Conventions 2000: Media Reality Check, Wednesday PM Edition
1) Lynne Cheney Called
"Right-Wing Warrior: "Katie Couric Grills VP Nominee's Wife About
Conservative Views
2) CBS Host Asks, Is GOP Just
"Pandering"? Bryant Gumbel Says Blacks Have Right to Suspect
Republicans. Gumbel: "As long as the Republican Party...is populated by
the Pat Buchanans, the Jesse Helmses, the Jerry Falwells, the Bob Barrs, don't
blacks have a right to be suspicious?"
3) CNN Asks Is GOP "Ready or
Not" for Gays: "Ever Feel Like An Outcast?" Gay Congressman
Asked by CNN
4) Sidebar items: Gibson Pledges
to Grill Gore on Abortion; McCain For President, Continued
5) Quote of the Morning: ABC’s
Charles Gibson asked Lynne Cheney if a party with "anti-abortion"
platform can really be compassionate.
1
Front
page story. Lynne Cheney Called "Right-Wing Warrior:" Katie
Couric Grills VP Nominee's Wife About Conservative Views
All three of the
broadcast networks' morning news programs showed interviews with VP
selection Dick Cheney's wife, Lynne, this morning, and both ABC's Charles
Gibson and NBC's Katie Couric showed deep skepticism about Mrs. Cheney's
conservative views.
"There's been
a lot of interest in you," Couric informed Mrs. Cheney. "Many
people have described you as the true right-wing warrior of the family.
You're a staunch conservative, you've spoken out against feminism,
multiculturalism, you oppose trigger locks for guns..."
Couric then tried
to tell Cheney that she was a humorless ideologue. "You have been
described by Ken Adelman, a former arms control individual, as ‘thinking
all of Western civilization is in danger from the left and she has no
levity about that,’" Couric said.
Later, in a
discussion with NBC's Tim Russert, Couric claimed that Lynne Cheney was
backpedaling. "It seems as if she is making a concerted effort to
distance herself from some of her conservative views that she's very
freely espoused in the past and focusing solely on education," she
reported to Russert.
"Absolutely," Russert seconded.
Over on Good
Morning America, Charles Gibson tried to provoke Mrs. Cheney on whether
the Republican Party was genuinely inclusive. "Let me talk to you
about this convention and how inclusive it is," he said.
"Because Colin Powell stood up in front of this convention and
scolded this party for not being, reaching out enough to minorities. The
platform is again very strongly pro-life and rejects abortion rights, and
the platform specifically comes out against gay unions, and against legal
protections based on sexual preferences. So, is this really an open,
compassionate, tolerant party?"
Now, tell us what
you really think.
2
Top of page two article. CBS Host Asks, Is GOP Just "Pandering"?
Bryant Gumbel Says Blacks Have Right to Suspect Republicans
The Early Show's
Bryant Gumbel tried to get black conservative Robert Woodson, founder of
the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, to admit that the Bush
campaign's outreach to African Americans was election year pandering, but
Woodson held fast.
Leading a panel
discussion that also included liberal Chicago Sun-Times columnist Clarence
Page and Essence magazine co-founder Ed Lewis, Gumbel began by asserting
that "whether [Republican] efforts at inclusion have been outreach of
the best sort or pandering of the worst is still in question."
Later, he asked
Page whether "there is a disconnect between the rhetoric we're
getting in Philadelphia and the actual policies of the Republicans?"
When Page agreed, Gumbel wondered, "what is this, a transparent
attempt to play to African Americans?"
Gumbel hammered
the point further by telling Page, that "George W. is one thing, but
as long as the Republican Party -- you noted some of them -- is populated
by the Pat Buchanans, the Jesse Helmses, the Jerry Falwells, the Bob Barrs,
don't blacks have a right to be suspicious?"
"I think the
Republicans are criticized when they ignore blacks, and then when they try
to be inclusive, they're criticized for being superficial," Woodson
said at the start of the discussion. Gumbel's dogged attacks seemed to
have ably proved his point.
Watch a RealPlayer
clip. Go to: http://www.mediaresearch.org/campaign2000/mrc/20000802pm.html#Bryant
3
Article
on the bottom half of page two. CNN Asks Is GOP "Ready or Not"
for Gays: "Ever Feel Like An Outcast?" Gay Congressman Asked by
CNN
CNN Morning News
anchor Bill Hemmer this morning asked Arizona Rep.
Jim Kolbe to comment on last night's protest against the Congressman's
open homosexuality -- silent prayer by several members of the Texas
delegation. "He talked about international trade," Hemmer
related, "but what attracted attention is the fact that Kolbe is
openly gay."
After Kolbe said
he hadn't noticed the protest, only the cheering delegates from the
Arizona delegation and others, an incredulous Hemmer demanded, "Mr.
Congressman, please allow me here, the theme throughout this week has been
a party of inclusion. What does this say about gay people within the
Republican Party -- is this party ready or not?"
Earlier, Hemmer
discussed Tuesday night's events with CNN Political Analyst Bill
Schneider, who said of the Texans' silent prayer, "It's not the
message this convention wants to send, because they want to make it clear
that they're inclusive and that gays are welcome in the Republican
Party."
Hemmer obviously
doesn't believe that message. "Ever feel like an outcast?" he
asked Kolbe. The Congressman said no.
4
Two
sidebar items on side of page two: Gibson Pledges to Grill Gore on
Abortion; McCain For President, Continued
Gibson Pledges to
Grill Gore on Abortion
Wednesday's Good Morning America included a taped
interview that co-host Charles Gibson conducted with George and Barbara
Bush on Tuesday. After a skeptical Gibson asked whether the Republicans
were "really ready to move to the center," the former President
recalled that the Democrats in 1992 had refused to let pro-life Gov. Bob
Casey speak at their convention.
Mrs. Bush then
said, "I am wondering, is Al Gore going to be courageous enough to
pick a Vice President who is pro-life? Just a thought." She looked at
Gibson, "Are you going to ask that question."
"Sure, sure,
we'll ask that question," Gibson promised.
McCain For
President, Continued
He's released his delegates and endorsed George
W. Bush, but journalists are still battling withdrawal when it comes to
John McCain. "You arrived in Philadelphia on the Straight Talk
Express, as we see here, with about 70 reporters in tow," CBS's Jane
Clayson told McCain on this morning's Early Show. "And there was talk
at one point about the magic of your campaign at some point being revived.
Do you still think about that?"
It sounds like
Clayson sure does.
5
Quote of the Morning: "The platform is again very strongly
pro-life and rejects abortion rights, and the platform specifically comes
out against gay unions, and against legal protections based on sexual
preferences. So is this really an open, compassionate, tolerant
party?" -- ABC's Charles Gibson to Lynne Cheney, August 2 Good
Morning America.
END Reprints of
Media Reality Check article
This "Conventions 2000: Media
Reality Check" compiled by Rich Noyes with the daytime work of MRC
analysts Brian Boyd, Ted Smith, Ken Shepherd and Michael Ferguson. Plus
Eric Pairel and Brandon Rytting loading up the Web page. In Philadelphia:
Tim Graham, Liz Swasey and Joyce Garczynski. -- Brent Baker
