ABC Has Anti-Paula Policy; Jennings Reverses on Mother Teresa Tuesday morning papers had new fundraising disclosures, but the morning shows avoided it all. Tuesday night the hearings generated stories on all the networks, but only CBS highlighted the charge of an FBI cover-up and NBC gave the hearings a mere 40 seconds. "I would much rather that this story didn't exist" ABC's John Donvan declared about the Paula Jones case as he revealed that his ABC boss in New York refuses to air developments in the story. On Friday Peter Jennings said derisive comments on Mother Teresa were inappropriate. On... continue reading
Bashing Jesse; Emmy Sermon; CNN Defends Itself on Hearings Sam Donaldson and James Warren issue some mean-spirited attacks on Jesse Helms, calling him a "dictator" and a "bigot." The Emmy Awards show highlighted some liberal TV show themes, including a Chicago Hope sermon for nationalized health care. CNN's Washington Bureau Chief insisted that no one "can fairly say that Cable News Network isn't covering these hearings." 1) ABC's Sam Donaldson and James Warren of the Chicago Tribune took some shots at Senator Jesse Helms over the weekend. On Sunday's This Week Donaldson asserted: "I think Governor Weld has done this... continue reading
Gore & China Connection Ignored; Trashing Mother Teresa Two big disclosures Friday -- about Gore's more active than known fundraising and an allegation that a huge donor was an agent for China -- went unnoticed by all the networks. NBC's Lisa Myers tagged Bill Weld as "moderate" but described Jesse Helms with an extreme label: "ultraconservative." In the middle of Mother Teresa's funeral ABC highlighted how she spent time with "the sleaziest of the sleazy." Susan Molinari's first day: Gushing to an actress and making a liberal point. Not the conservative politician that liberals feared. 1) The biggest names so... continue reading
Berger Bumped; Networks Shamed into Covering Mother Teresa The highest ranking official so far testified Thursday, but neither the CBS Evening News or NBC Nightly News aired a story. Two of the three morning shows again skipped the hearings; CNN and MSNBC carried a bit of Berger, but Berger and Fowler combined got less live coverage than Haley Barbour. The networks were shamed into offering live coverage tonight of Mother Teresa, argued CBS reporter Mike Wallace. Letterman's "Top Ten Complaints of Larry King's New Wife." 1) On Thursday the highest ranking official yet appeared before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee,... continue reading
Morning Blackout; MSNBC & CNN Double Standard; Korean Famine Wednesday's newspapers were packed with fundraising developments, from Democratic skimming to the sentencing of the Lums, but the morning shows skipped all of it. Hard money questions surrounding Gore prompted evening stories on the three nets; one even gave Mother Teresa more time than Diana. CNN broke its implied promise to give the same time to Fowler as they had Barbour, but MSNBC didn't even bother with a second of Fowler. CBS blamed North Korean starvation not on corrupt communism but on "catastrophic floods" and an "unrelenting drought." 1) Wednesday morning... continue reading
ABC Ignored Fowler; Gumbel: Conservatives Don't Care All three networks figured out angles for multiple Diana stories, but none ran a full report on Mother Teresa. New documents detail Don Fowler's effort to circumvent the system in order to give access to a donor and Fowler just can't recall any of it, but ABC skipped the Democratic misdeed. Bryant Gumbel asserted: "It's hard to be defined as a conservative if you're a black man and care about black people." 1) Mother Teresa almost completely disappeared from the broadcast networks Tuesday night, but the tenth night after her death Diana got... continue reading
Mother Teresa Trumped Again; CNN's Clinton FOB Says No to Scandal Correction: The September 8 CyberAlert reported that of the Sunday morning talk shows only NBC's Meet the Press "brought anyone on to discuss Mother Teresa's legacy" and that "Fox News Sunday proved the most substantive, running lengthy segments on the Middle East and fundraising after a short opening talk with Brit Hume about Diana." In fact, Fox News Sunday was even more substantive. It also ran a segment on Mother Teresa. Between the opening three minutes with Hume on Diana and the interview of Benjamin Netanyahu, host Tony Snow... continue reading
Gore Ignored; Mother Teresa Crushed by Diana Media obsession with Diana meant that the networks on Saturday skipped Al Gore's e-mail and Janet Reno's dereliction. Margaret Carlson contended that the system "corrupted" an innocent Al Gore as a New York Times headline spun for the VP. Just one network led with Mother Teresa over Diana Friday night. NBC dedicated seven times more time to Diana while Peter Jennings compared both but only raised criticisms of Mother Teresa. Sunday morning only Meet the Press explored Mother Teresa, but for just one-fourth as much time as NBC gave to Diana. 1) Princess... continue reading
Diana Dunks the Monks; Gore's Image Hurt; Hume Hits All Diana and Joan Friday morning, so no mention of the hearings. On Thursday the morning shows ran hearings stories, but neither CNN or MSNBC offered any live coverage. Only ABC devoted less than half a Thursday evening show to Diana, but all three did squeeze in a hearings piece. ABC's Linda Douglass relayed the most pro-Gore spin; only CBS tied Bill Clinton to the temple's money laundering; NBC won't show photos of the Diana crash scene, but they asked a photographer what he saw. Brit Hume says colleagues turned on... continue reading
Diana Before Al Gore; Murdoch a Murderer?; Bye-bye Joan Gore raised definitely illegal to solicit "hard money" from the White House, but two of three networks skipped the disclosure. ABC dedicated most of its news, and CBS all but 48 seconds, to Diana. Who are "the media moguls of tabloid sleaze" who created the paparazzi? CBS offered only one name: Rupert Murdoch. ABC and CBS have yet to report anything about Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary trading meetings for donations. ABC claimed that reporters were "clamoring" for details on Gore. Not quite. Friday is Joan Lunden's last day. Before she goes,... continue reading