Outrage of the Week: ABC News Throws Dinner Party For Gore - Press Release - December 2, 1999

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 2, 1999

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Keith Appell/Dan Gabriel
(703) 683-5004, ext. 139

They Fired Zelnick for Critical Gore Book, But...

Outrage of the Week:
ABC News Throws Dinner Party For Gore

ALEXANDRIA, Va. --- Media Research Center Chairman Brent Bozell criticized ABC News for creating a "monster appearance problem" by financing a dinner party for Al Gore at the home of ABC White House reporter John Cochran.

"ABC News fired reporter Bob Zelnick last year for writing a biography of Al Gore when he wouldn’t meet their demand to break a contract with his publisher," Bozell declared. "But one of their White House reporters is so chummy with the Vice President that he feels comfy inviting Al and Tipper over to his private residence. USA Today reported he didn’t even bother to tell his bosses about the monster appearance problem until Gore accepted. Does he get fired? No, ABC says, let us pay the bill."

Cochran and his wife, Barbara, the former Washington Bureau Chief for CBS News, defended the party by proclaiming they were "longtime friends" of the Gores. "If this is true," Bozell said, "then why has ABC News assigned Cochran to cover his good friend at the White House? ABC News is sending the public a signal that they have gone from reporting to supporting Al Gore."

If this is a "working dinner" loaded with other journalists, will they ask Gore some tough questions, such as:

Newsweek reported this week that you had conversations with William Westmoreland about whether to serve in Vietnam. Should you and other Democrats apologize to Dan Quayle for hounding him about using political connections to stay out of harm’s way?
How will you be able to compete with Bradley or Bush when you make megalomaniacal gaffes? You’ve claimed to be the romantic lead of Love Story, the Father of the Internet, and now, the hero who "found a little place in upstate New York called Love Canal...I was the one that started it all." But how could you have "started it all" when your first hearing came two months after residents evacuated Love Canal?

Media Interviews
To schedule an interview with Mr. Bozell or MRC Director of Media Analysis
Tim Graham, contact Dan Gabriel at (703) 683-5004, ext. 139.