Bush's "Defiance" of Moderation; GOP Hit on Torricelli; Darling Daschle; Civil Rights Commission's Report Hyped; Felons for Gore
1) The ABC and NBC White House reporters on Tuesday night
scolded Bush for his "defiance" in not acquiescing enough to
moderates. ABC's Terry Moran warned: "Today's display of
bi-partisanship masks a certain defiance within the administration."
NBC's David Gregory bemoaned how "in the face of this power
shift" there is "still among top Bush advisers defiance."
2) The CBS Evening News caught up with the probe of
Senator Robert Torricelli, but Dan Rather impugned it by citing what
"he sees as a Republican-motivated and led criminal
investigation." Phil Jones shook his head as he warned Torricelli's
resignation "could give Senate control back to [pause] the
Republicans."
3) Media Reality Check. "Bouquets, Not Barbs, For
Darling Daschle: NBC's Lisa Myers: "This Unpretentious
Midwesterner...Is Adept At Striking Just the Right Political Note."
4) The politically-motivated leak of the U.S. Commission
on Civil Rights draft report which claimed the Florida vote was marred by
"injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency" which
disproportionately hurt blacks, was picked up by ABC and NBC from
newspaper accounts. Tuesday's Nightline focused on it as John Donvan
vouched for its import: "In the report's own words it is the
'most extensive investigation to date.'"
5) FNC's Brit Hume observed that in two recent stories
on people denied the right to vote in Florida the Washington Post never
told readers about how the Palm Beach Post determined over 5,000 felons
voted, 68 percent of whom were registered Democrats.
6) Self-parody? Newsweek's Jonathan Alter defended
himself against the charge he's "never written anything positive
about a Republican" by reminding accusers "of the columns I
wrote praising John McCain during the campaign."
1
President
Bush must do more to acquiesce to "moderates" if he hopes to
please the network White House reporters who on Tuesday night scolded the
administration for its "defiance" of the new reality of a
Democratic-controlled Senate.
Bush hosted Jim Jeffords and other Senators
from both parties to discuss the education bill but, warned ABC's Terry
Moran, "today's display of bi-partisanship masks a certain defiance
within the administration." NBC's David Gregory was concerned that
"in the face of this power shift" there is "still among top
Bush advisers defiance, even cockiness." CBS's John Roberts relayed
how "Democrats are still wary of the President's renewed commitment
to bi-partisanship," though that followed his very unusual
acknowledgment that "conservatives...are now up in arms" over
the massive spending in the education bill.
More detail about these takes on the June 5
broadcast network evening shows:
-- ABC's World News Tonight. Terry Moran
wrapped up his piece from the White House on Bush's meeting with
Senators:
"But today's display of bi-partisanship
masks a certain defiance within the administration. White House
chief-of-staff Andy Card says the Senate changeover will not change the
President's basic strategy."
Moran to Card: "So if I'm hearing you
right, there will be no change really in the way the President
proposes-"
Card: "That's your word, it's not my
word. I'm saying the President has an agenda that he campaigned on.
He's true to his principles. He owes it to the American people to do
what he said he would do when he was running for President."
-- CBS Evening News. John Roberts actually
allowed criticism of Bush from the right: "The education bill, said
Jeffords and the Democrats, is a lesson in what's possible. With school
funding increased and vouchers left out, the bill is as much the
Democrats' as it is Mr. Bush's. Ironically, it's conservatives who
are now up in arms."
David Boaz, Cato Institute: "It's a bad
bill, it will not improve education and we would be better off if the
switch in the Senate and the political turmoil caused this bill to
fail."
Roberts then let Democrats judge Bush's
"commitment" to adequate bi-partisanship: "But Democrats
are still wary of the President's renewed commitment to
bi-partisanship."
Joe Lieberman: "Too much of the first four
or five months of this administration have been governing from the right
in a partisan way."
-- NBC Nightly News. David Gregory asserted
that "this week the President has shifted gears to seem more
moderate" by appearing at a National Park to announce more money for
them and by highlighting funding for religious groups by helping to build
a Habitat for Humanity house. He then concluded:
"There is, in the face of this power shift,
still among top Bush advisers defiance, even cockiness, in the course of
the Bush agenda. They believe even if Democrats try to obstruct the agenda
somewhat, they will not be able to deny Bush his signature achievement,
the tax cut, which he'll sign into law Thursday."
2
The CBS
Evening News finally caught up with the probe of New Jersey Democratic
Senator Robert Torricelli, but only so Dan Rather could taint the
investigation by referring to it as what "he sees as a
Republican-motivated and led criminal investigation of him." Reporter
Phil Jones piled on, asserting that "Torricelli believes the
Republican-controlled Justice Department is out to get him," before
concluding by shaking his head as he warned that Torricelli's
resignation "could give Senate control back to [pause] the
Republicans."
Rather introduced the June 5 story, as
transcribed by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth: "With the power shift in
the Senate, attention is shifting to one member of the new majority:
Democrat Robert Torricelli of New Jersey-and the possibility of what he
sees as a Republican-motivated and led criminal investigation of him,
could lead to yet another change of power back to the Republicans."
Jones began: "Dan, Senator Torricelli
believes the Republican-controlled Justice Department is out to get
him." Jones proceeded to report that Torricelli will soon decide if
he wants to request that the probe be moved to a special counsel and
showed Torricelli back in April denying the charge that a man named David
Chang gave him illegal gifts, including suits. Viewers saw a sound bite of
a New Jersey tailor recalling he was told to give Torricelli 10 to 15
suits.
Jones then noted: "Trying to avoid
attacks of political partisanship, the Republican Attorney General John
Ashcroft has recused himself along with four of his most senior
aides."
Back on camera in front of the Capitol, Jones
ominously concluded: "This is high political drama. If Torricelli
were to leave the Senate this year, the GOP Governor back in New Jersey
would name a Republican, and that could give Senate control back to
[pause, shaking head] the Republicans."
3
Text of
a Media Reality Check compiled by the MRC's Rich Noyes and distributed
on Tuesday afternoon, titled, "Bouquets, Not Barbs, For Darling
Daschle: NBC's Lisa Myers: "This Unpretentious Midwesterner...Is
Adept At Striking Just the Right Political Note."
To view it as fax recipients saw it, access
the Adobe Acrobat PDF version: http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/reality/2001/pdf/fax0605.pdf
The text of the June 5 Media Reality Check:
When Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House of Representatives in
1995 -- after an election, not an inside-the-Beltway defection -- the
media tried hard to deflate his triumphant moment.
Bias flashback: "You called Gingrich and his ilk, your words,
'trickle-down terrorists who base their agenda on division, exclusion
and fear,'" Bryant Gumbel, then co-host of NBC's Today, reminded
Democratic leader Dick Gephardt on January 4, 1995, the day the last party
changeover became effective. "Do you think middle-class Americans are
in need of protection from that group?"
This morning, as Democrats prepared to seize the Senate, the networks
gave no Republican the chance to rain on the liberals' parade, and no
host infer-red that incoming Senate leader Tom Daschle is surrounded by
"ilk," is a divisive "terrorist" or poses a threat to
middle-class taxpayers. Instead, ABC and NBC celebrated Daschle's rise
with gushing profiles which were completely devoid of criticism of the
one-man coup that roiled the Senate, or of any other aspect of the liberal
Daschle's partisan career.
"If you happened to catch Tom Daschle at a South Dakota airport,
you'd never guess he's about to become the most powerful man in a
Capitol full of very large egos," NBC's Lisa Myers enthused on
Today. "Once a year, this unpretentious Midwesterner drives across
his prairie state alone, without any aides, visiting all 66 counties. At
home and in Washington, Daschle, who is 53, is described by colleagues as
mild-mannered, straightforward, even nice."
Myers assured viewers that Daschle will be an effective champion of
liberal causes: "Beneath the friendly exterior is a shrewd, tenacious
politician with 23 years in Congress, skilled at holding his party
together...Married to a former Miss Kansas with three grown children,
Daschle is adept at striking just the right political note."
NBC even raised the prospect that Daschle could duplicate the
performance of the last Democratic majority leader, George Mitchell who,
Myers related, "was what one Bush aide called 'a partisan pit
bull,' regularly ripping then-President Bush to shreds. Some Republicans
now worry that what Mitchell visited on the father, Daschle will visit on
the son."
On Good Morning America, ABC's Claire Shipman used some of the same
talking points to compliment Daschle: "Being underestimated is the
story of Daschle's political life, but as his colleagues and adversaries
always discover, he may be 5 feet, 7 inches and mild-mannered, but he has
a steely determination behind his consensus-building style. Every year,
the self-labeled 'Prairie Populist' methodically visits all 66
counties in his home state. Last week, he found himself in Lake Preston,
where he was full of chuckles for the locals' jokes."
ABC and NBC could have pointed out that Daschle's partisan assaults
of the past five months are wildly at odds with his advice that both
parties must "work together." Daschle delighted in condemning
President Bush's delay of strict new arsenic standards, even though he
voted with 18 other Democratic Senators in October 2000 for a similar
delay. That audacious bit of hypocrisy has been widely disseminated by
Rush Limbaugh, among many others, but ABC, CBS and NBC have so far failed
to include it in their hyped environmental coverage.
On the May 27 Meet the Press, NBC's Tim Russert uniquely challenged
Daschle for his condemnation of a GOP fundraiser held at Vice President
Cheney's residence; Russert informed viewers that Daschle had charged
donors $5,000 each to join him at the top of Mount Rushmore. National
Review later reported that Daschle's declaration to Russert that such
excursions are done "regularly...almost every week," isn't
true, according to their interviews with National Park officials.
But none of these criticisms were voiced this morning, as the networks
greeted Daschle's ascendancy with bouquets, not barbs.
END Reprint of Media Reality Check
4
Whoever
gave the media a copy of a draft report from the liberal-dominated U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) achieved their goal on Tuesday of
making its left-wing assessments -- of how the Florida presidential vote
was marred by "injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency" which
disproportionately hurt blacks -- the news of the day as ABC and NBC
picked up on it after a summary of its harsh criticism of Florida
Republicans ran in the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles
Times. Neither the Washington Post or Los Angeles Times, MRC analyst Ken
Shepherd noticed, bothered to point out how the sole Republican on the
commission never saw the draft before it was delivered to the media, a
fact acknowledged by ABC's Good Morning America and Nightline, but not
by World News Tonight or NBC's Today.
CNN made the point during an interview segment
on Inside Politics with a commission Democrat and the Chairman of the
Florida Republican Party. CBS did not pick up on the story on either The
Early Show or CBS Evening News.
None of the ABC or NBC stories pointed out, as
did FNC's Brian Wilson on Special Report with Brit Hume, that though the
commission draft claims blacks were ten times more likely than whites to
have their ballots rejected, the report ignored "the fact that the
number of Florida black voters participating in the last election was up
nearly 70 percent over 1996."
Instead of ignoring the vitriolic report
released as part of a liberal political agenda, ABC's Nightline devoted
its entire Tuesday show to it. While host Chris Bury acknowledged how not
all members saw it ahead of time and reporter John Donvan conceded that
neither Florida Governor Jeb Bush or Secretary of State Katherine Harris
were allowed, as promised, to review it in advance of its public release,
Donvan vouched for its import: "In the report's own words it is the
'most extensive investigation to date.'"
Donvan somberly relayed the draft report's
unsubstantiated allegations and innuendo about how while there was no
nefarious "conspiracy," the "system did discriminate."
After a sound bite of Florida Republican Jim Smith arguing that since
Republicans were not provided with an advanced copy, the report is a
political hit job, Donvan proceeded to outline the case made in the leaked
copy. He began with a hanging clause:
"But one of the report's conclusions, that
Florida's election apparatus discriminated against African-Americans and
other minorities. The strongest evidence is pages of statistics
establishing, the commission says, that African-Americans were far more
likely than non-African-Americans to have their ballots rejected in the
2000 Florida presidential election. The report is vague about why this
would be so. Statistically, it says, ballot rejection rates cannot be
attributed to the educational level of African-Americans in Florida. Nor
is it simply the prevalence of older voting technology in minority
precincts. 'There remains a statistically significant relation,' it
reads, 'between race and the rate at which ballots are spoiled, even
when the best technology is used.'"
Donvan asked: "So what explains why black
voters were 'disenfranchised,' as the report puts it? A conspiracy?
Well, the report specifically says there is no proof of a conspiracy, but
it points out that under the law you don't have to prove that anyone
intended to discriminate. What matters are results. And the results, the
report says, are clear: An astounding number, 54 percent it says, of the
rejected ballots were cast by African-Americans. The causes may be fuzzy.
Voter error is not mentioned. But the draft report argues that 54 percent
is enough to establish that the system discriminated."
"Voter error is not mentioned"! The
irrational dismissal of that most likely cause is what should have been
Nightline's focus. With many blacks voting for the first time, thanks to
an intensive NAACP voter drive, many made errors, such as seeing nothing
wrong with voting for two presidential candidates.
Nightline's Chris Bury went on to interview
Commission Chairwoman Mary Frances Berry, officially an
"independent" though Donvan noted she was a Gore donor, and its
only Republican, Abigail Thernstrom.
The commission now has four Democrats, three
independents and one Republican. But that "independent" category
includes Berry who is to the left of most Democrats.
For a list of the eight commissioners and bios
for each, go to the commission's Web site info page and scroll down a
bit: http://www.usccr.gov/cominfo.htm
Here are the headings for each member as
listed on the USCCR Web page:
Presidential Appointees(4):
Mary Frances Berry (Chairperson)
Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought
Professor of History and Adjunct Professor of Law
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Independent
Cruz Reynoso (Vice Chairperson)
Professor of Law
University of California at Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Democrat
Yvonne Y. Lee
Yvonne Lee Consultants
San Francisco, California
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Democrat
Victoria Wilson
Vice President and Associate Publisher
Alfred A. Knopf
Vice President, PEN Executive Board
New York, New York
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Independent
Congressional Appointees (4):
Christopher Edley, Jr.
Professor, Harvard Law School
Founding Co-Director, The Civil Rights Project,
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Democrat
Elsie M. Meeks
Executive Director, Lakota Fund
Co-owner and operator of Lone Creek Store in Wanblee, South Dakota
Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Democrat
Russell G. Redenbaugh
Partner and Director, Cooke & Bieler, Inc.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Independent
Abigail Thernstrom
Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute
New York City, New York
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Republican
END Web page reprint
Earlier in the evening, World News Tonight
anchor Peter Jennings announced: "The U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights, in a draft report which was leaked to the press, says that
Florida's handling of last year's presidential election was marked by
'injustice' and 'ineptitude.' Black voters, it says, were ten
times more likely than whites to have their ballots rejected, though there
was no conspiracy. There are more Democrats on the Commission and the
senior Republican says she hasn't even seen the report."
In the morning, MRC analyst Jessica Anderson
observed, Good Morning America news reader Antonio Mora noted during his
8am update: "In what's immediately become a controversial follow-up
to last year's presidential election, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission
reportedly has found that Florida unfairly penalized minority voters.
According to published reports, the commission sharply criticizes top
Florida officials without claiming, though, that they deliberately
disenfranchised minority voters. The commission is dominated by Democrats
and The New York Times quotes its two Republican members as saying they
were not consulted on the report." (See below for why ABC cited
"two Republican members.")
NBC's Today, however, skipped over the
obviously political leak as MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens noticed news
reader Ann Curry didn't tell viewers how the Republican member didn't
see the report: "The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has reportedly
found that last November's Florida election was unfair to minorities.
According to today's Washington Post the Commission found that blacks were
nearly ten times as likely as whites to have their votes rejected. The
Commission puts much of the blame on unequal access to modern voting
equipment, but found no evidence of conspiracy."
That front page June 5 Washington Post story
by Robert E. Pierre and Peter Slevin breathlessly began:
Florida's conduct of the 2000 presidential election was marked by
"injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency" that unfairly penalized
minority voters, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has concluded in a
report that criticizes top state officials -- particularly Gov. Jeb Bush
and Secretary of State Katherine Harris -- for allowing disparate
treatment of voters.
Unequal access to modern voting equipment and "overzealous
efforts" to purge state voter lists most harshly affected African
Americans in the state that decided the November election for President
Bush, the commission declared in a 167-page final draft report obtained by
The Washington Post. The inquiry found no "conclusive evidence"
that officials "conspired" to disenfranchise minority and
disabled voters.
Fifty-four percent of votes rejected during the Florida election were
cast by black voters, according to the report, scheduled for a commission
vote Friday. African Americans accounted for 11 percent of voters
statewide.
"The disenfranchisement was not isolated or episodic. State
officials failed to fulfill their duties in a manner that would prevent
this disenfranchisement," said the report, the product of a six-month
investigation. "Despite the closeness of the election, it was
widespread voter disenfranchisement and not the dead-heat contest that was
the extraordinary feature in the Florida election."...
END Excerpt
To read the entire story, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20918-2001Jun4.html
While the post assigned two reporters, it only
took one New York Times reporter, Katharine Q. Seelye, to realize the
political agenda behind the leak. Her piece, in which she identified a
commission member as "Republican" who is listed as an
"independent" on the USCCR Web page, opened:
A fractured United States Commission on Civil Rights has prepared a
sweeping broadside against Florida officials over last year's presidential
election, calling them "grossly derelict" and saying their
"lack of leadership" led to the disenfranchisement of countless
Floridians, a majority of whom were African-American.
But not all members of the commission have been involved in putting
together the report, which was to be made public on Friday. The two
Republican appointees who serve on the eight-member commission said they
had not been consulted and suggested that with the report being obtained
early by the news media today, the report itself could well be
overshadowed, making it unlikely that there would be a resolution about
what happened in Florida.
One of the two Republican appointees, Russell Redenbaugh, said the
report's conclusions of discrimination were not supported by the evidence.
Mr. Redenbaugh said the early release of the report was intended to
further the political agenda of the chairwoman, Mary Frances Berry, who
supported former Vice President Al Gore....
END Excerpt
For the entire story, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/05/politics/05VOTE.html
5
FNC's
Brit Hume observed Tuesday night that in neither Tuesday's Washington
Post story, which listed how Florida's felon purging system improperly
denied the vote to some, or one last week about problems with the felon
purging, told readers about how the Palm Beach Post determined over 5,000
felons voted. And 68 percent were registered Democrats.
A "Scrapbook" item in the June 11
Weekly Standard recalled how a front page Washington Post story last week
highlighted how "at least 2,000 felons whose voting rights had been
automatically restored in other states were kept off the rolls and, in
many cases, denied the right to vote." After a bunch of anecdotes
from victims, the same story included this one sentence: "At the same
time, some felons who should not have been allowed to vote slipped through
and cast ballots."
As the bewildered Weekly Standard asked,
"Some?"
The May 28 Palm Beach Post reported:
Thousands of felons voted in the presidential election last year,
despite a three-year, $3.3 million campaign by state officials to keep
them off the voter rolls.
A Palm Beach Post computer analysis has identified more than 5,600
people who voted on Nov. 7 though they appeared to perfectly match names
on a statewide list of suspected felons.
Each of these voters had exactly the same name, date of birth, race and
gender as a felon identified by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
These illegal voters almost certainly influenced the down-to-the-wire
presidential election.
It's likely they benefited Democratic candidate Al Gore: Of the likely
felons identified by The Post, 68 percent were registered Democrats....
END Excerpt
(This story is no longer online.)
6
Newsweek
reporter/columnist and MSNBC commentator Jonathan Alter in a June 4 story
by Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz about personal attacks on
journalists emanating from online sites:
"People send me e-mails full of dopey
attacks -- 'I bet you've never written anything positive about a
Republican in your whole life' -- obviously never having read any of the
columns I wrote praising John McCain during the campaign."
As National Review's "Washington
Bulletin" suggested, file that under "Department of
Self-Parody." -- Brent Baker
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