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Sudden Wealth Syndrome; NRA Out of Context; Admiring Bradley; "Chug-a-Lug" Bush 6) Letterman's "Top Ten Headlines During a George W. Bush Presidency."
The March 14 World News Tonight on ABC led with cloned piglets and used the balloting in Florida as a peg for a piece about how in states like Florida, which ban voting by those convicted of a crime, nearly one in three black men are barred from voting. The matching piglets also topped the CBS Evening News on which anchor Dan Rather warned the upcoming campaign "could be the most expensive, nastiest presidential campaign yet." Bill Whitaker examined the themes emerging from each camp. Gore, he related, is hitting what Whitaker described as Bush's "massive tax cut" and Gore claims Bush does nothing to save Social Security or Medicare. Bush, Whitaker relayed, accuses Gore of hypocrisy over campaign finance reform and reminds audiences of Gore's transgressions. Whitaker asserted that they are the same is some ways: "Both are well-born sons of big name politicians, with no aversion to the political down and dirty." Escalating violence in Kosovo led the NBC Nightly News
which used a Florida judge's ruling against a voucher program as a hook for
a piece on how Gore and Bush view vouchers and school choice. Anchor
Tom Brokaw soon got to NBC's big scoop of the day, a dangerous new syndrome
spreading from California: Reporter Jim Avila explained the alleged disease, as
transcribed by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth: "It's an unusual virus with
unusual symptoms. The hot zone, California's Silicon Valley, where experts
say sixty new millionaires created every day. Symptoms: Too much money, too
much loneliness. After treating many patients, psychologists have a name for
it: 'Sudden Wealth Syndrome,' and a center of study." Continuing to treat the "syndrome" as a serious subject Avila proceeded to showcase as a victim the current CEO of Northern Light, an Internet search company, who before accepting his current position was bored at being part of the "idle rich." I have a better syndrome for NBC to explore: "Stupid News Priorities Syndrome." Case in point: NBC Nightly News producers who decided "Sudden Wealth Syndrome" deserved an entire story but have allocated just four seconds to Maria Hsia's conviction.
The stories also all played a clip from NRA President Charlton Heston asserting in an NRA TV ad: "Mr. Clinton, when what you say is wrong, that's a mistake. When you know it's wrong, that's a lie." ABC's John Cochran insisted that shows how "the NRA continues to make its fight personal." But only NBC's Pete Williams explained the justification for Heston calling Clinton a liar, noting what preceded the Heston soundbite: "The NRA is running TV ads claiming that trigger locks would not have prevented the first grader shooting because that gun came from a house authorities say was used by drug dealers." CBS's Bill Plante did note how the NRA blamed Clinton's refusal to compromise, but offered no details on which laws were therefore not enacted. Below is a rundown of the March 13 ABC, CBS and NBC stories on the NRA and Clinton followed by the full quote from LaPierre and complete text of the NRA's new TV ad. -- ABC World News Tonight. Anchor Charles Gibson intoned: John Cochran, as transcribed by MRC analyst Jessica
Anderson, began with Clinton's retort: "The President said the gun lobby
is using smear tactics, especially a claim by an NRA official implying that
Clinton refuses to enforce current gun control laws so he can use tragic
shooting incidents to argue for more gun control." Viewers then heard from Al Gore: "Mr. LaPierre's
comment reveals a kind of sickness at the very heart of the NRA." Cochran put the burden on the NRA: "Behind the
name-calling on both sides is a bitter fight over gun legislation, especially
over how much time should be required to make background checks on anyone who
tries to buy a gun at a gun show. The gun lobby has distributed fliers on
Capitol Hill urging members to vote against a measure that would only force
discussion of gun control. And the NRA continues to make its fight
personal." -- CBS Evening News. Dan Rather: "The battle over gun control has taken on a new and personal note of nastiness. Among other things, President Clinton today accused the gun lobby, and by inference its Republican allies, of quote 'political smear tactics.' and that was just for starters. CBS's Bill Plante at the White House reports what the NRA said and did to draw such a sharp presidential response." Plante started his piece, as transcribed by MRC analyst
Brian Boyd: "The long running feud between the Clinton administration and
the National Rifle Association has escalated to new levels of bitterness. The
President wants new gun controls, the NRA charges that the administration fails
to enforce the laws already on the books. NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre
suggested over the weekend that Mr. Clinton cares more about playing politics
than about gun violence." Plante noted: "In a TV advertising campaign, NRA
President Charlton Heston charges that is was not the NRA but President Clinton
who blocked tougher gun laws, because he was unwilling to compromise and he all
but calls the President a liar." After a supporting soundbite from a political analyst, Plante concluded: "And the Congress could yet give the public some action on gun control before the election. But the White House and the NRA are fighting over who gets the blame at the polls the next time there's a gun rampage in a school." -- NBC Nightly News. Tom Brokaw stressed the Clinton-Gore reaction: "Tonight President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore with some of their strongest comments ever about the NRA, the National Rifle Association. This after the Executive Vice President of the NRA charged over the weekend that President Clinton is willing to accept a certain level of violence to further his own political agenda. Well that brought heated and pointed responses today from the President and from Vice President Gore whose making gun control a primary theme of his own presidential campaign." Pete Williams opened, as transcribed by MRC analyst
Geoffrey Dickens: "The President who wants to make more gun control part
of his legacy today answered back at the National Rifle Association as the
debate takes on an unusually bitter tone. Responding to the NRA's accusation
over the weekend that the President is willing to accept some killing to help
push for more gun laws the White House called that quote, 'outrageous and
disgusting.' And Mr. Clinton dared the NRA spokesman to repeat the statement
to the parents of recent shooting victims including the Michigan first
grader." Williams moved on: "As the President attacked the
gun lobby today in a speech in Cleveland the NRA refused to repeat its
accusation made over the weekend while continuing to say that the White House
is playing politics. Failing to work harder at enforcing gun laws already on
the books." -- ABC's Good
Morning America on Monday ran a piece by Andrea McCarren, which began: "It
was the most contentious battle yet between the National Rifle Association and
President Clinton." -- The full quotes. Now compare the implications and meanings you gathered from the shortened soundbites above with what you learn from reading the context for the words extracted in the network story soundbites: MRC analyst Jessica Anderson tracked down from the March
12 edition of ABC's This Week the full context for LaPierre's criticism of
Clinton: As for daring to suggest Clinton is a liar, here's the
context for that ending line in one of at least two NRA ads running in the
Washington, DC media market which feature Charlton Heston:
MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens noticed the contrast and took down the March 14 questions: -- Matt Lauer to Wayne LaPierre: "Let me read you
what you said, quote where you said, President Clinton is quote, 'willing to
accept a certain level of killing to further his political agenda.' Do you
really believe that?" -- Lauer then moved to Lockhart: "The Vice President
said recently that Mr. LaPierre's comments quote reveal 'a kind of sickness at
the very heart of the NRA.' Would you agree with that?" -- Back to LaPierre: "Let me go back to Mr. LaPierre. What about that? You fought tooth and nail to stop the Brady Bill and now you're complaining the Brady Bill is not being enforced." -- And over to Lockhart: "Let's let the White House answer that. Mr. Lockhart go ahead." -- Finally, back to pressing LaPierre: "Mr. LaPierre let me ask you real quickly. Do you think the President is lying when he talks about the NRA's record. In a new ad Charlton Heston says, he's the President of the NRA, that when you say something wrong that's a mistake, when you know it's wrong that's a lie. Referring to President Clinton's comments about the NRA. Is the President lying?"
In his March 9 analysis Alter praised Bradley for prodding the Democratic Party to "focus more on issues like health care, child poverty, campaign finance reform." Alter admonished: "In his speech today he indicated something very important -- that future generations will judge us harshly if we don't use this prosperity more aggressively to deal with some of these long range problems." Here's the full quote from Alter: "He didn't have the nimbleness that you sometimes need on one of these campaigns to be kind of loose on the court which he was in basketball but wasn't as much in this campaign. But Chris, I think that that and his failure to fight back early and the other tactical mistakes that he made kind of obscure some of the larger issues that he was trying to raise and he's a decent man who was trying to change the Democratic Party in a more compassionate way. And I think in the larger sweep of history his tactical mistakes will seem smaller than the fact that he tried to get the Democratic Party to focus more on issues like health care, child poverty, campaign finance reform and in his speech today he indicated something very important -- that future generations will judge us harshly if we don't use this prosperity more aggressively to deal with some of these long range problems." Anchor Chris Jansing wondered: "But realistically how much influence can he have? I mean the general perception is that the two Democratic candidates in truth were not that far apart on most of the issues." Well, he won't have as much influence as Alter would like, as he regretted: "That is correct. I don't think that he will have any profound influence on the party platform. But what he will do is he will be a kind of a constant prod I think even after, if Al Gore is elected President, a prod saying there from the sidelines, hey can't we move a little more aggressively on poverty, can't we move a little faster on children's health and to say, look, aim higher. That was really the point of his whole campaign was to try to have us do better. And even though he messed up the mechanics of his campaign, he made a lot of mistakes, that basic message I think will be a part of the debate from here on in."
In between, Brokaw very seriously assessed the campaign and naturally didn't see anything liberal about Gore but insisted Bush had moved toward "the harder-right within the Republican Party and get identified as a Pat Robertson Republican." Yeah, "identified" that way by NBC News. In the middle of talking about the John McCain-Maria Shriver confrontation in which McCain told her to "please get out of here," Brokaw joked: "And it was important for George Bush to have won on Super Tuesday to put that behind him because the Spring is coming on, it's the keg season, he's got a lot of chug-a-lug contests he's got to get to." Returning to McCain on the March 10 show, Letterman wondered what all the fuss was about over McCain's comment. Brokaw also came to McCain's defense: "In fact it was understandable that he would behave that way. In fact you don't want your leaders to be all milquetoast, you want them to have honest emotions and he'd not had an easy day, they'd been campaigning a long time. They knew that it was over..." Letterman next queried: "What do you think about the
guys we are left with now. It looks like it will be Gore, it looks like it will
be George W. for sure I guess. And a friend of mine, a friend of your's told
me on the phone the other day that Al Gore would beat George W. like a
drum." ++ See Brokaw's pokes at Bush and Gore and hear the audience's reactions. Wednesday morning MRC Webmaster Andy Szul will post a RealPlayer clip of Brokaw on Letterman. Go to: http://www.mrc.org
10. "President Streaks Supreme Court" If you're wondering why I featured this list, other than the fact that it's humorous and the MRC is a non-partisan foundation which has run past Letterman Top Tens on Gore, it's to illustrate the public perception of one of the two major party candidates. Comedians like Jay Leno and David Letterman may strengthen public opinion by portraying a public figure in a certain way, but they never tell jokes they don't believe match already formed images of persons or events. The fact that Letterman would showcase a Top Ten list about Bush as a lightweight and a bumbler demonstrates that is how much of the public now sees him. The question for the next few months will be is that more because of reality or media bias. -- Brent Baker
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With
Super Tuesday Two having fizzled, of the broadcast networks on Tuesday night
only the CBS Evening News even ran a full story directly related to the
presidential campaign while NBC Nightly News found time to explore the latest
menace in the land: "Sudden Wealth Syndrome."
The feud
between the NRA and Bill Clinton generated full stories on the ABC, CBS and
NBC evening newscasts Monday night focusing on the ugly tone of the battle.
The argument had gained a "personal note of nastiness," maintained
Dan Rather. But in quoting in isolation NRA Executive Director Wayne
LaPierre's soundbite about how Clinton is "willing to accept a certain
level of killing to further his political agenda," they failed to tell
viewers how LaPierre preceded his assertion by explaining how Clinton had
rejected a deal on many issues over his disagreement in one area.
Challenging
LaPierre, setting up Lockhart. The NRA's Wayne LaPierre and White House Press
Secretary Joe Lockhart appeared in the same segment on Tuesday's Today, but
while interviewer Matt Lauer demanded that LaPierre defend NRA claims he asked
Lockhart if he agreed with Gore's attack on the NRA.
Newsweek
reporter and NBC News analyst Jonathan Alter criticized the mechanics of how
Bill Bradley ran his campaign, but admired his liberal goals. Catching up with
an item from last Thursday when Bill Bradley dropped out of the presidential
contest, MRC intern Ken Shepherd took down Alter's words as uttered on MSNBC
just after Bradley's 11am ET announcement.
From the
March 8 Late Show with David Letterman, the "Top Ten Headlines During a
George W. Bush Presidency." Copyright 2000 by Worldwide Pants, Inc.