MRC Alert: CBS Wacks Watts; Can't Find Liberals Anywhere 1. "A real sour note was struck in the Republican effort to reach out to black voters today," CBS charged in a reference to J.C. Watts. 2. A reporter who is suing NPR for racial discrimination once claimed that Newt Gingrich advocated "a more civil way of lynching people." 3. The Washington Post sees conservatives everywhere but can't locate a liberal anywhere from Washington to San Francisco. 1. Utter a personal attack on a black conservative and it's not news, but if you disparage the views of a liberal black leader,... continue reading
MRC Alert: Nets Play Catch-Up; Broder from the Left; Clinton the Forgiver? 1. Monday night ABC and CBS aired Democratic fundraising stories highlighting information reported in newspapers weeks or months earlier. 2. Washington Post reporter David Broder's plea to the Governor of NH: "Are the kids not worth having a sales tax or an income tax?" 3. NBC's Today suggests that Bill Clinton is popular because he "forgives and accepts" the public's excesses and frailties. 1) The networks keep playing catch-up on Clinton scandals reported weeks or months ago in the print media. World News Tonight, which still hasn't uttered... continue reading
MRC Alert: Database Discovered; Stahl Denies Bias; CNN's Spins 1. The White House database makes the network evening news -- seven months after it was uncovered by The Washington Times. 2. A fugitive and man convicted of securities fraud attended White House coffees , but the networks don't tell viewers about them. 3. Time magazine brings aboard a reporter who once disparaged conservatives as "largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command." 4. Dan Rather describes current 2.5 percent GDP as "ideal," not quite the spin the media took toward a higher rate in 1992. 5. Liberal bias? Lesley Stahl blames... continue reading
MRC Alert: Clinton as Victim; CBS Takes on a Grocery; Gumbel to Stay? 1. ABC and CNN reporters portray Clinton as the victim of an unforgiving opposition party in the fundraising scandal. 2. One week after the Food Lion verdict CBS News takes on another grocery chain for "a type of job abuse that's rarely talked about." 3. Bryant Gumbel will be as visible on NBC as Bill Moyers is on PBS if NBC gets its way by offering him, as USA Today reported, a "laundry list of high-profile duties." 4. The Washington Post tags a mainstream conservative foundation as... continue reading
MRC Alert: Today's Gore Journey; ABC Exec on Bias; Latest NQ 1. The Today show finally presses Al Gore about his tobacco hypocrisy , but Katie Couric contradicts some 1996 NBC reporting. 2. ABC News political editor Hal Bruno on the public perceiving liberal bias : "The truth is that I don't care anymore." 3. PBS's Bonnie Erbe scared of House "extremists." Is income inequality rising or falling? Don't ask the New York Times. 4. January 27 edition of Notable Quotables. Dick Armey spews "hot-headed rhetoric," but Al Gore "aspires to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters."... continue reading
MRC Alert: All Guilty on Fundraising; Hume on Hell; Lyin on Food Lion? 1. Networks finally find a Clinton fundraising scandal worth reporting, but Tom Brokaw says everyone is equally guilty. 2. Bob Schieffer suggests Gingrich's town meeting comments broke his ethics deal; Steve Roberts tags them "silly"; but Fox's Brit Hume sees a double standard from "the Hounds of Hell" press corps. 3. Reporters insist that ABC's Food Lion story represents a fine tradition of "muckraking," but National Review finds holes. 4. AIDS deaths in New York City decline by 30 percent. Or is it 50 percent? 5. Was... continue reading
MRC Alert: Nets Claim Food Lion Story True; CNN Hiring Liberals 1. A jury awards punitive damages to ABC. The networks portray ABC's story as true and the jury decision as an impediment to good reporting. 2. How true was ABC's story. A New Republic article reports the outtakes don't match Prime Time Live's claims. 3. The jury demanded the Executive Producer, a Friend of Bill, personally pay damages. And CNN wants to put him in charge. 4. CNN has already picked up a liberal veteran of ABC and NBC. 5. The unaired tape tells quite a different story than... continue reading
Clinton Innocent; Poetic Justice for Newt; Clift's Confusion 1. In Inauguration Day coverage, CNN's Bernard Shaw and USA Today's Walter Shapiro defend Clinton's attack on conservatives. One calls it "stirring." 2. The Washington Post and CBS paint Clinton as innocent victim in Democratic fundraising controversy. 3. Networks jump on Gingrich , but as Clinton proposes new finance rules they've failed to report many of his ethical breaches. And a network VP worries about too much emphasis on Clinton scandals! 4. "Poetic justice" is how Time magazine describes the punishment for Newt Gingrich. 5. Eleanor Clift offers an unreliable statement on... continue reading
Stars on Clinton; Hillary Misunderstood; CBS Finds Bias 1. Celebrities come out for Clinton's Inaugural. One says that voting for Clinton will prevent future murders. 2. CBS portrays Hillary Clinton as oppressed and misunderstood, but she complains about the "right wing press presence." 3. George Stephanopoulos makes his debut on ABC News. 4. The special Gingrich counsel James Cole found the charge baseless, but Al Hunt again claimed that Gingrich "looted money from kids." 5. The chance of the "Soviet Union taking over the world just seemed as likely to me as invaders from Mars," Walter Cronkite recalls. 6. CBS... continue reading
DNC Revelations Ignored; Clymer the Democratic Adviser 1. Three major newspapers feature front page stories with revelations on the Huang/DNC fundraising front. But none of the network evening shows report any of it. 2. USA Today's Tony Mauro offers a gushing tribute to no "mere mortal" -- liberal law professor Laurence Tribe. 3. One reporter says Newt worse than McDermott while another argues that Democrats have not been aggressive enough at using media- provided ammunition. 4. The January 13 edition of Notable Quotables. 1) Three big newspapers on Thursday, January 16 uncovered different new aspects in the John Huang/Democratic fundraising... continue reading