|
Thursday, January 15, 2009 | Contact: Colleen O’Boyle (703) 683-5004
History of Double Standards: Clinton Touted as Sturdy-Jawed Icon;
Bush's Speech Paired with Funeral
Media Mudballs Unlikely for Obama Inaugural
 The news media are giddy with excitement as Barack Obama’s
Inauguration Day approaches (see box), but it would be a mistake to
think reporters are always so worshipful of new presidents. While
most presidents do start with a media honeymoon, a review of the
past 20 years finds reporters are more celebratory when Democrats
are taking over the White House, while coverage of GOP inaugurals
has included a fair number of anti-conservative stinkbombs:
■ 1989. TV reporters chose to salute the incoming President
George Bush by slamming the more conservative Ronald Reagan. ABC’s
Richard Threlkeld went to Overtown, a riot-scarred area of Miami,
for Inauguration Day: “After eight years of what many saw as the
Reagan administration’s benign neglect of the poor and studied
indifference to civil rights, a lot of those who lived through this
week in Overtown seemed to think the best thing about George Bush is
that he is not Ronald Reagan,” Threlkeld claimed on the January 20,
1989 World News Tonight. “There is an Overtown in every big city in
America — pockets of misery made even meaner and more desperate the
past eight years.”
On NBC, anchor Bryant Gumbel praised Bush’s speech as signaling “a
new activism, a new engagement in the lives of others, a yearning
for greater tolerance....Basical ly a rejection of everything that
the Reagan years had been about.”■ 1993. Bill Clinton’s arrival was touted with the same
fervor now bestowed on Obama. The New York Times asked in a January
3, 1993 headline: “Clinton as National Idol: Can the Honeymoon
Last?” Newsweek magazine ran TV ads touting its commemorative
edition “that’s sure to be a collector’s item because it covers the
most important inauguration of our lifetime.” Wall Street Journal
reporter Jill Abramson — now managing editor of news at the New York
Times — confessed: “It’s an exciting time to be in
Washington....People are excited. They’re happy about change....I
think you’re going to see crowds for these inaugural events the
likes of which we haven’t seen in Washington ever.”
■ 1997. Clinton’s second inaugural inspired just as much
hero-worship. Howard Rosenberg reviewed Clinton’s speech for the Los
Angeles Times: “His sturdy jaw precedes him. He smiles from sea to
shining sea. Is this President a candidate for Mt. Rushmore or
what?...In fact, when it comes to influencing the public, a single
medley of expressions from Clinton may be worth much more, to much
of America, than every ugly accusation Paula Jones can muster.”
■ 2001. After the long recount, reporters applied an asterisk
to Bush’s first inaugural. NBC’s Maria Shriver emphasized “millions
of people who felt disenfranchised by this election, who don’t feel
that he’s their President yet.” On ABC, George Stephanopoulos warned
Bush to avoid conservative policies: “With a 50-50 Senate and a tiny
margin in the House, and a majority in the country who actually
voted against President Bush, he’ll be able to fulfill that central
promise of unifying the country only if he’s willing to compromise.”
■ 2005. Bush’s second inaugural was met with far more
hostility, with reporters attacking the $40 million price tag as
obscene. “In a time of war and natural disaster, is it time for a
lavish celebration?” ABC’s Terry Moran doubted. The AP’s Will Lester
calculated that the money spent on Bush’s inaugural could vaccinate
“22 million children in regions devastated by the tsunami....Do we
need to spend this money on what seems so extravagant?” (Obama’s
inaugural will cost $45 million.)
The day before Bush’s swearing-in, ABC’s Web site pleaded for tips
of “any military funerals for Iraq war casualties scheduled for
Thursday, Jan. 20.” Sure enough, then-ABC anchor Peter Jennings got
his wish to report how “just about the time the president was
speaking, there was a funeral for a young Marine reservist:
21-year-old Matthew Holloway was killed in Iraq last week by a
roadside bomb.” Don’t look for the networks to use such tactics to
sour Obama’s celebration. — Rich Noyes, MRC Research Director
Home | News Division
| Bozell Columns | CyberAlerts
Media Reality Check | Notable Quotables | Contact
the MRC | Subscribe
|
