Media Research Center -- Press Release -- May 14, 1999

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 1999

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mike Burita/Keith Appell (703) 683-5004

In Full-Page, Sunday New York Times Ad,
MRC Will Demand The Big Three Networks
Stop Burying the China Espionage Story

ALEXANDRIA, Va. --- The Media Research Center has taken a full-page out in this coming Sunday's New York Times featuring an open letter from MRC Chairman Brent Bozell to the top news executives at ABC News, CBS News and NBC News. In his letter Bozell chastises the Big Three networks for burying the China espionage story even though a whole series of revelations have repeatedly appeared on the front pages of major national newspapers.

"If the Fox News Channel and the nation's most prestigious newspapers - the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the Washington Times - can report story after story over the past year about important dates, facts, people, hearings, testimonies, documents, evidence and events involved in the Chinese espionage case ... why can't you? Why are you ignoring what is one of the most serious and frightening news events this country has faced in decades?" Bozell asks in the ad.

The ad lists 12 different Chinese espionage stories broken by major newspapers over the past year that have either been totally ignored or barely mentioned by the networks. Media Research Center Director of Media Analysis Tim Graham noted the MRC has been tracking a very distinct separation between newspaper and television coverage of Clinton scandals.

"The research is ironclad conclusive: the Big Three networks are burying these scandal stories to cover up for Bill Clinton and Al Gore. This is a brutally sad chapter in American journalism because the Big Three networks are effectively becoming apologists for a scandal-plagued administration through their bias by omission," Graham said.

A report documenting the lack of coverage "Network Apathy Toward Chinese Contributions and Espionage," will be posted today on the MRC home page, www.mrc.org.