Second, John Donvan took viewers through the developing coffee meetings story. He noted: "Now there are questions about how some of the guests at these and other functions ever got through the White House gates. The Clinton administration appears to have dropped screening procedures used by the Reagan and Bush White Houses to keep the wrong sorts of people from getting in. People like Eric Wynn, a stock promoter reported this weekend to be linked to the Bonanno crime family and who served two years in prison for securities fraud. Others include, Wang Jun, one of China's leading arms merchants, Gregory Loutchansky, head of a company said to be tied to the Russian mafia. And Jorge Cabrera who was convicted of drug charges after contributing $20,00 to the Democratic Party..."

Not exactly groundbreaking revelations, except to ABC viewers. While World News Tonight did air a story on Cabrera last October, they ignored the others when uncovered by other outlets:
-- Eric Wynn's role was revealed in the February 1 Washington Post, but not reported by ABC that night.
-- Wang Jun's attendance became known on December 20 and Bill Clinton was asked about it at a press conference that day. World News Tonight: no story. On January 29 The Washington Times discovered that on the day Wang Jun visited the White House the man who helped him get a U.S. visa donated $50,000 to the DNC. World News Tonight: no story.
-- Gregory Loutchansky's attendance was uncovered by the Associated Press on November 3. World News Tonight: no mention.

On the CBS Evening News Monday night (February 3), Phil Jones offered a lengthy piece on John Huang's possible involvement in economic espionage as he got numerous top secret briefings and maintained his security clearance months after he left the Commerce Department. Of course, these charges weren't reported by CBS when raised in the January 16 Los Angeles Times and January 30 Washington Times.

Continuing its policy of shying away from Democratic scandal stories, Monday's NBC Nightly News didn't include a fundraising story.

Note it's "their" money, not the taxpayer's.

Broder's third question went again to Whitman: "I read in the paper this morning that you had backed off now on asking Congress to re-open the welfare bill to take care of legal immigrants, who they are now cutting off. Why would you back off of that?"

You get the idea. But Broder isn't the only Post staffer upset by welfare reform. E.J. Dionne, a former New York Times and Washington Post reporter who now pens a column for the Post, asserted in his January 31 offering:
"Mary Jo Bane, an Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services until she quit, rightly thought the President was wrong in signing the welfare 'reform' bill. She described the problem well in an interview with Post reporters Judith Havemann and Barbara Vobejda: 'Poor people tend to be concentrated in certain areas of states that don't have the resources to take care of them.'"
Dionne's answer: "If we were serious about welfare reform," he argued, "we'd have the federal government put up the money required to support our poorest families and to create jobs," and "we'd funnel some money" to voluntary and church groups.

I'm trying to choke back my tears now that I know he feels my pain. And forgives it.