for the Chicago Tribune because he had plagiarized a story by Joel Greenberg in the Jerusalem Post."
Terzian also recalled that seven years earlier, he found Broder had plagiarized a Newsweek
profile of Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi. "I asked Howard
Kurtz if he was aware of Jonathan Broder's history as a
plagiarist, and he said that he knew about it, but had, after
some reflection, decided it was not relevant to the present
story." Tim Russert did not ask Broder about it when he appeared on the
April 26 Meet the Press, and neither did PBS host Ken Bode when Broder came on Washington Week in Review May 8 to discuss the Middle East.
The national media, which picked up on Salon's focus on conservative
philanthropist Richard Scaife, ignored an April 30 Washington Times
op-ed by Mark Levin of the Landmark Legal Foundation on Salon's
ideologically motivated donors. Levin discovered one of the site's
principal funders, the Silicon Valley investment firm of Hambrecht
& Quist:
"Multi-millionaire William Hambrecht,
who until January 1, 1998, was the firm's chairman, is a major
financial supporter of the President and Democratic Party
fundraising efforts. As recently as last February, during the
time Salon's reporters were piecing together their Richard
Mellon Scaife-American Spectator-Parker Dozhier-David
Hale-Kenneth Starr witness-tampering conspiracy, Mr. Hambrecht hosted a
fundraiser for Democratic House candidates at his home in San
Francisco, which was attended by President Clinton." Levin
added that the firm's press releases note that Hambrecht
oversaw major investments by Apple Computers and Adobe Systems -
two other Salon funders.
3. OUTED T0 REPORTERS? LOVE, SIDNEY.
Liberal media outlets usually despise politically motivated
"outings" of alleged homosexuals. In 1989, the media raised a
furor when a Republican National Committee memo about then-Speaker Tom
Foley contained just a suggestive title: "Out of the Liberal
Closet." (The aide who wrote it was fired.) In Time,
Margaret Carlson demanded the RNC chairman's head: "[Lee]
Atwater's fouling of the civic atmosphere with vicious
misinformation is bad enough: compounding that with White House
hypocrisy is too much. If Bush really wants to prove himself a
political environmentalist in search of a kinder,gentler
America, he'd sack Atwater."
But in the March 30 edition of The Nation,
gay left-wing media critic Doug Ireland was alarmed in late
February when MSNBC reported Clintonites were leaking
derogatory rumors about Ken Starr's staff. Ireland found:
"Three members of the media confirmed to me that Sidney
Blumenthal, the White House media counselor, had indeed been spreading
such stories: They'd heard him do it. These reputable members of
the Beltway media agreed to tell me what they knew only if
guaranteed complete anonymity; they were afraid of losing
access to White House sources, and of possible reprisals. Two
said that Blumenthal had told them directly of the same-sex
orientation of a member of Starr's staff, and a third said he
had been present for a conversation in which Blumenthal made
such a comment to a third person." Blumenthal denied it. But
none of the national media picked up on this line of inquiry, or
passionately called for Blumenthal's ouster.
4. MORT'S MAGAZINE: THIS SPACE FOR RENT?
Mortimer Zuckerman, the owner and Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News & World Report,
has been one of Clinton's harshest attack dogs on the scandal
front. In the April 6 issue, Zuckerman charged: "It is not the
President who is involved in the politically motivated abuse of
power; it is the politically motivated counsel. It's not the
President who is insufficiently accountable; it is the
prosecutor."
Last summer, Village Voice media critic
James Ledbetter argued the MRC's Brent Bozell was wrong to
suggest Zuckerman's liberal bias was driving coverage: "Since
the Daily News - which has historically shown minimal
enthusiasm for Democratic presidential candidates - endorsed
Bill Clinton in 1992, News [owner and] co-publisher
Zuckerman has received leases from the Clinton administration
worth more than $8 million a year. All told, Zuckerman's main
company receives nearly $30 million a year from federal agencies."
(Ledbetter also detailed $1 million in annual contracts
from the U.S. Navy for a company owned by Arthur Carter, who
publishes the New York Observer. Observer columnist Joe
Conason has been one of the primary attackers of Richard Scaife
and his alleged conflicts of interest with Ken Starr.)
Ledbetter suggested: "A newspaper or magazine owner who is even
partially dependent on federal contracts presents a challenge to
editorial underlings: under what circumstances, if any, should such
publisher-government ties be disclosed to readers?" A Nexis
search for the term "Boston Properties" in U.S. News & World Report found no disclosure of Zuckerman's contracts in the magazine.
NewsBites: The Alexis Nexus
The Alexis Nexus. Before she was confirmed as Labor
Secretary, Alexis Herman figured in several Clinton scandals,
including Ron Brown's use of Commerce Department trade missions
as fundraisers, and the White House's possible funneling of
campaign donations to allegedly "nonpartisan" tax-exempt voter
registration groups.
But when Attorney General Janet Reno
requested an independent counsel on May 11 for charges that
Herman accepted cash for influence as White House Liaison, it
attracted the same TV news buzz as other Cabinet probes: almost
nothing. The decision drew a lead story from ABC's World News Tonight
(where investigative ace Brian Ross first broke the story in
January.) As with Ross's scoop in January, the competition
balked: CBS gave it 26 seconds, NBC 18. CBS and NBC have yet to offer a
full evening story on Herman's scandal.
Thirty minutes before the new probe was announced, CNN's Inside Politics
was already piling on doubts. Anchor Judy Woodruff began: "At a
time when many Americans are uneasy about the work of independent
counsels, and the Clinton administration is downright fed up,
another counsel appointment may be in the offing." Woodruff's
second story asked how much the counsels have cost. The next
day, all three TV morning shows offered stories, but only ABC's
Good Morning America had an interview segment. Host
Kevin Newman asked legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin: "How much is
this going to cost?"
Arafat Allies. The Clinton
administration gave Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
an ultimatum: cede 13.1% more of the West Bank to Yassir Arafat
and the Palestinians, or the U.S. will stop acting as
facilitator in the peace talks, thus setting Israel up as an
obstacle to peace if they didn't accept the loss of territory. The media
followed that lead, painting Netanyahu as the stumbling block,
while ignoring Arafat's flaunting of the Oslo Peace Accords as
well as other Israeli-Palestinian agreements.
Between May 4 and May 21, the big three networks and CNN made 15
mentions of the administration's ultimatum, but only Mike Lee of ABC
News noted what Netanyahu pointed out on his U.S. trip: Israel
had given up 27 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians
already. As Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer noted,
Albright's 13.1 percent figure was based not on careful
consideration but to indulge a whim of Palestinian leader
Arafat: "It was picked because Arafat already had 26.9 percent
of the territories, and 13.1 would produce a nice round number:
40.0." The only hint that Palestinians might have to make
concessions of its own was a vague comment from ABC's Gillian
Findlay suggesting that Palestinians would have to "offer
tougher security."
ABC's David Ensor committed this bizarre
analysis May 13: "Albright today will try one more time to
convince him [Netanyahu] that nonetheless, unless he's willing
to make sacrifices for peace, his country will never be
secure." As if Israel's people and soldiers who have died by
the thousands in terrorist bombings and attacks, have never
"sacrificed" trying to keep peace in Israel.
The Gail Gaffe. On ABC's World News Tonight
May 14, anchor Peter Jennings assured viewers: "Whenever the President
travels we watch him like a hawk." Really? Jennings was
introducing video showing Clinton having trouble maneuvering
because of a bad back, but ABC skipped video they surely would
have highlighted if it involved Dan Quayle.
At a
ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift Clinton
praised "the countless acts of individual kindness, like Gail
Halvorsen, the famous Rosinenbomber, who dropped tiny
parachutes of candy to Berlin's children. She is here with us
today, and I'd like to ask her to stand." He stood.
None of the broadcast networks or CNN touched it, not even CNN's Inside Politics. FNC's Brit Hume highlighted it at the end of his show. Two days later on the CBS show Saturday Morning,
Mark Knoller showed the flub, but blamed Halvorsen's mother:
"It's probably not the first time that a man named Gail has had
this happen to him." Co-host Russ Mitchell chimed in: "Those
things happen, Mark."
TV, Print Outlets Slow to Recognize China Missile Scoop
Another Clinton headache arrived in the April 4 New York Times.
Jeff Gerth and Raymond Bonner reported the Justice Department
was looking to prosecute two defense contractors who may have
illegally provided China with space expertise that
"significantly advanced Beijing's ballistic missile program."
But in February, Bill Clinton "quietly approved the export to
China of similar technology by one of the companies under
investigation." The Times noted the chairman of that
company, Loral, one Bernard Schwartz, was the largest
individual contributor to the Democratic National Committee last year.
Network coverage? Nothing except on the Fox News Channel, which
reported it 11 days later.
On May 15, the New York Times
reported that Johnny Chung told investigators that a large
part of the almost $100,000 he gave Democrats in the summer of
1996 came from Liu Chaoying, who works on defense
modernization, such as satellite technology, for China's People's
Liberation Army. Two days later, the Times added how Clinton
overrode then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher's decision
to limit China's ability to launch U.S.-made satellites on
Chinese rockets.
Where were the networks? On the 15th,
in the midst of heavy coverage of Frank Sinatra's death, ABC
devoted 75 seconds to it, CBS 27, and NBC 15. Two nights later,
ABC reported one story, but CBS and NBC ignored it. A few
nights later, the networks each devoted a few seconds to Newt
Gingrich's announcement of a special committee to investigate the China
matter (ABC 17, CBS 18, NBC 23). It took CBS five nights before
it aired a full story, NBC six (offering only 62 seconds in
the first five nights). NBC's Today didn't air a word on it in the first week.
The news magazines have also been AWOL on this story: In its May 25 issue, Newsweek
matched its 20-plus pages on Frank Sinatra's death and its 11
pages on India's nuclear test with a page and a half on the
China story. One U.S. official told Newsweek about Liu: "Getting [U.S.] parts and technology is part of her brief." Time and U.S. News offered nothing.
In the June 1 issues, only Time printed a three-page story, claiming "there may be less to the China connection than meets the eye." Newsweek offered a paragraph in its "Periscope" section. U.S. News
made China the sixth item in its "Washington Whispers" section
without any mention of missiles or Loral: "Clinton and Chinese
leaders are miffed at Republican criticism of the administration's
China policy."
OverHolster Overhauled
As the end of her tenure as Ombudsman of the Washington Post
approached, Geneva Overholser acknowledged the charge of
liberal bias "sticks" in some areas. That's quite an admission
for someone who just a year ago reacted with disgust at the very idea
she'd be expected to contemplate liberal bias.
In her
May 10 column she began by dismissing the liberal bias charge,
noting the bias "toward the negative" and "toward conventional
thinking." But she added: "All of this having been said, there are
specific topics for which I think the charge of liberal bias sticks -
either in current coverage or in coverage over recent years.
These tend to be hot-button issues; many have to do with social
change. I'd list abortion, Christian fundamentalism,
environmentalism vs. business interests, the death penalty,
guns, gay issues and military affairs. Add coverage of the
South. And sometimes of civil rights or women's rights..."
She offered some illustrations, such as: "An April 1 news story said:
'This part of the country - states such as Arkansas, Oklahoma
and Texas - has an attitude toward guns that is seldom seen,
and even more rarely understood, in urban and more heavily
populated areas.' A reader called this another example of the
(perhaps unconscious) insularity...of those who write for
metropolitan dailies. Since no one they know, or work with, or
live next to, holds such views, those who do must be
strange/weird.'"
"An Aug. 26, 1997, headline said 'Young
Blacks Entangled in Legal System; Report Puts D.C. Rate at 50%
of Men 18 to 35.' A reader responded: Were these men just
walking down the street and then suddenly they became
entangled'?"
Overholser didn't display quite such an open mind
during a May 16, 1997 C-SPAN appearance. MRC Chairman L. Brent
Bozell, the other guest, observed that the Post, but
not the networks, had done a good job covering the Clinton
scandals. Raising liberal bias agitated Overholser, who
complained: "I'm uncomfortable with the format of this. I
realize that it's probably not good for me to be on it. Everything we
do turns to some ideological point."
Host Brian Lamb,
realizing her anger at being paired with someone tainted by
politics, asked if she'd been in politics. She shot back: "No, I
wouldn't be in politics. I'm a journalist, I've been a journalist
all my life and I'm very uncomfortable with having all these
ideological discussions. I don't, I'm not here to defend an
ideology and I really don't, you know, I think it's a mistake
for me to be on."
Revolving Door: NBC's China Waiver Saver
A former NBC News VP lobbied the Clinton team to grant Loral
the waiver at the center of the China connection scandal, the
papers the White House released May 22 disclosed. Writing about the
efforts made by Loral Chairman Bernard Schwartz to secure approval
from the President for the deal with China, Washington Post reporters Roberto Suro and John F. Harris relayed May 23:
"The documents indicate that Schwartz, who has given more than $1
million to the Democratic Party since 1995, planned to raise the
issue directly with National Security Adviser Samuel R. 'Sandy'
Berger at a state dinner for British Prime Minister Tony Blair
on Feb. 5. However, Loral Vice President Thomas Ross wrote to
Berger a week later that Schwartz 'missed you in the crowd' and
was not able to make his case. Instead, Ross, who served as a
senior National Security Council official earlier in the
Clinton administration, pleaded in his Feb. 13 letter for
speedy action by the President: 'If a decision is not forthcoming in the
next day or so we stand to lose the contract,' Ross wrote. 'In
fact, even if the decision is favorable, we will lose
substantial amounts of money with each passing day.' Five days
later, Clinton granted his approval, despite what Berger
advised him were Justice concerns that the move 'could have a
significant adverse impact' on its ongoing criminal
investigation....'"
Ross did hold a top position with the NSC,
Senior Director for Public Affairs, a slot he occupied in
1994-95 until he jumped to Loral as VP for government
relations. What the Post failed to note: Ross served as
Senior VP of NBC News from 1986-89 and that wasn't his first
swing through the revolving door. When President Carter took office Ross
left his position as Washington Bureau Chief for the Chicago
Sun-Times to become Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public
Affairs.