Cox Clogged by Commerce; Today Showcased Webcam Zoomed in on Goldberg
1) "The Commerce
Department is now blocking" the "declassification and
release" of the Cox Report, FNC's Carl Cameron told Brit Hume.
2) NBC's Gwen Ifill
complained that after "a month of public outrage" over the
Columbine shooting "the Senate still remains tangled up in finger
pointing over gun control." CBS highlighted how "trust is the
theme of every Bradley speech."
3) Steve Roberts arguing for
gun regulations: "Are they preventive? No....They do work. They
don't, there are no guarantees, they don't prevent anything." Got
it?
4) Today showcased Michael
Moore's Webcam focused on Lucianne Goldberg's apartment windows.
Instead of condemning the invasion of privacy, Katie Couric laughed about
it.
5) The Washington Post's
Howard Kurtz spread a CyberAlert finding to a greater audience, noting how
CBS and MSNBC ignored Chung.
6
>>>
Watch a video replay of MRC Chairman Brent Bozell on Tuesday night's
O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel. Wednesday morning the MRC's
Sean Henry and Kristina Sewell will post, in RealPlayer format, his
four-and-a-half minute appearance in which he outlined how the broadcast
networks have refused to cover major disclosures on the Chinese espionage
and contributions fronts. To watch the interview, go to: http://www.mediaresearch.org
All videos are posted for one month on the
MRC's biased videos page: http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/biasvideo.html
<<<
>>> If you haven't yet, check
out the MRC's new Special Report. "All the News That's Fit to
Skip: Network Apathy Toward Chinese Contributions and Espionage." To
read it online, go to: http://www.mediaresearch.org/specialreports/news/sr19990514.html
<<<
Corrections. Missing a
word and a letter in the May 18 CyberAlert. "I don't why since
Davis has paid no penalty for all his lying" should have read:
"I don't know why..." And, "No try to follow this Davis
spin of the truth" should have been "Now try..."
1
The Cox Report has been delayed some more by embarrassed Clinton
operatives, Fox News Channel's Carl Cameron revealed Tuesday night. On
Special Report with Brit Hume the host of the same name asked Cameron:
"What about the fabled Cox report on Chinese influence and the spying
scandal? What is the status of that?"
Carl Cameron
disclosed: "This is the report that says China both stole nuclear
secrets and acquired through legal tech exports all kinds of U.S. secrets.
It has been approved for release by the National Security Agency, the CIA
and the FBI but the Commerce Department is now blocking its
declassification and release. And there is some expectation that part of
their objection to its release is their approval of exports of super
computers to China. China has some 600 as result of Clinton administration
policy and many of those computers have been used for nuclear
testing."
2
The broadcast networks were not, as usual, concerned about China Tuesday
night or morning. ABC and CBS led in the evening with the Federal Reserve
Board warning that they are worried about inflation while NBC went first
with gun control. NBC's Gwen Ifill zeroed in on how after "a month
of public outrage" over the Columbine shooting "the Senate still
remains tangled up in finger pointing over gun control." All last
year the networks insisted the Lewinsky matter was part of Clinton's
"personal life" but Tuesday night, in his profile of Bill
Bradley, CBS reporter Phil Jones found even Democrats don't trust Al
Gore so "trust is the theme of every Bradley speech." (More
below)
Other Tuesday
night topics: ABC and CBS ran full stories on a study in JAMA about how a
drug called "tremacamra" can reduce the risk of getting a cold.
The CBS Evening News "Eye on America" segment explored a new
technique to correct spina bifida: surgery on the fetus. NBC Nightly News
provided an In Depth piece on the bad things that happen later in life to
exotic zoo animals bred to show off as babies. NBC also delivered a report
on "Benecol," a new margarine that lowers your cholesterol. A
look at rising movie ticket prices wrapped up the NBC show as ABC's
World News Tonight ended with an item of how the first female matador in
Spain has decided to quit since chauvinistic men refused to appear with
her.
I thought we were
supposed to celebrate "diversity."
-- CBS Evening
News, May 18. Phil Jones caught up with the Bill Bradley campaign in the
Granite State:
"...On the stump in New Hampshire Bradley,
who also played politics for 18 years as U.S. Senator from New Jersey, is
finding disgruntled Democrats who are looking for an alternative to
Gore."
Man: "I'm not sure that I trust what Gore
says."
Jones: "Trust is the theme of every Bradley
speech."
Bradley: "I think one of the key things here
is trust and by that I mean trust in the President as an
individual...."
-- NBC Nightly News. Tom Brokaw greeted viewers
at the top of the show: "Tonight in the U.S. Senate the haunting
experience of Columbine is altering the lines of power on a major bill
about kids and crime and guns."
Gwen Ifill began by assuming that public outrage
means more gun control is the logical action to take: "Four weeks
after the Columbine High School shootings, a month of public outrage, and
yet the Senate still remains tangled up in finger pointing over gun
control."
After competing soundbites from Senators Lott and
Daschle she noted how the Senate agreed to require gun sellers to provide
safety locks and to "ban bomb making information from the
Internet," though she failed to explain how the government would
achieve such an impossible goal. Next, she showcased how Speaker Denny
Hastert is now for more gun control, in his words, "common sense
things."
3
Gun control does work, but it doesn't prevent anything bad from
happening. Or maybe it's just "symbolic" since it's not
"preventive." But then again, it is "common sense" to
enact more of these ineffective rules. So goes the liberal reasoning on
gun control as nicely expressed Sunday by Washington media veteran Steve
Roberts, aka Mr. Cokie.
MRC analyst Paul
Smith caught this illuminating exchange on CNN's Late Edition between
Roberts, now with U.S. News but once with the New York Times, and The
Weekly Standard's Tucker Carlson.
Steve Roberts:
"One of the comments that Attorney General Reno said to you, she used
the word common sense and the fact is that most Americans think gun
control, child safety locks on guns, waiting periods, issues of these kind
that they make sense. Are they preventive? No. Do they guarantee? No. But
if the Republican Party allows its obligations to the NRA to pull them out
of the mainstream and appear to be against common sense provisions as we
were talking last week, I think they are going to pay a price for
it."
Tucker Carlson: "But if they don't work,
why are they common sense?"
Roberts: "They do work. They don't, there
are no guarantees, they don't prevent anything. They increase the odds
of having a civilized and sane debate about this."
We need gun
control so we can have a "civilized" debate? Gun control
doesn't work but being for it does make liberals feel morally superior
to conservatives, especially when Republican leaders are falling over
themselves to cave in so they gain media approval.
4
You've got a continuous camera feed invading Lucianne Goldberg's
privacy by zooming in on her apartment windows, hee, hee, giggle, giggle.
Isn't that funny. She's getting what she deserves.
That's the
attitude Today co-host Katie Couric conveyed Tuesday morning in bringing
left-wing crank Michael Moore aboard to promote his Webcam look at
Goldberg's New York apartment windows. Instead of remaining consistent
and condemning his invasion of her privacy as the network stars did to
Goldberg last year for encouraging Linda Tripp to tape her calls with
Monica Lewinsky, Katie Couric spent five minutes giving legitimacy to
Moore's public relations gimmick for his new show on Bravo, The Awful
Truth.
MRC analyst
Geoffrey Dickens took down much of the May 18 interview, noting when
Couric offered approving laughter:
Katie Couric:
"Michael Moore put the problems of Flint, Michigan on the map with
his documentary called Roger and Me. His latest target is New York book
agent Lucianne Goldberg. Remember her? She's the one who convinced Linda
Tripp to secretly record Monica Lewinsky. Well Moore says that was an
invasion of privacy so he's decided to turn the tables on Goldberg. It all
started with a chance meeting in a makeup room of a TV talk show. [clip
from Moore's television show of him at FNC's studios] And so now Moore
has trained a live 24 hour a day Internet camera on Lucianne Goldberg's
apartment. He calls it the 'I see Lucy cam.' Michael Moore what are
you doing?"
[approving giggles and laughter from Couric]
Moore: "Well I got a new show on TV called
the Awful Truth. It's on Bravo and as part of our show I just thought it
would be interesting to turn the tables on her. I was on the show with
her, on this Drudge show, and she said that she didn't think it was wrong
to violate somebody's privacy if they were a threat to the country and I
said, 'How would you like it if I filmed you in your living room?' And she
said, 'Well if I was a threat to the country you should.' And you know I
keep seeing her on TV still. I thought this whole impeachment thing was
over and I just, well she is a threat to the country and I want this thing
to go away. So we put up this Webcam, which is completely legal, on her
apartment and anybody can log in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And we are
also asking, you know, my, our fellow citizens of the country who want to
keep an eye on her in case, you know, she's up to something else. Take us
down another road where we get distracted for a year and a half. Just keep
an eye on her and let's try and stop her next time."
Couric: "Now this is a live Internet picture
that we are showing right now of Lucianne Goldberg's apartment. Before we
talk about what you've been able to see in there, which I don't think is
too much, you had a lot of people willing to set up the camera in their
adjacent apartments. Is that right?"
Moore: "Yeah people all over the
neighborhood were willing to do this....
Couric: "Now I understand the most exciting
thing you've seen is somebody watching Touched by an Angel Sunday night. I
watch that as well."....
Moore: "....We have listed, you know, the
words to the Fourth Amendment which is our privacy amendment. You know
because, actually we don't believe this is the right thing to do. And that
you know this whole thing started with her. You know we were just
wondering. I think most people wondering, who are watching this, is when's
this thing gonna go away? Ken Starr is still in office, he stills
prosecuting people. I still see Lucianne Goldberg on these MSNBC shows.
You know it should go. There's other problems going on in the country
right now that we should be addressing."
Moore made one
successful film nearly 20 years ago and now he won't go away.
Couric then
prompted Moore to outline his extortion demands: "Now there's a way
for her to stop this invasion of her privacy you say if she will do a
couple of things. What are those?"
Moore: "Well I think an apology to the
country for putting us through a year and a half, this long national
nightmare."
Couric: "Realistically you don't think
that's gonna happen do you?"
Moore: "That's probably not going to happen,
no. I don't know she's threatened to put up a different. She's trying to
sell window space now I heard in the paper yesterday whatever. She's gonna
put logos up there and charge companies for them. I don't know."
Couric: "Well that's pretty
resourceful."
Moore: "Yeah well, but you know that's how
conservatives are. They're much better at that than we are you know.
They're always thinking."
Couric: "And you want her to read the Fourth
Amendment as well you think that would be a good thing?"
Moore: "Yeah read the Fourth Amendment and
learn to respect other people's privacy and you know we'll be happy with
that."
Couric: "So she has said in response to
this. 'Oh please if this is a joke it isn't funny and if it's serious it's
probably actionable which is fine since my lawyers haven't had anything to
do in weeks.' Do you think that she is going to file suit?"
Moore: "I think so probably. I hope she
does. Yeah I think it would be great if she actually went to court and won
a case about respecting somebody's privacy rights considering how she
thought it was okay to tape record somebody without them knowing about it.
You know it would be good to see a Lucianne Goldberg, you know, court case
saying that someone's right to privacy is something that should be
cherished."
Couric: "We, incidentally, invited Lucianne
Goldberg to appear this morning, she declined. But she will be appearing
tonight on Hockenberry on MSNBC."
Moore: "Yeah see what I mean, she's still
around!"
[Couric laughs]
Moore: "I mean where does? You know we've
got, you know more people were laid off last year than any year in the
1990s. We have more personal bankruptcies filed last year. These are the
issues that aren't being discussed. This is what we should be focusing on.
And you know why is this President participating in this bombing in
Yugoslavia? I mean why aren't we talking about that instead of having her
on Hockenberry again."
Couric: "Michael Moore. Thank you for that
political statement and thank you for coming by this morning. Nice to see
you."
Goldberg and Tripp
never got such nice interviews on Today. It helps to be a left-wing
gimmickmeister with a target the media despise.
5
Great minds report alike. In his Monday "Media Notes" column,
Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz ruminated about why Kathleen
Willey's appearances last week on cable talk shows generated little
wider media interest. Then, in a paragraph relaying the same information
as did a CyberAlert last week, Kurtz noted how only FNC covered Johnny
Chung's testimony "for more than 20 minutes" and neither CBS
or MSNBC ran stories that night.
Here is the first
third of Kurtz's May 17 "Style" section report:
Kathleen Willey was all over cable
television last week. No one much cared.
The former White House volunteer, whose
tale of presidential groping mesmerized the country on "60
Minutes" last year, charged the Clinton administration with trying to
intimidate her. In appearances with CNBC's Chris Matthews, CNN's Larry
King and MSNBC's John Hockenberry, Willey expressed outrage at what she
described as a White House effort to discredit her.
The lack of journalistic interest might be
ascribed to sex-scandal fatigue after President Clinton's long impeachment
ordeal. Or it might be said that the media have moved on to graver
subjects, from the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade to the
continuing fallout from the Littleton shootings.
Or, just perhaps, the news business has a
limited attention span, chewing up its subjects and spitting them out once
their novelty value has been sufficiently exploited.
Just look at the Monica Lewinsky meteor
that streaked across the media horizon. In March, the ex-intern was the
much-panted-after interview of the year, delivering Super Bowl-like
numbers for Barbara Walters. In April, her marquee value had shrunk to the
point that "Today" bumped her on a busy news day. By last
weekend, she was trolling for yuks on "Saturday Night Live."
In 1997, Democratic fundraiser Johnny Chung
was a key figure in the Clinton campaign contributions scandal that
dominated the front pages all year. On Tuesday, when he finally testified
before a House panel, only Fox News Channel provided more than 20 minutes
of live coverage. Chung's testimony about his use of $300,000 from a
senior Chinese intelligence official wasn't mentioned on the "CBS
Evening News" or MSNBC's "News With Brian Williams."....
END Excerpt
Sound familiar?
From the May 12 CyberAlert: "ABC, CNN, FNC and NBC covered Johnny
Chung's House testimony Tuesday night, but not CBS or MSNBC's News
with Brian Williams. ABC highlighted how Chung blamed the campaign finance
system. Of the three cable news channels only FNC carried Chung live for
more than 20 minutes."
It was great of Kurtz to spread the information
about the lack of news coverage of Chung to a wider audience, but remember
that you read about it here first. --
Brent Baker
3
>>>
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