Time Out! Eric Engberg's Story
CBS reporter Eric Engberg:
"Steve Forbes pitches his flat tax scheme as an economic
elixir good for everything that ails us....It's the kind of
optimistic message people want to believe. But experts have
trouble with many of Forbes' specific promises, like how the
flat tax would boost economic growth."
Steve Forbes: "By removing
obstacles, starting with the tax code, we are capable of growing
at twice that rate."
Engberg: "Time out!
Economists say nothing like that has ever actually
happened...Forbes claims taxes can be lowered without adding to
the deficit....That was called supply-side economics under
President Reagan, less taxes equal more revenue. It didn't work
out that way. Is it fair to say the last time we tried something
like this we ended up with these hideous deficits?"
William Gale, Brookings
Institution: "It's perfectly fair to say that, yes."
Engberg: "And that if we
try it again, your fear is?"
Gale: "That we end up with
the same problem again."
Engberg: "....Okay, how
about Forbes' number one wackiest flat tax promise?"
Forbes: "Parents would have
more time to spend with their children, and with each
other."
Former IRS commissioner Donald
Alexander: "That's right. The sky would be blue all the
time."
Engberg: "The fact is, the
flat tax is one giant untested theory. One economist suggested
that before we risk putting it in, we ought to try it out
someplace, like maybe Albania. Eric Engberg, CBS News,
Washington."
- February 8 CBS Evening News.
Time Out! Goldberg Reacts
"There are lots of reasons fewer people are watching network news, and one of them, I'm more convinced than ever, is that our viewers simply don't trust us. And for good reason. The old argument that the networks and other `media elites' have a liberal bias is so blatantly true that it's hardly worth discussing anymore. No, we don't sit around in dark corners and plan strategies on how we're going to slant the news. We don't have to. It comes naturally to most reporters.....Mr. Engberg's report set new standards for bias....Can you imagine, in your wildest dreams, a network news reporter calling Hillary Clinton's health care plan `wacky?'..
"`Reality Check' suggests
the viewers are going to get the facts. And then they can make
up their mind. As Mr. Engberg might put it: `Time Out!' You'd
have a better chance of getting the facts someplace else - like
Albania."
- CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg in a Wall Street
Journal op-ed, February 13.
Time Out! Circle the Wagons! We're Blind to Bias!
"I've never regarded myself
as an ideological warrior of any kind. It's too hard to get the
facts straight and also have an agenda on my plate."
-
Engberg quoted in USA Today, February 14.
His [Engberg's] hallmarks have
always been fairness and accuracy."
- Dan Rather, quoted
in the February 14 New York Post.
"People are just stunned.
It's such a wacky charge, and a weird way to go about it....I
don't know what Bernie was driving at. It just sounds
bizarre."
- CBS News Chief Washington correspondent Bob
Schieffer quoted by Howard Kurtz in the February 15 Washington
Post.
"To accuse Eric of liberal
bias is absurd."
- CBS News President Andrew Heyward, quoted by Gail Shister
in the February 15 Philadelphia Inquirer.
"What is liberal bias? See
again, when you use this blunderbuss criticism, I back off. If
you want to be specific and say Brokaw did a piece that was
obviously biased and not balanced, fine. Or I did a piece, or
you did a piece, or you wrote a piece. But just to spray
everybody, I disagree with that. Be specific."
- CNN
anchor Bernard Shaw on Reliable Sources, February 18.
Time Out! He's Never Complained Before
"There's no suggestion here
that this man went to CBS over a period of time and said, `Our
stuff is all one sided, we've got to do something about
this'....There's no suggestion that he has done that. He has
simply stabbed this guy in the back."
- New York Times
Washington Bureau Chief R.W. Apple on CNN's Reliable Sources,
February 18.
Reality Check:
"Goldberg has told friends
he feels badly about hurting Engberg, but that he has complained
to CBS management about a liberal tilt for several years and
been consistently ignored."
- Washington Post reporter
Howard Kurtz in a February 15 story.
Time Out! CBS Expert Corrects Engberg
"Well, and the fact of the
matter is yes, we did balloon the deficit with the Reagan tax
cuts, not because of the tax cuts - we doubled
revenue....Congress went along and said, `Yeah, let's spend it
all, and let's spend more than what we're taking in.' If we do
the same thing under a flat tax scenario, yes, we're gonna have
a huge deficit. But if we rein in the spending, we won't."
- CBS This Morning financial expert Daria Dolan, February 13.
Time Out! Takes a Negative Hit Man to Know One
"This year's `I'm Not a
Politician, But I Play One on TV Awards,' go to: runner-up,
Steve Forbes. True, he's never run before. But a McDonald's
visit trying to show he is a regular Joe can't conceal the fact
that this regular Joe has spent more on dirty-tricks negative
ads than any other politician in history."
- Eric Engberg
in the CBS News New Hampshire primary special, February 20.
It Runs in the Family
"Bill Clinton has not done
everything right, but at least he cares for the common man. And
tries to help everyone, not just the chosen rich and big
business who support the conservative point of view. Anyone who
would use a sticker `Hail to Rush Limbaugh' shows me an
incredible lack of intelligence and understanding of what needs
to be done."
- NBC Sports anchor Greg Gumbel responding to
a February 6 letter from Bob Wagner of Homer City, Pennsylvania,
who sent a copy to the Media Research Center.
From That Inclusive Liberal Media Which Can't Abide Conservatives...
"When Buchanan speaks I
hear the driving, urgent undershadow of menace (promises of dark
things, of retribution) that Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
conjured; their voices are eerily similar, and, like Pat, Joe
McCarthy had considerable personal charm."
- Time Senior
Writer Lance Morrow, February 26.
"Gwen, those in the media
and his opponents keep saying that Buchanan's too extreme to win
the nomination. Is it impossible, or is that wishful thinking
among those with more mainstream or inclusive views?"
-
Bryant Gumbel, February 21 Today.
Is It a "Smear" Even If It's True?
"That February [1992], the
Clintons were reeling. At first a media favorite for the
Democratic nomination, Bill Clinton was being smeared as an
adulterer and a draft dodger on the eve of the critical New
Hampshire primary."
- Newsweek reporters Michael Isikoff
and Mark Miller, February 5.
Brokaw, Behind Closed Doors
"And is there an American
male who has not put on a pair of khakis, a pair of black
loafers, white socks and rolled up his sleeves and looked into
the mirror and thought secretly, I'm Gene Kelly?"
- NBC
Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw after a tribute to the late Gene
Kelly, February 2.
- L. Brent Bozell III,
Publisher; Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Geoffrey Dickens, Gene
Eliasen, James Forbes, Steve Kaminski, Clay Waters; Media
Analysts
- Kathleen Ruff, Circulation
Manager; Jessica Anderson, Bruce Fraser; Interns