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The 1,347th CyberAlert. Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
Monday September 23, 2002 (Vol. Seven; No. 146)
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Russert Again Presses for Tax Cut Repeal; Stephanopoulos: Gore & Bush Both "Going after Jesse James"; ABC Labels German Right But Not Left; Clift: Clinton Did More to Fight Terror Than Did Bush; New Bush Policy Recalls Reagan for Jennings; Poll Finds Media "Too Liberal"; Celebrities Denounce "Unjust" War on Terror
But unlike in previous weeks, after several minutes of repeatedly pressing his two guests to agree that the tax cuts must be rescinded, he eventually acknowledged, in just one question, spending: "How do you possibly balance the budget by spending more on domestic programs, putting tax cuts in place and making some permanent, and tapping into the Social Security surplus?" Less than four minutes into the segment with Allard and Strickland, Russert pounced: Strickland replied that he would make permanent the cuts for the middle class, the marriage penalty remedy and the estate tax cut for farmers and small business, but not make the tax cuts permanent for those in higher brackets. Russert clarified: "But you'd leave the tax cut in place for the next nine years?" Russert turned to the incumbent: "Senator Allard, we now have deficits. We have the tax cut in place for the next nine years. The projections for the cost of the war in Iraq, $100 to $200 billion. How are you going to pay for the war in Iraq without, would you suggest, holding off on the tax cut?" But instead of pursuing the idea of not creating a new entitlement program, Russert recited how in the first 20 months of Bush-Cheney the Dow has fallen by 32 percent, unemployment has risen 36 percent and two million jobs have been lost. He asked Allard whether he's "comfortable running on that record?" During his reply, Allard suggested that "we need to make permanent those temporary tax cuts that we passed a year and a half ago-" Allard proceeded to note that if no new programs are instituted we will be out of a deficit in six years just by holding spending to the inflation rate. Allard pointed out that only in Washington, DC is less of an increase called a cut. Russert soon turned back to Strickland, finally noting how spending also eats up the budget: "The Democrats promised in the year 2000, with the Republicans, they would not spend the Social Security surplus. Both parties are now spending it. Farm bills, prescription drug programs, every program has come to town, spend, spend, spend. And, as you just said, you're also for the Bush tax cut. And you're also for the war in Iraq. How do you possibly balance the budget by spending more on domestic programs, putting tax cuts in place and making some permanent, and tapping into the Social Security surplus?" Russert's obsession with the tax cut is nothing new: -- In a span of just over five minutes, eight times on the Labor Day weekend edition of Meet the Press Russert urged that the Bush tax cuts be rescinded: "Would it be better to freeze, postpone, the Bush tax cut?....Why not freeze the tax cut rather than spend the Social Security surplus?....How did they squander it? With the tax cut?....As part of a budget summit, would you be in favor of freezing the Bush tax cut?....You did come to office with a $5.6 trillion surplus, and it's gone, and a third of that can be directly attributed to the tax cut." For details: http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020904.asp#3 -- The MRC's Rich Noyes documented Russert's tilt in a Media Reality Check back on July 30. "A Bias Blind Spot for Meet the Press Host; One-Sided Questioning: Russert Pushed Both Friends and Foes of Bush Tax Cut to Suspend Its Benefits." To read it: http://archive.mrc.org/realitycheck/2002/fax20020730.asp 
On the September 15 inaugural broadcast that opportunity to pose a question went to Amanda Bennett, Editor of a newspaper in Lexington, Kentucky who told National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that "four ordinary middle-aged readers showed up unexpectedly in my office, sat down and their question to me was: 'How we can stop the President from forcing us into Iraq?'" Bennett wanted to know: "What should I tell them?'" For details: http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020916.asp#2 That gimmick lasted exactly one week as the show didn't feature the outside of DC question on its second Sunday, but ABC came up with a fresh gimmick to promote the liberal agenda: The "Briefing Book," a segment Stephanopoulos used to highlight, and then equate with the same policy outcome as Bush's position, Al Gore's stance on war with Iraq. The This Week announcer promised before one ad break on the September 22 program: "Al Gore is going to make news on Iraq tomorrow. We'll tell you what it is today." Stephanopoulos plugged before another ad break: "When we come back: Al Gore will take a stand on Iraq tomorrow. We'll tell you what it is." Finally, getting to the segment at the end of the program, Stephanopoulos excitedly relayed: Except one had eight years to pursue Jesse James and didn't. For Sunday's second outing of This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC replaced the tacky big blue circle with a TW in the middle with a classier identifier in the bottom left corner of the screen: Also, did you notice how Stephanopoulos sits in special chair with a higher seat than the others so that he doesn't appear lower than everyone else on the show?
Anchor Carole Simpson introduced a story on the September 22 broadcast: "In Germany, U.S. policy on Iraq has played a key role in the extremely tight race between Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his conservative challenger. Schroeder may win even with fewer votes because of strong coalition support." Richard Gizbert then began his report from Germany: "Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was far behind in the polls as recently as last month, trailing his conservative challenger Edmund Stoiber..." That was it. Gizbert applied no further labels to either candidate.
Clift opined about what occurred before September 11th: "There's plenty of blame to go around. But you can argue the Clinton administration didn't do enough, but they did a heck of a lot more than the Bush administration did in their first nine months in office. Because when the Clinton people went out they told the Bush people that terrorism was going to be the number one priority. But the Bush people were focused on the big strategic threats. They wanted to put a missile defense system in place, they worried about China. They didn't want to look at this little low level asymmetric threat. And the reason they don't want a commission -- and they're stonewalling information -- is political embarrassment. They don't want to look like they weren't paying attention." Clift soon added: "The combination of arrogance and secrecy in the administration won't allow them to go ahead with a blue ribbon commission unless here's an overwhelming political momentum behind it and that's not there -- not yet." The McLaughlin Group is taped at about 2pm on Fridays. At about that time the administration announced it would go along with setting up a commission. Clift's prediction was inaccurate before it even aired.
Jennings set up a story on the September 20 World News Tonight: "As the Bush administration makes its case for attacking Iraq, President Bush and his staff have finished formalizing their strategy for the way he intends to deal with the rest of the world in general. And the details appeared today in a document called 'The National Security Strategy' for the United States. And it does lay out a far more aggressive approach than at any time since Ronald Reagan was President."
MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth caught this exchange, between Williams and Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria, on the September 18 The News with Brian Williams, during a discussion about how powerful the U.S. military is compared to all other counties:
Even amongst Democrats, more believe the media are "too liberal" than "too conservative." Gallup reported that though "a majority of Democrats perceive the news media to be mostly balanced in their news coverage," 18 percent see the media "as being too conservative" while "27 percent say they are too liberal." MRC Communications Director Liz Swasey saw the poll question cited by National Journal's Hotline. The subscriber-only National Journal Web site listed the responses to this question: "In general, do you think the news media is -- too liberal, just about right or too conservative?"
The question was part of a Gallup Poll, released on Friday, of a "national sample of 1,004 adults, 18 years and older, conducted Sept. 5-8, 2002." The Gallup Web site lists many results for the poll in an article titled, "Americans Trust Each Other to Make Sound Judgments in Public Affairs; Public divided in rating news media," but not the specific question about media bias, though an explanatory paragraph noted the Republican versus Democratic split on the question. The Web site article listed by party the percent of respondents who "trust" the news media a "great deal" or a "fair amount." For Republicans 49 percent; independents 52 percent and Democrats 59 percent. The Gallup article then explained: No word on whether any Republicans exist who think the media are too conservative. For Gallup's story on its poll: http://www.gallup.com/poll/releases/pr020920.asp
Also adding their name to the ad: Time magazine contributor Barbara Ehrenreich and Steve Earle, singer of John Walker's Blues. (To see how NBC's Today showcased him: http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020820.asp#4) Across the top of the page the ad screamed: "PRESIDENT BUSH has declared: 'you're either with us or against us.' Here is our answer:" The ad, paid for by a group calling itself "Not in Our Name," screeched below: "We call on all Americans to RESIST the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate." The signers equated 9/11 with the terror inflicted by the U.S. military: "We too mourned the thousands of innocent dead and shook our heads at the terrible scenes of carnage -- even as we recalled similar scenes in Baghdad, Panama City, and, a generation ago, Vietnam." The Bush administration "put out a simplistic script of 'good vs. evil,'" the signers complained, a formula "that was taken up by a pliant and intimidated media." An excerpt of the low-lights: Let it not be said that people in the United States did nothing when their government declared a war without limit and instituted stark new measures of repression. The signers of this statement call on the people of the U.S. to resist the policies and overall political direction that have emerged since September 11, 2001, and which pose grave dangers to the people of the world.... We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what their own governments do -- we must first of all oppose the injustice that is done in our own name. Thus we call on all Americans to RESIST the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate. We choose to make common cause with the people of the world. We too watched with shock the horrific events of September 11, 2001. We too mourned the thousands of innocent dead and shook our heads at the terrible scenes of carnage -- even as we recalled similar scenes in Baghdad, Panama City, and, a generation ago, Vietnam. We too joined the anguished questioning of millions of Americans who asked why such a thing could happen. But the mourning had barely begun, when the highest leaders of the land unleashed a spirit of revenge. They put out a simplistic script of "good vs. evil" that was taken up by a pliant and intimidated media. They told us that asking why these terrible events had happened verged on treason. There was to be no debate. There were by definition no valid political or moral questions. The only possible answer was to be war abroad and repression at home.... In our name, the government has brought down a pall of repression over society. The President's spokesperson warns people to "watch what they say." Dissident artists, intellectuals, and professors find their views distorted, attacked, and suppressed. The so-called Patriot Act -- along with a host of similar measures on the state level -- gives police sweeping new powers of search and seizure, supervised if at all by secret proceedings before secret courts. In our name, the executive has steadily usurped the roles and functions of the other branches of government. Military tribunals with lax rules of evidence and no right to appeal to the regular courts are put in place by executive order. Groups are declared "terrorist" at the stroke of a presidential pen. We must take the highest officers of the land seriously when they talk of a war that will last a generation and when they speak of a new domestic order. We are confronting a new openly imperial policy towards the world and a domestic policy that manufactures and manipulates fear to curtail rights.... President Bush has declared: "you're either with us or against us." Here is our answer: We refuse to allow you to speak for all the American people. We will not give up our right to question. We will not hand over our consciences in return for a hollow promise of safety. We say NOT IN OUR NAME. We refuse to be party to these wars and we repudiate any inference that they are being waged in our name or for our welfare. We extend a hand to those around the world suffering from these policies; we will show our solidarity in word and deed.... Let us not allow the watching world today to despair of our silence and our failure to act. Instead, let the world hear our pledge: we will resist the machinery of war and repression and rally others to do everything possible to stop it. END of Excerpt For the Not in Our Name Web site: http://www.nion.us/ For a PDF of the ad as it appeared in the September 19 New York Times: http://www.nion.us/nion_NYT9-19.pdf For the text of the ad: http://www.nion.us/NION.HTM Below I've listed the recognizable Hollywood signers, along with links to their Internet Movie Database bios and pictures so you can be reminded of who they are: -- Robert Altman -- Edward Asner -- Ossie Davis -- Jane Fonda -- Danny Glover -- Susan Sarandon -- Marisa Tomei -- Oliver Stone For the full list of signers: http://www.nion.us/CURRENTM.htm What a bunch of ingrates. -- Brent Baker
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If it's Sunday, it's time for NBC's Tim Russert to push his Meet the Press guests to agree with him that Bush's tax cuts should be rescinded. Just last week Russert came up with a new reason to repeal the tax cuts, asking Senator Hillary Clinton: "Can we afford a war in Afghanistan or in Iraq and the Bush tax cut?"
Another week, another liberal gimmick. Last week the inaugural edition of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos promised to feature a guest questioner from outside of Washington, DC, only to use the concept to have a newspaper editor in Kentucky pose a liberal question.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's coalition, which even today's Washington Post described as "left-of-center," includes the Green Party, but ABC News refused to apply any label to him or it on World News Tonight/Sunday, but twice tagged his opponent as "conservative."
Newsweek's Eleanor Clift argued on the McLaughlin Group over the weekend that the Clinton administration "did a heck of a lot more" to combat terrorism than the Bush administration "did in their first nine months in office." She also assured viewers that "the combination of arrogance and secrecy in the administration won't allow them to go ahead with a blue ribbon commission" to look into September 11th, but just as she was taping the show the administration agreed to just that.
The ultimate sign of media disgust with a policy is for it to be compared to a Reagan policy. That's just what Peter Jennings did Friday night in citing President Bush's new strategy for the U.S. to replace containment with military superiority and preemptive strikes against enemies which threaten the U.S. Jennings stated that it lays "out a far more aggressive approach than at any time since Ronald Reagan was President."
CNBC anchor Brian Williams, the future permanent anchor of the NBC Nightly News, on Wednesday night suggested the "military swagger" of the U.S. is "part of what got the United States in trouble September 11th."
A new Gallup Poll found more evidence that a large plurality of Americans think the news media are liberal as more than three times as many said the media are "too liberal" as responded the media are "too conservative." A piddling 13 percent think the media are "too conservative." Well, they have Donahue to watch.
A bunch of left-wing celebrities, including Ed Asner,
Ossie Davis, Jane Fonda, Danny Glover, Casey Kasum, Susan Sarandon, Oliver Stone and Marisa Tomei, helped pay for a full page ad in last Thursday's New York Times denouncing President Bush's war on terrorism.
