Bush's "Message Make-Over"; Gore Flub & Made Up Costs Skipped; Lynne Just Like Hillary; NY Times Found a Biased Network
1) Al Gore stumbled over words and
a newspaper revealed he made up numbers in a speech, but ABC, CBS and NBC
ignored that and instead focused on Bush "road-testing a new image and
message make-over" aimed at the middle class. ABC checked Gore's appeal
among women. NBC found a woman turned off by the "conservative Dick
Cheney."
2) CNN and FNC showed Al Gore flailing as he could not
remember the word "mammogram" and picked up on a Boston Globe story
headlined: "Gore Misstates Facts in Drug-Cost Pitch."
3) Actor Alec Baldwin, in a clip played by FNC, claimed that
"if Bush won it would be a good time to leave the United States,"
but he will not necessarily to leave. "I might go on a long
vacation."
4) "In many ways," CNN's Bernard Shaw insisted,
Lynne Cheney "is the Hillary Clinton model of a political spouse:
outspoken, involved, active on the trail."
5) FNC "was the only news organization that we felt was
biased against us," conceded Lanny Davis in inadvertently indicting the
other networks as pro-Clinton. The New York Times discovered bias at a
network, a "conservative cable channel."
>>> September 18 Notable Quotables, the MRC's "bi-weekly
compilation of the latest outrageous, sometimes humorous, quotes in the
liberal media," now online thanks to Kristina Sewell and Andy Szul.
Amongst the quote headings: "From Frat Boy to Rat Boy";
"Dick Cheney, Bathroom Bigot"; "George Washington Crossed
Line"; "Firestone Failures? Blame Reagan"; "One-Sided
Take on Taxes" and "Oprah: I Wanted Tongue Too." To read
this issue, go to:
http://archive.mrc.org/notablequotables/2000/nq20000918.asp
To see it as a
life-like Adobe Acrobat PDF file, go to:
http://archive.mrc.org/notablequotables/2000/pdf/sep182000nq.pdf
<<<
1
A
bad day on the campaign trail for Al Gore as he flailed about trying to
find the word "mammogram" at a campaign stop intended to
demonstrate his concern for women's health while his aides had to react
to a Boston Globe story about how he made up numbers in telling an
anecdote about how the same arthritis drug supposedly costs more for his
mother-in-law than for his dog.
But unlike when George W. Bush makes a flub or gets
a fact wrong, viewers of the three broadcast networks and MSNBC's The
News with Brian Williams heard nothing about either event as only CNN and
FNC bothered to report them. More on the two events in item #2 below.
ABC, which did pick up on a Globe story about a
glowing rabbit, CBS, MSNBC and NBC all ran full stories on the campaign
Monday night focused on, as Dan Rather put it, how Bush spent the day
"road-testing a new image and message make-over" aimed at the
middle class. ABC also looked at why Al Gore has won over women and NBC
examined the undecided swing voters in Pennsylvania, specifically a woman
"lawyer who once favored Bush, now undecided. Why? She says Bush's
choice of conservative Dick Cheney..."
Here's a rundown of the campaign stories aired
Monday night, September 18, on the three broadcast network evening shows:
-- ABC's World News Tonight. After opening with
the latest Olympic results, ABC went right to the campaign. Dean Reynolds,
as transcribed by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth, outlined Bush's new
strategy:
"The stop in
Little Rock marked the start of an effort to reignite Bush's campaign by
refocusing on his cradle to grave concerns for Americans and their
families....During a twelve-and-a-half minute speech, Bush used the word
'families' 41 times, as he explained his plan to double the child tax
credit from $500 to $1,000 per child and referred to other plans outlined
in a glossy new pamphlet called 'A Blueprint for the Middle Class,' a
pamphlet with a woman pictured on every page. That too was no
accident."
Reynolds recalled that Bush "once enjoyed a
majority of women voters' support" before the conventions,
"but it's been all downhill since for Bush, whose latest rating
among women is no better than his father's was in 1992 or Bob Dole's
in 1996." Bush is now at 38 percent with women according to the ABC
News/Washington Post poll.
Reynolds asked: "So what happened? Well, the
Bush campaign says Al Gore has been distorting the Governor's record and
his proposals. Others say the Governor hasn't done very well himself
explaining those proposals or that record. In any case, he plans to do
better this week with a special spotlight on tomorrow when he's
interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and watched by her television audience of
three-and-a-half million women."
Indeed, Bush will appear on today's (September 19)
Oprah.
As for why Gore has won over women, anchor Peter
Jennings suggested reasons include "the kiss." Terry Moran then
explained Gore's strategy, but avoided his flub made at the same event
from which Mora picked a Gore soundbite: "At the University of Nevada
Las Vegas, the Vice President showed how he has managed to win over so
many women voters, making yet another campaign promise exclusively aimed
at them."
Al Gore: "I am
calling for tough new patients rights legislation to make sure that women
get the best health care, not just the cheapest."
Moran picked up:
"Casting himself as a champion for women against corporate power,
Gore said he would propose legislation to require HMOs to cover minimum
hospital stays for breast cancer treatments, guarantee a second opinion in
cancer diagnoses, and provide coverage for cancer screening tests, such as
mammograms. It's all part of the strategy to win back many women voters
from a summertime flirtation with Governor Bush..."
Moran went on to play a clip of Gore on Oprah last
week as an example of how Gore is showcasing his softer side in an effort
to shed his image as a stiff politician, an effort Moran noted was aided
by "the kiss" and the prominent role of his daughters at the
convention. On the downside, Moran conceded Gore is losing men.
Later, in "A Closer Look" segment,
Jennings and George Stephanopoulos stood in an office and talked about
"holdouts," undecided voters who mainly live in suburbs of major
cities.
ABC skipped the Boston Globe story on how Gore
"mangled the facts" about prescription drug costs, but prompted
by a Sunday Boston Globe piece, ABC ended with a story about a lab in
France which created a glowing rabbit by using genes from a phosphorescent
jellyfish.
-- CBS Evening News. Dan Rather declared that
"reeling from plummeting polls, Republican George Bush is quickly
road-testing a new image and message make-over. CBS's Bill Whitaker is
watching this latest Bush strategy change in action."
Whitaker began by asserting that Gore is winning
over the middle class as Gore "continues to paint Bush as the
candidate of big business and special interests with huge tax cuts that
mainly benefit the wealthy."
Gore: "Will we squander this chance with a huge
tax cut for the wealthy at the expense of the middle class?"
Whitaker outlined Bush's counter-punch: "So
Bush has sharpened his language and sharpened his attack. At every stop
this week trying to prove his plan benefits the middle class more than
Gore's, from birth to retirement. He wants tax cuts for all. Gore, he
says, just targets segments of the middle class."
Bush: "It's
so targeted that it misses the target. Fifty million Americans get no tax
relief under my opponent's plan."
Whitaker concluded with doubts: "With some
Republicans complaining of his less than strenuous campaign pace, George
W. Bush now plans to spend more time campaigning and to hit Al Gore harder
to win back the middle class. But challenging Al Gore on issues like taxes
and health care is a tricky strategy since current polls show most people
think that Democrats handle those issues better."
-- NBC Nightly News. Following a quick rundown of
the Olympic medal count NBC aired two campaign stories before returning to
the Olympics, which consumed over half the show.
From Sydney, anchor Tom Brokaw noted that Bush is
"hoping to kick-start his campaign by focusing more sharply on the
middle class, especially women voters."
David Gregory elaborated: "Losing ground to the
Vice President, today Governor Bush again retools the campaign's
message, the second course correction in as many weeks. Touring a
maternity ward in Little Rock this morning, Bush touts what he calls his
blueprint for the middle class."
George W. Bush:
"My plan is one that gives people options, not orders."
Gregory: "At
every stop today taxes are issue one. While Gore attacks the Republican
nominee for favoring only the rich, Bush says his across-the-board cut
helps the middle class more than the Vice President's targeted
relief."
Bush: "It's
so targeted that it misses the target. Fifty million Americans get no tax
relief."
Gregory: "Aides
concede recent credibility attacks on the Vice President haven't worked,
creating more distractions than questions about Gore's character.
Campaign sources now say Bush must focus on core issues -- education,
taxes, health care, Social Security -- areas where Bush can attack Gore
for favoring government solutions over individual choice."
Gregory asserted: "Seven weeks from election
day, the undecideds mean everything. Campaign strategists say it's not
just working families but regaining the support of women that's
critical..."
Next, Lisa Myers checked out the situation in a key
state: "This is Lisa Myers in Washington, where Republicans say to
understand the difficulties facing Bush you need only look to
Pennsylvania. Not long ago, Bush had a small lead here. Now this critical
state is leaning Gore. One reason, independent voters like Melissa Kelly,
a lawyer who once favored Bush, now undecided. Why? She says Bush's
choice of conservative Dick Cheney as his running mate and Bush's own
uneven performance."
Melissa Kelly:
"A lack of preparedness and a lack of quick-thinking, which I think
is very important to the office."
Myers did go on to note that Kelly's husband has a
problem with Gore for his inconsistency in bashing business.
2
CNN
and FNC let viewers see the Gore word flub and informed them of the Boston
Globe story on how a couple of weeks ago Gore made up numbers in an
anecdote about how drug companies charge humans more than dogs for the
same drug.
CNN dealt with both topics on Inside Politics and on
The World Today Jonathan Karl showed the mammogram flub in his taped
piece. Afterward, CNN anchor Joie Chen explained the Globe disclosure and
played a clip of Gore back on August 28 making the offending claim
followed by a soundbite of Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes criticizing him
for it.
FNC's Jim Angle included both items in his piece
on Special Report with Brit Hume. Showing Gore at the University of Nevada
at Las Vegas, Angle noted: "Crowds cheer deliriously when Gore beats
up on HMOs, but they also had to help him out a little when he seemed to
forget the name of a key women's exam as he explained slow treatment for
breast cancer patients."
Gore: "A long
waiting line before they could get a biopsy or, ah, or a ah, another kind
of, what am I looking for, a sonogram or."
People in the crowd
shouted "mammogram."
Angle then addressed a revelation ignored by the
broadcast networks and MSNBC: "Meanwhile, the Gore campaign was
trying to deflect a story in the Boston Globe which found that Gore made
up part of a story about his mother-in-law in an attack on the
prescription drug companies. Tipper Gore's mother lives with the Gores
and the Vice President noted that she takes an arthritis drug called
Lodine."
Gore, August 28 in
Tallahassee: "And it costs her $108 per month. Now here is, here's
the catch to this, and some of you've heard about this with some
medications, this is an example in our household."
Jim Angle:
"Gore went on to explain that a family dog also has arthritis and
takes the same drug, but he said the cost for the pet is far less, which
he called an example of unfair pricing by drug companies."
Gore, in same August
28 speech: "So while it costs $108 a month for a person, it costs
$37.80 a month for a dog. Don't you think that ought to be changed,
don't you think we ought to reduce the price for seniors?"
Angle explained: "Though Gore said specifically
this was an example from his household, aides now concede that Gore did
not know and does not know what his mother-in-law actually pays for the
drug or the price that is charged the dog for that matter. But they do
explain that he was using numbers instead from a Democratic study about
drug pricing. They do insist that Gore's mother-in-law and the dog are
in fact taking the drug."
+++ See Gore flub his terminology and tell his made
up tale about drug costs. Late Tuesday morning MRC Webmaster Andy Szul
will post a RealPlayer clip of part of Angle's story. Go to: http://www.mrc.org
"Gore Misstates Facts in Drug-Cost Pitch,"
announced the headline over the September 18 Boston Globe front page story
by Walter V. Robinson. Here's an excerpt from what he reported:
Vice President Al Gore, reaching for a personal example to illustrate
the breathtaking costs of some prescription drugs, told senior s in
Florida last month that his mother-in-law pays nearly three
times as much for the same arthritis medicine used for his ailing dog,
Shiloh.
But Gore, the master of many policy details, mangled the facts, and
late last week his aides could not say with certainty that Shiloh or
Margaret Ann Aitcheson actually takes the brand-name drug, Lodine, that
Gore said they do.
Even if they take the drug, Gore's assertion that his black Labrador
retriever's monthly bill is $37.80 and Aitcheson's is $108 is wrong. The
Gore campaign admitted that it lifted those costs not from his family's
bills, but from a House Democratic study, and that Gore misused even those
numbers: They represent the manufacturer's price to wholesalers, not the
retail price of the brand-name product.
What's more, the costs Gore cited presume that his dog and
mother-in-law take the same dosage -- which could put 14-year-old Shiloh
at risk for stomach ulcers.
Those facts aside, Gore's overall message was accurate -- that many
brand-name drugs that have both human and animal applications are much
more expensive for people than for pets.
But in the often bewildering debate over how to ease the national pain
caused by escalating drug prices, Gore may have focused on the wrong drug.
Eighty-five percent of Americans who are prescribed the popular arthritis
drug now rely on a generic alternative that can be had at a quarter of the
retail price of Lodine.
When they were asked last Thursday whether Aitcheson and Shiloh
actually take the brand name of the drug, two of the vice president's
aides were unable to say whether that was the case or how much the family
pays for each....
For Gore, who has a history of embellishing facts about himself and his
family, the remarks he made in Florida are a blend of erroneous family
detail and questionable statistics on an election issue of growing
significance.
In raising the issue during an Aug. 28 speech in Tallahassee, Gore was
reading from a party script, joining Democratic congressional candidates
in a populist assault on drug companies that relies in part on the
Democratic House study. It concludes that a range of brand-name drugs,
Lodine among them, are more costly for humans than for animals.
Jeff Trewhett, the spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers Association of America, said the higher costs for the human
version of patented drugs is justified because the research,
development, and approval costs can surpass $500 million per drug. But
once the drug is approved for humans, the cost to test and approve it for
animals is minimal, he said....
As for the arthritis medicine Gore said is used by two members of his
household, a typical month's supply of the generic version can be had for
less than $40. The version used for dogs, which is still under patent,
costs at least $70 a month for comparable doses, and often much more when
it is obtained from a veterinarian, according to pharmaceutical industry
officials....
END Excerpt
To read the entire story, go to:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/262/nation/Gore_misstates_facts_in_drug
_cost_pitch%2b.shtml
Today's Globe offers a follow-up story on
reactions from Bush and Gore, "Prescription Story Is a Pill for
Gore." Go to:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/263/nation/Prescription_story_is_a_pill_for
_Gore+.shtml
Back to Monday's Special Report with Brit Hume on
FNC, during the roundtable segment Brit Hume wondered if other media would
pick up on Gore's sonograms/mammograms confusion. Angle relayed from the
campaign trail: "I heard a cameraman, for instance, saying, 'man,
if that were George W. Bush doing that people would be all over
him.'"
That kind of wayward thinking is why he's a
cameraman and not a producer or a reporter.
3
Alec
Baldwin's Clintonesque definition of "leave." Monday night
FNC's Brit Hume picked up on actor Alec Baldwin's promise to
"leave" the U.S. if George Bush wins, but FNC showed a soundbite
of Baldwin backing off his promise once it became news.
A Sunday AP dispatch from Munich announced: "Baldwins
Will Leave if Bush Wins." The story read, in full:
"If George W.
Bush wins the U.S. presidential election this November, he may not be the
only one moving into a new house.
"Kim Basinger
said her husband, actor and Democratic party activist Alec Baldwin, was
serious when he said he would leave the United States if the Republican
wins.
"'Alec is the
biggest moralist that I know,' she was quoted as saying in Focus
magazine, which hits newsstands Monday. 'He stands completely behind
what he says.'
"Asked if she'd
move with him, Basinger said: 'I can very well imagine that Alec makes
good on his threat. And then I'd probably have to go too.'"
Good riddance.
Monday night Hume played this soundbite from Baldwin
standing somewhere outdoors: "I think my exact comment was that if
Bush won it would be a good time to leave the United States. I'm not
necessarily going to leave the United States."
Off-camera female
reporter: "You're not really going anywhere."
Baldwin: "I
might go on a long vacation."
Hume added: "Baldwin, you'll recall,
suggested on late night TV during the Clinton impeachment that Henry Hyde
and his family should be killed."
Indeed, on the December 11, 1998 Late Night with
Conan O'Brien, Baldwin thought it was funny to stand and shout:
"Stone Henry Hyde to death!" To read the full quote or to watch
the outburst via RealPlayer, go to:
http://archive.mrc.org/VideoBias/vidbiaswelcome.asp
4
Lynne
Cheney = Hillary Clinton? On Monday's Inside Politics, CNN anchor
Bernard Shaw uttered a comparison probably not welcomed by Lynne Cheney --
saying she represents the "Hillary Clinton model" of political
spouse.
Shaw explained how on a Sunday interview show Cheney
"ridiculed Al Gore for criticizing the entertainment industry while
taking its money." He played a soundbite of her on Fox News Sunday:
"Al Gore's message on this is completely craven depending upon the
moment, depending upon whether he wants the entertainment industry's
money, or whether he wants the votes of moms and dads around the
country."
Shaw then assessed: "In many ways, Cheney is
the Hillary Clinton model of a political spouse: outspoken, involved,
active on the trail. But while Mrs. Clinton was judged by some to be naive
when she first came to Washington, Cheney has been fighting political
battles for years, as head of the National Endowment for Humanities, and
later, a host of CNN's Crossfire."
Unlike Hillary Clinton, Lynne Cheney earned
government positions on her own to which she was confirmed by the Senate
and I bet she realizes she's not on the ballot this year.
5
Imagine
this headline over a New York Times story on MSNBC: "Liberal Cable
Channel Gains in Ratings War." You have to imagine it since the New
York Times has never run a story focused on how a network is liberal, even
though there are so many from which to choose. But Monday's paper
carried a story tied to the Fox News Channel's supposedly conservative
bias. "The Right Strategy for Fox," announced the September 18
headline. The subhead: "Conservative Cable Channel Gains in Ratings
War."
The story by Jim Rutenberg is actually fairly
informative and interesting, helped by the fact that he included a comment
from the MRC's Tim Graham. To read the piece, go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/18/business/18FOX.html
Rutenberg did, however, display the usual liberal
media bias in making sure readers learned about the political background
of FNC's chief Roger Ailes while ignoring it for CNN's head honcho.
Rutenberg wrote: "In critiques of Fox, it is usually noted that Mr.
Ailes was a political consultant to Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan
and George Bush."
But 14 paragraphs later, Rutenberg relayed:
"Tom Johnson, the CNN chairman and chief executive, took issue with
accusations that the network is infused with liberal bias, saying,
'CNN's success worldwide was built by providing accurate and balanced
coverage. We have never wavered from this quality and will not.'"
Rutenberg failed to point out that Tom Johnson once
toiled for President Lyndon Johnson both in the White House and afterward.
The biggest admission in the article: "That was
the only news organization that we felt was biased against us," said
Lanny J. Davis, the former special counsel to Mr. Clinton who worked as a
paid political analyst for Fox in the recent Republican and Democratic
conventions.
FNC should take that as a badge of honor and
evidence of how all the other networks were biased in favor of the Clinton
administration, but don't count on any New York Times articles about
pro-Clinton, pro-liberal or anti-conservative bias at every other network.
As for how consistently conservative FNC really is,
Ailes keeps hiring veterans of the other networks, such as Linda Vester
from NBC, and the latest, John "Spike" Gibson from NBC/MSNBC.
Another network veteran, Paula Zahn, hosts an hour
of prime time, The Edge with Paula Zahn. Check out one of her questions to
George W. Bush as played on Special Report with Brit Hume in an excerpt of
her then upcoming interview shown Monday night: "But even members of
your own party aren't crazy about your tax cut idea. They think it's
too big, even some guys running now in November for new congressional
seats. They're abandoning you. Why?"
Sounds just like the type of question a CBS News
reporter would ask. Oh, that's right, Zahn was with CBS News until last
year. -- Brent Baker
>>>
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