Cheney Tagged "Hard Right"; Democratic Attacks Amplified; "Held Hostage" Over Abortion
1) ABC, CBS and NBC descriptions
of Dick Cheney: One of the "most conservative members" of Congress,
"very hardline conservative,"
"a bedrock conservative," a "rock-solid conservative" with
a "very conservative record."
2) Tuesday night the networks
passed along Democratic attacks on Cheney and listed conservative votes to
back up the attacks. Dan Rather relayed how Democrats put Cheney "outside
the American mainstream." ABC's only Cheney expert put him "on the
far right" while Linda Douglass reported how Cheney grew rich at an oil
company while "consumers were paying a premium at the pump."
3) "Cheney's politics are of
the hard-right variety," Bryant Gumbel asserted in a pejorative tag for
Cheney. On GMA George Stephanopoulos and Dean Reynolds saw a contradiction
between opposing the Department of Education and caring about education.
4) MSNBC's Brian Williams
suggested the GOP pro-life stance is "damaging" to party prospects
while Tom Brokaw worried the party is "held hostage" to those with
"strong anti-abortion views."
5) Clueless Brokaw. FNC's Brit
Hume picked up on how Brokaw claimed Tom Ridge was vetoed because "the
Catholic Church and Jesse Helms said no way." With a frown, a perplexed
Hume repeated: "Jesse Helms?"
6) In a transcript read aloud by
FNC, an indignant Bill Clinton scolded a campaign finance investigator:
"Is this guilt by association, sir? What do you want to say?"
7) A liberal's dream tonight on
NBC's Law & Order as the show's star DA holds the President of a gun
manufacturer criminally liable for some murders committed with one of his
company's guns.
Correction: The July 25 CyberAlert misdated
Letterman's "Top Ten Shocking Facts About Dick Cheney." Given
it's timeliness, it obviously aired not on the January 24 show but on the
July 24 broadcast of the CBS program.
1
ABC,
CBS and NBC reporters are not hesitating to apply an ideological tag to
Dick Cheney as they developed quite a list of modifying terms to put
before the word "conservative" in describing him. On Tuesday
alone viewers heard these descriptions for Cheney, Bush's VP pick:
-- ABC: Linda
Douglass referred to him as one of the "most conservative
members" of Congress who had "a very conservative voting
record." Diane Sawyer sighed that while he "doesn't look
fire-breathing," he's "very conservative." George
Stephanopoulos dubbed him a "very hardline conservative."
-- CBS: Bill
Whitaker managed three different adjectives, tagging Cheney "a
bedrock conservative" and "a rock-solid conservative" with
a "a solidly conservative voting record." Whitaker also relayed
how Democrats are "planning to paint him as too far right and wrong
for the country." Plus, Bryant Gumbel put Cheney outside the
mainstream: "Cheney's politics are of the hard-right variety."
(More on Gumbel in item #3 below.)
-- NBC: Tom Brokaw noted Cheney's "stellar
conservative credentials" before Anne Thompson stressed his
"very conservative record." Lisa Myers agreed, recalling his
days in Congress: "His voting record? Very conservative."
As noted in the
July 25 CyberAlert, there's nothing necessarily wrong with this labeling
so long as the networks apply the same standard to Gore's VP candidates so
viewers hear liberals described with the same creativity at the same
frequency.
More about
the context for these quotes in items #2 and #3 below.
2
"The Republican ticket is now exquisitely balanced: A man of the
center who doesn't alienate the right has now chosen a man of the right
who doesn't alienate the center." So observed John J. Miller and
Ramesh Ponnuru in National Review's e-mailed Washington Bulletin on
Tuesday afternoon. But that's not how the network media saw the choice
since they certainly don't see Bush as any kind of moderate.
Instead of
concentrating on how the Cheney pick balances Bush the networks focused on
depicting Cheney as on the "far right," illustrated by his
strange votes against the ERA, funding abortion and Head Start. Tuesday
night the broadcast network evening shows all passed long the Democratic
spin about how Dick Cheney is out of touch, with some reporters eagerly
providing evidence to back up the charge. Only NBC noted how Bush's pick
was "applauded by the right."
ABC's Linda
Douglass offered only one expert opinion on Cheney's days in Congress and
she insisted "he was on the far right." Douglass stressed how
"he was one of the few to vote against more funds for the Older
Americans Act, services for the elderly." Douglass reported that
Cheney grew rich running Halliburton while consumers were getting screwed:
"Records show he sold some of his holdings for $5 million last June,
just as oil prices were skyrocketing and consumers were paying a premium
at the pump."
CBS's Dan Rather
stressed how Democrats "blast Cheney's voting record in Congress as
again quote 'outside the American mainstream' because of Cheney's votes
against the Equal Rights for Women Amendment, against a woman's right to
choose abortion..." CBS also featured a soundbite from Democratic
Senator Tom Daschle putting Cheney on "the far right."
Here's a rundown
of Tuesday night, July 25, broadcast network coverage, a night all the
shows began with the Corcorde crash.
-- ABC's World
News Tonight. Dean Reynolds reported on the 3pm ET announcement of Cheney.
Reynolds stressed: "Then too there's the issue of former President
Bush's role in all of this. Sources say he was considerably more active as
an advocate for Cheney than the campaign let on, though that may expose
the Governor to charges that he's unduly influenced by his father."
Linda Douglas then
provided a brief for how right wing Cheney was in Congress and how his
business dealing can be exploited by Democrats. She began, as transcribed
by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth:
"A close look at his ten years in Congress reveals that Cheney was
one of its most conservative members, say analysts who have looked at his
record."
Sarah Binder, The Brookings Institution: "If you look at any of the
big issues in the 1980s, he was on the far right."
Douglas: "Democrats are already isolating the most controversial
votes. On abortion, 26 of 27 times he voted to restrict women's access to
abortion, including in cases of rape and incest. On gun control, he voted
against restricting the sale of so-called 'cop killer bullets' and
against a waiting period before buying a hand gun. He voted against the
Safe Drinking Water Act, against stiffer sanctions for air polluters. He
was one of the few to vote against more funds for the Older Americans Act,
services for the elderly, and he voted ten times against imposing
sanctions on South Africa during the struggle over Apartheid. As Secretary
of Defense, he defended the policy that did not permit gays to serve in
the military."
Cheney in an old clip: "It's based upon the proposition that gay
lifestyle is incompatible with military service."
Douglas moved on
to his business career: "His years in the private sector will also be
scrutinized. He became rich in his years as chairman of the oil services
giant Halliburton. Records show he sold some of his holdings for $5
million last June, just as oil prices were skyrocketing and consumers were
paying a premium at the pump."
Jeffrey Freedman, Oil Industry Analyst: "The appreciation of
Haliburton stock has everything to do with increasing oil prices and
natural gas prices over the last twelve to fifteen months."
Douglas concluded: "Cheney is one of the few vice presidential
candidates who have come from the private sector. That means Halliburton,
a company that does business in a hundred countries, may be examined as
closely as the candidate himself. Democrats think they'll have a field day
painting Cheney and George Bush as tools of big oil, but Cheney is an old
Washington hand. Republicans are confident he can take care of
himself."
-- CBS Evening
News. Anchor Dan Rather announced: "In the presidential campaign, the
official announcement and first photo-op today of Republican George Bush
and his running mate Richard Cheney. Democrats were quick to portray the
ticket as quote 'two Texas oilmen' because Cheney was chief of a big
Dallas-based oil supply conglomerate. They also blast Cheney's voting
record in Congress as again quote, 'outside the American mainstream'
because of Cheney's votes against the Equal Rights for Women Amendment,
against a woman's right to choose abortion -- against abortion as Cheney
prefers to put it -- and Cheney's votes against gun control. Republicans
see it all differently, most of them hailing Bush's choice and Cheney's
experience."
Bill Whitaker
opened his subsequent piece: "Though he promised an electrifying
choice to fit his self-styled new Republican campaign, George W. Bush
instead reached back to the past to the steady, tried and true."
Whitaker later
asserted that "Cheney's a rock-solid conservative who manages to
appeal to party moderates." (Earlier, live on CBS just after Bush's
3pm ET announcement, Whitaker delivered a similar formulation: "Now
Cheney is a bedrock conservative but he manages to reach out to moderates
in this party.")
After relaying how
Democrats blasted his voting record against abortion and the ERA, Whitaker
played this soundbite from Tom Daschle: "He is probably as far right
as anybody in the Republican Party today."
Whitaker concluded: "Now Democrats are going over Cheney's record
with a fine-toothed comb. His voting record against gun control and
environmental controls, his medical record of mild heart attacks, his
business record as head of a huge energy concern, planning to paint him as
too far right and wrong for the country."
Rather added that
a CBS News/New York Times poll of Republican convention delegates
determined that just "one percent named Cheney as their first choice
for Vice President. The delegates top choice, at 11 percent, was Governor
Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania."
-- NBC Nightly
News. David Gregory concluded his piece on the day's announcement:
"The Gore campaign is sharpening its knives. Democrats will attack
Cheney as too conservative and Bush as too influenced by his father to
make a bolder choice. A senior aide to the Vice President says tonight
Gore was quite 'relieved' to hear of Bush's pick."
Tom Brokaw
introduced a look at Cheney's record by noting how "Dick Cheney is a
veteran of the Washington scene, a hard-core Republican with stellar
conservative credentials." Brokaw cautioned, "Cheney's long
record in Washington is widely admired, but it also leaves a trail for
Democrats to attack."
Anne Thompson
examined "some serious questions" about his heart before getting
to his ideology: "Tonight Democrats raising questions about his
political past, a decade in Congress, a very conservative record."
Thompson offered some examples and then aired assessments of Cheney from
the right and left: "Voting against the Equal Rights Amendment for
Women, against funding for Head Start, and federal funding of any
abortions. Voting for aide to the Nicaraguan Contras, prayer in schools
and President Reagan's Star Wars missile defense program. The selection of
Cheney applauded by the right."
David Keene, American Conservative Union: "It really ratifies what
conservatives have come to believe and that is George W. Bush is one of
them."
Thompson: "And that is fine with Democrats who now see a clear choice
in November."
Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif: "We're in the 21st Century, he's willing to
take us way back into the 20th Century. This country is not going to go
backwards."
Nice of Thompson
to give time to someone on the right, but I'm not sure all conservatives
would agree that Bush "is one of them."
3
You knew you could count on Bryant Gumbel to go beyond the "very
conservative" and "solidly conservative" labeling of Dick
Cheney. Tuesday morning Gumbel came through, MRC analyst Brian Boyd
noticed, as he delivered a pejorative tag to paint Cheney as some kind of
extremist: "Cheney's politics are of the hard-right variety."
The same morning
on ABC George Stephanopoulos labeled Cheney as a "hardline
conservative." The ABC analyst, who appeared without a balancing
conservative, also suggested, as did reporter Dean Reynolds, that Cheney's
opposition to the Department of Education somehow conflicts with Bush's
commitment to education. And Diane Sawyer was baffled that anyone could
oppose the Head Start boondoggle.
Here are some
labeling highlights from Tuesday morning, July 25, starting with Gumbel:
-- CBS's The Early
Show. Introducing an excerpt of Dan Rather's interview with Bush, Gumbel
gave a brief overview of Cheney's life, which ended: "Cheney's
politics are of the hard-right variety. He's opposed to abortion and gun
control and favors both capital punishment and school prayer."
Do you think
Gumbel will ever label Gore VP possibility John Kerry a "hard
left" Senator?
Immediately before
that assessment from Gumbel, reporter Bill Whitaker had maintained:
"Cheney brings a wealth of Washington and foreign affairs experience
to the ticket, yet he seems a cautious choice by Bush, who calls himself a
new Republican and talks of moving the party in a new direction. And
Cheney has a solidly conservative voting record on issues like abortion
that may not appeal to more moderate swing voters Bush says he's going
after."
-- ABC's Good
Morning America. Diane Sawyer suggested to analyst George Stephanopoulos:
"He is very conservative. Doesn't look fire-breathing, but he's very
conservative. Take us through the issues."
Stephanopoulos agreed, as noticed by MRC analyst Jessica Anderson:
"Well, he really is. You know, he's a very nice man, lots of
Democratic friends, including Gore's former chairman Tony Coelho. He's
very hardline conservative on the issues, starting out on gun control. He
voted against a ban on cop killer bullets, he voted against waiting
period, and here's the interesting one. He voted against the ban on
plastic guns, which could slip through airport metal detectors. Even the
NRA was for that."
Sawyer: "And there were only four people who voted against it."
Stephanopoulos: "Only four people in the Congress who voted with him,
so he was purer than the National Rifle Association on that issue. On
abortion, hundred percent pro-life voting record. Voted for a ban on
federal funding, even in cases of rape and incest. Now one the Democrats
are really gonna focus on, I think, because George W. Bush has talked a
lot about education. They're going to say Dick Cheney is as conservative
as Newt Gingrich. Voted against the Department of Education, voted against
Head Start funding."
A befuddled Sawyer: "Head Start?"
Stephanopoulos: "Even President Bush in 1988 was coming out for
increases in Head Start. Dick Cheney was against it. Finally, they'll look
at two more issues. He voted against the Older Americans Act and he also
had a long record against environmental regulations, voting against the
Clean Water Act and other regulations. So I think for Democrats, this is
real red meat for liberals and there's kind of something for
everyone."
Later, during the
8am news update, Dean Reynolds also argued you can't care about education
if you oppose federal funding of it. News reader Antonio Mora asked
Reynolds: "Now, are there any aspects of Cheney's voting record in
Congress that might also pose some problems for the ticket?"
Reynolds replied: "Well, he came from a very conservative state,
Wyoming, and he has a very conservative voting record. He voted against
the Education Department, which could be problematic for Bush, who has
made education a great theme of his campaign. He voted against a ban
against armor-piercing bullets -- he's very much against gun control, he
is pro-life. So there'll be some conservative questions that may undermine
the compassionate message that Governor Bush has tried so hard to
convey."
-- NBC's Today.
Lisa Myers culled Cheney's record for instances of his "very
conservative" record: "His voting record, very conservative.
Against abortion, against the Equal Rights Amendment for women, against
sanctions on South Africa to protest Apartheid, against strengthening fair
housing laws."
4
GOP pro-life stance "damaging" to Republican prospects as the
party is "held hostage" to those with "strong anti-abortion
views." Two quick examples of how network stars see pro-lifers as a
nuisance.
-- MSNBC's The
News with Brian Williams, July 24. MRC analyst Paul Smith caught this
query from Brian Williams to Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson:
"Dick Cheney is pro-life. You had, however, former President Gerald
R. Ford on the op-ed page of the New York Times recently urging the party
to perhaps pick a number two who is pro-choice in an attempt to broaden
the base. Do you think both people on this ticket being of a pro-life
stance is at all damaging to Republican hopes?"
-- Today, July 25.
Tom Brokaw came aboard to show more clips from his Bush interview,
including this one observed by MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens which did not
air on Nightly News the evening before: "May I ask you about a couple
of other issues. Is the Republican Party still held hostage to some degree
by people who have very strong anti-abortion views?"
Bush: "Not if you got a leader that sets an agenda that is positive
and optimistic. And that's the leader I intend to be."
In another
exchange shown on Today but not Nightly News Brokaw demonstrated a lack of
basic knowledge of campaign finance rules:
"A lot of your critics say that you are bought and paid for by big
companies in America because you have been able to raise $100 million,
spend $80 million so far. And it's all money that came in from people who
didn't have to do any reporting."
Bush set him straight: "That's just, they just don't know the facts.
I mean the money I raised for the primaries is all reported and you know
I've heard that campaign rhetoric before, but remember I'm running against
people that sold the Lincoln bedroom to raise money...."
5
FNC's Brit Hume picked up on how CBS News wouldn't let go of Dan Rather's
story about how Bush made a last-minute plea to Colin Powell. Hume was
also seemingly inspired by a CyberAlert item on Tom Brokaw's complete
cluelessness about influences within the Republican Party.
Hume told July 25
viewers of his Special Report with Brit Hume: "CBS News has continued
to report Dan Rather's disputed story of eleventh hour so-called 'deep
negotiations' on the vice presidency between the Bush camp and General
Colin Powell. This in the face of emphatic denials from Powell and Bush
himself that any such thing had occurred. Indeed, George W. Bush
specifically denied Rather's story to Rather himself in an interview on
Monday. CBS kept the story on its Web site throughout the day and Rather
repeated it on CBS Radio where it had first aired and on the CBS Evening
News and the CBS News Web site continues to mention it."
His next item:
"Speaking of network anchors, NBC's Tom Brokaw suggested to his
viewers in his interview with Bush Monday that Bush had rejected
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, whom Brokaw described as quote, 'a guy
with a great record, pro-choice,' because, said Brokaw, quote, 'the
Catholic Church and Jesse Helms said no way.'" With a frown, a
dumbfounded Hume wondered: "Jesse Helms?"
Hume's facial
expression said it all. Sometimes it's amazing how New York media types
see the whole Republican Party and conservative movement controlled by a
few boogeymen.
6
Unlike the broadcast networks and at least CNN's Inside Politics, FNC
didn't ignore the release of the transcript by the White House of Bill
Clinton's April 21 interview with the Justice Department's campaign
finance task force.
FNC's David
Shuster prepared a piece for Tuesday's Special Report with Brit Hume and
he highlighted a moment of indignation by Clinton. But first he explained
the context, noting how
James Riady, the non-U.S. resident who during a limo ride with Clinton
promised to raise $1 million, may soon be indicted thanks to information
provided by John Huang. Clinton claimed he could not remember ever hearing
the pledge.
Shuster set up an
excerpt from the transcript: "Prosecutors suggested that Mr. Clinton
bore some responsibility for the illegal fundraising."
Viewers then saw
text on screen of an exchange which Shuster also read aloud:
Justice Department investigator Robert Conrad: "The two people most
responsible for it were the two people that were in position because of
their relationship with you. Would you agree with that?"
Clinton: "Is this guilt by association, sir? What do you want to
say?"
Conrad: "I'm just asking you whether you feel responsibility."
Clinton: "No...I had no reason to believe either one of them would
ever do anything dishonest when they did it."
But how about before or after they did it?
7
A liberal's dream tonight on NBC's Law & Order as the show's star DA
holds the President of a gun company criminally liable for some murders
committed with one of his company's guns. The jury finds the executive
guilty but, in a surprise twist, the judge sets aside the verdict and
lectures the DA about misusing the law for his political ends.
I know all this
because tonight's showing of the 10pm ET/PT, 9pm CT/MT show is a repeat of
the September 22, 1999 episode.
Here's how the
episode to air again on July 26 is described on the nbc.com Web site:
"GUNSHOW: AFTER SHOOTING SPREE, MCCOY PURSUES MURDERERS AND
MANUFACTURERS -- When an angry misogynist murders 15 people -- mostly
women -- on a shooting spree in Central Park, Detectives Briscoe (Jerry
Orbach) and his new partner, Detective Green (new series regular Jesse L.
Martin from 'Ally McBeal') try to trace the origination of the illegal
automatic gun. As they close in on the suspect (guest star Neal Huff),
Briscoe voices doubts about Green's questionable modus operandi both on
and off the job. When the case arrives on D.A. McCoy's desk (Sam Waterston),
he makes a personal crusade to prosecute not only the killer, but also the
corporate gun manufacturer who legally produces semi-automatic weapons
that can be converted for mass destruction. TV-14"
Last fall MRC
analyst Paul Smith took down some quotes from the program. The show was
pretty one-sided until the climatic courtroom scene, which we'll skip to:
Deputy DA "Jack McCoy," played by
Sam Waterston, argued in his summation to the jury: "Gun ownership is
not an American tradition. That's a myth like George Washington's cherry
tree. Most Americans, going back to colonial times, did not own a gun.
Didn't even know how to shoot one. That's still true today. You heard
expert testimony that redesigning the slide bolt of a Rolph 9 would add
twenty seven dollars and sixty four cents to the manufacturing cost of a
weapon that sells for nine hundred dollars. Mr. Webber knew that his gun
was being bought for the purpose of being converted to an automatic
weapon. His refusal to change the design is tantamount to admitting that
its intended use was as an automatic weapon. Reasonable people can
disagree about the Second Amendment but this can't be what the framers of
the Constitution had in mind. Of course, we must hold Dennis Trope
responsible. He pulled the trigger. But remember, because of Mr. Webber's
refusal to change the design of his gun, instead of firing this many
bullets [drops some bullets on a desk], in the thirty seconds that he
pulled the trigger, Dennis Trope was able to fire this many [drops many
bullets on desk]."
The jury rules gun
executive Webber guilty, as I recall of some kind of negligent homicide
criminal charge, but "Judge Wright" does not approve:
"Don't pack it up just yet Linda. I'm finding as a matter of law, the
people failed to meet the standard of proof I set at the beginning of
trial. People did not establish that the weapon was hazardous per se. Nor
that the main actor in the homicides used the weapon as it was intended to
be used by Mr. Webber. Therefore I am setting aside the jury verdict and
issuing a directed verdict of not guilty. The defendant is free to
go."
McCoy: "Objection!"
Judge Wright: "Order!"
McCoy: "I am filing notice of the people's intent to appeal. This is
outside the scope of your authority."
Judge Wright: "Mr. McCoy, I'm not going to sanction a verdict that
cannot possibly be sustained on appeal. This conviction isn't based on any
proven facts. It's based on the jury's outrage at Mr. Webber's
irresponsible and inexcusable conduct. You want to end the violence, the
bloodletting. So do I, Mr. McCoy. In my thirty years on the bench, I have
seen every permutation of it. It sickens me when somebody profits from it.
But tempted though I may be, putting Mr. Webber in jail won't end the
carnage. Until we cure what ails in the human heart, we won't make a dent
in the body count. In the meantime, no matter how profound our grief, our
indignation, I can't let you use this court to raise a lynch mob. I won't
allow you to exploit the same base passions that Mr. Webber counts on to
beef up his bottom line. It's not about being right, Mr. McCoy. It's about
doing right. Now we're adjourned."
If only the news
media were as discerning as this fictional judge. -- Brent Baker
>>>
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