This week the MRC is producing a twice-daily Media Reality Check analysis of network coverage of the Republican convention. MRC Alert: Tuesday AM Edition of Conventions 2000 Media Reality Check Media Research Center CyberAlert Tuesday August 1, 2000 (Vol. Five; No. 127) Conventions 2000: Media Reality Check, Tuesday AM Edition It is being distributed via fax, in hard copy form in Philadelphia and on the MRC Web site where you can access it as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file or through regular HTML documents. Go to http://www.mrc.org and click on "Campaign 2000." Below is the text for the three-page Tuesday Morning, August 1 edition. 1) Powell Appearance Used to Rebuke GOP: "Have to Think About Minorities...Not Just Every Four Years." Peter Jennings suggested Powell's appearance provided the GOP with an "unusual sense of inclusion" and during Nightline he asked Powell: "Do you ever feel used by the Republican Party?" 2) Bush, Cheney & Platform Too Conservative: GOP Interviewees Hit With Liberal Agenda Questions on MSNBC. Claire Shipman on abortion: "What would you say to women who are worried that George W. Bush will appoint people to the Supreme Court who might try to take away that right?" 3) Cheney Challenged from Left. "Why would women voters be attracted to this ticket?" Gloria Borger asked on Face the Nation. 4) Delegates Scolded as Too White & Too Male; Not Enough Women or Blacks to Satisfy Networks. 5) Sidebar stories: Rhyming Ratherism; "Rigidly Right" Cheney Tag Avoided By Avoiding Press; Cheney-Backed Tax Cuts Caused Deficits; Cheney's "Militia Moms." > 1) Front page story. Powell Appearance Used to Rebuke GOP: "Have to Think About Minorities...Not Just Every Four Years." Though network reporters Monday night agreed that Colin Powell received a warm reception, his address provided correspondents with an opportunity to take shots at Republicans and conservatives for not doing enough for minorities. Peter Jennings suggested Powell's appearance provided the GOP with an "unusual sense of inclusion" and during Nightline he asked Powell: "Do you ever feel used by the Republican Party?" Just after Powell's speech concluded at 11:03pm ET, Ed Bradley told CBS viewers "the speech sure played really well" with "no catcalls" as happened in 1996. Bob Schieffer called the speech, which CBS picked up in progress during 48 Hours, a triumph: "When a black man can stand before an almost hundred percent white audience of Republicans and tell them they're responsible for some of the cynicism of the black community and make them like it and they did seem to like it. I think that's a pretty gutsy thing and I think they got out the message they wanted to tonight." Earlier, NBC's Tom Brokaw had rebuked Republicans, previewing on MSNBC: "General Colin Powell, the most influential African-American in the Republican Party will be talking to these delegates, reminding them that they have to think about minorities everyday, not just every four years." During ABC's 10pm ET hour of coverage, Jennings observed: "But there is a real enthusiasm and an unusual sense of inclusion." Jennings castigated the convention because "Kweisi Mfume, the head of the NAACP, wanted to speak...here and he was turned down. They said they could come here and be seen, they'd be very welcome to that, but not necessarily heard. And they wanted us to say tonight, as they want everybody to understand tonight, that they had been officially insulted." Jennings pushed Powell to denigrate himself, arguing on Nightline: "Most famous black man in America, probably, and they push you into the front position all the time. Do you ever feel that maybe this is the professional wing of the party trying to use you?" > 2) Page two article. Bush, Cheney & Platform Too Conservative: GOP Interviewees Hit With Liberal Agenda Questions on MSNBC The broadcast networks decided not to offer multi-hour coverage, but viewers were not spared the liberal tilt of network stars as NBC's were showcased all night on MSNBC. From the start of prime time coverage at 8pm ET co-anchored by Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert until they threw it to Brian Williams and Chris Matthews just past 11pm ET, MSNBC delivered relentless badgering from the left about how Republicans were too conservative and would scare away voters. It all started at about 8:10 ET as MSNBC went to David Bloom on the floor, who challenged former Senator Bob Dole: "But the Democrats say, ‘look this is a man who voted against the Clean Water Act, he voted against the creation of the Department of Education, he voted against a ban on cop-killer bullets.' His pick, they say, says a lot about Governor Bush." Next, Andrea Mitchell demanded of New York Governor George Pataki: "We just heard Bob Dole defending Dick Cheney's record. Dick Cheney's conservative record. Democrats are attacking it. How is being against a ban on cop killer tickets, uh, bullets gonna go down in New York state, with New York voters?" She followed up: "How does that broaden the appeal of the party? You're talking here tonight about being more inclusive, yet 59 percent of the people here describe themselves as conservative. And you're not appealing to a broader base with this nominee." Back on the air a bit later, Mitchell suggested to Senator Chuck Hagel: "Other people are criticizing what's going on here on the floor and on the podium as a lot of packaging. That it looks like an inclusive party, but it isn't any kinder or gentler when you get down to specifics." Mitchell threw it to Claire Shipman who argued to Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn: "There's one issue that is very important to a lot of women. That's the issue of abortion. And you, with a couple of notable exceptions, are pro-choice. With the exception of federal funding to support abortion and a ban on late-term abortions, which you support. What would you say to women who are worried that George W. Bush will appoint people to the Supreme Court who might try to take away that right?" Up in the booth, Brokaw identified a scapegoat for why Bush did not pick Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, telling Ridge: "A whole lot of people think that you did not get the pick by George W. Bush because of the Catholic Church's opposition to your stand on abortion. Do you think that there ought to be more tolerance for abortion in this country, in terms of the point of view, in exchange of that." Brokaw pressed him to favor another liberal policy: "This is a key industrial state, obviously, for George Bush. President Clinton is already challenging the Republicans to raise the minimum wage. If George Bush came out for raising the minimum wage, would that help him in Pennsylvania?" And these questions all aired just in MSNBC's first hour, 8 to 9pm ET. [On Tuesday morning, MRC Webmaster Andy Szul, will post a RealPlayer clip of a couple of MSNBC's aggressive interviews. Go to: http://www.mrc.org] > 3) Story at the top of page three. Cheney Challenged from Left: "Why Would Women Voters Be Attracted to This Ticket?" As detailed in Monday morning's Media Reality Check, on Sunday Dick Cheney was grilled by ABC's Sam Donaldson over his conservative voting record. Cheney got the same hostile reception on CBS's Face the Nation. Bob Schieffer demanded to know: "Well, what about this business of cop-killer bullets? That seems a pretty, pretty tough one to me, to vote against that. Why did you do that?" Co-host Gloria Borger didn't see how Bush gained anything by his pick: "Governor Bush today has said that he is looking to attract independent voters to vote for him in this election. What do you bring to the ticket with this kind of a very conservative voting record that would attract independent voters to the ticket?" Borger followed up, wondering how any women wouldn't be turned off: "Well, another constituency that, that both Governor Bush and Al Gore are looking at are women voters. And, again, going back to your record, you voted against the Equal Rights Amendment; you have a stronger position, if you will, against abortion than Governor Bush, with no exceptions. And the question is, I guess, why would women voters be attracted to this ticket?" Of course, if the ERA were so universally popular, it would have been ratified. > 4) Story on the bottom half of page three. Delegates Scolded as Too White & Too Male: Not Enough Women or Blacks to Satisfy Networks To counter media condemnations of previous GOP conclaves for being too intolerant, Bush's operatives decided to present a convention which reached out to minorities, but the network reporters weren't satisfied. "Of all the groups that are under-represented here, it has to be said that women are," declared Michel Martin during ABC's 10pm ET hour of coverage Monday night. Martin added: "You know, men, according to an Associated Press poll, 61 percent of the delegates are male, only 34 percent are female, when of course in the general population it's the opposite. Fifty-one percent of the general population is female, and only 49 percent is male." Earlier, Ed Bradley told CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather that many "admit" being successful: "If you used a broad brush to paint these delegates, you'd say they're overwhelmingly conservative, white and well off. About a quarter of them admit that they're millionaires. Fewer than 10 percent say their family income is under $50,000 a year." Over on the Fox News Channel, CBS News veteran Paula Zahn warned in prime time: "What is going to become abundantly clear to anybody watching this convention tonight, the delegates and the alternates are overwhelmingly white, and you wonder how genuine the symbolism will appear to those who are watching this tonight of, of this diversity the Republican Party is trying to show off." > 5) Four sidebar articles run alongside pages two and three: Rhyming Ratherism; "Rigidly Right" Cheney Tag Avoided By Avoiding Press; Cheney-Backed Tax Cuts Caused Deficits; Cheney's "Militia Moms" Rhyming Ratherism "Republicans tonight open a $60 million plus show, emphasizing television imagery and the politics of pleasantry," Dan Rather opened Monday's CBS Evening News from the convention floor as he com-bined rhyme with his caution to viewers. "Much of the money comes from big corporations and other special interests," he warned before not forgetting to note how "the same will be true of the Democratic con-vention to follow in Los Angeles." "Rigidly Right" Cheney Tag Avoided By Avoiding Press Bill Whitaker, the most prolific labeler in the network media of Dick Cheney, revealed how Cheney escaped being tagged ideologically one day last week. In a July 28 CBS Evening News story on the warm crowds which greeted the GOP ticket on Friday, Whitaker tossed out another loaded label in acknowledging that "the campaign seemed almost desperate for a day like this, with images like this after their four-day drubbing over Cheney's rigidly right record." "They avoided the whole issue," Whitaker added, "by holding no press conferences today." In other words, "their four-day drubbing" was fueled not by some widespread concern in the populous about Cheney's record but by the agenda of liberal reporters. Cheney-Backed Tax Cuts Caused Deficits On Sunday's Late Edition on CNN Steve Roberts of U.S. News challenged Dick Cheney's contention that he opposed a Head Start bill for spending too much in the deficit era. Roberts argued: "There is a hypocrisy level here and, for instance, on the question of Head Start. Dick Cheney says well I'm sorry about those votes but you got to remember it was the ‘80s, we didn't have money, we had a big budget deficit. First of all, one of the reasons we had the deficit was because of the tax cuts that he voted for. And secondly it wasn't as if Dick Cheney was struggling to find money for Head Start and couldn't find it in the budget. He and other conservative Republicans were saying let's close the Department of Education, let's reduce the federal role..." Cheney's "Militia Moms" Time's Margaret Carlson took a swipe at Dick Cheney on Saturday's Capital Gang on CNN. She contended that while Dick Cheney won't earn the support of the pro gun control "Million Mom" marchers he will get other moms: "Bush has kind of morphed into Clinton and left Al Gore in the dust in between Bob Jones University and now. The only mistake he may have made is by choosing Cheney, which reminds people -- the million moms are not going for Dick Cheney. The militia moms will." > 6) Quote of the Night: "You said you ended up with a more conservative platform than you originally drafted. How disappointed are you?" -- NBC's Maria Shriver to platform committee chairman Tommy Thompson, during MSNBC's Monday night coverage. END Reprints of Media Reality Check articles. A video of Monday afternoon's Quote of the Morning is now up on the MRC's Campaign 2000 page. The quote, CBS Early Show co-host Jane Clayson to J.C. Watts about Dick Cheney: "I have to ask you, as an African-American, if you have any difficulty supporting a man who voted against releasing Nelson Mandela from prison?" Go to: http://www.mediaresearch.org/campaign2000/welcome.html This "Conventions 2000: Media Reality Check" compiled by me with the late night work of MRC analysts Geoffrey Dickens, Jessica Anderson, Paul Smith and Brad Wilmouth. Plus Andy Szul loading up the Web page. Pizza and donuts provided by Rich Noyes. In Philadelphia: Tim Graham, Liz Swasey and Joyce Garczynski. -- Brent Baker MRC Alert: PM Edition of Tuesday's Conventions 2000: Media Reality Check Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 18:42:51 -0400 From: Media Research Center <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***Media Research Center CyberAlert*** Tuesday Afternoon August 1, 2000 (Vol. Five; No. 128) Conventions 2000: Media Reality Check, Tuesday PM Edition >>> This week the MRC is producing a twice-daily Media Reality Check analysis of network coverage of the Republican convention. It is being distributed via fax, in hard copy form in Philadelphia and on the MRC Web site where you can access it as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file or through regular HTML documents. Go to http://www.mrc.org and click on "Campaign 2000." Those in the media wishing to interview one of our on-scene analysts in Philadelphia this week, please e-mail Liz Swasey: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Below is the text for the three-page Tuesday Afternoon, August 1 edition about Tuesday's morning shows. 1) NBC's Today Skeptical of "Made-for-TV" GOP: Powell Quizzed on Mandela, Confederate Flag and Abortion. Katie Couric to Colin Powell: "Only four percent of the delegates in the convention hall are African Americans. Do you feel troubled at all by this, and do you feel used by your party?" 2) "He Did Vote Against Head Start": Journalists Continue Cheney-Bashing For Seventh Day. Couric again: "Do you have any problems with the fact that he did vote against Head Start -- because you care so deeply about education -- and against a resolution that would have allowed Nelson Mandela to be released from prison?"' CBS's Jane Clayson: "If you are trying to be inclusive, why a Dick Cheney pick?" 3) A Republican or Democratic Convention? Monday's Speeches Leave Many Journalists Confused. 4) "Star Attraction" For Pro-Abortion GOPers: Early Show Profiles Doctor Who Conducts Partial-Birth Abortions. 5) "We Can't Justify This Amount of Coverage": CBS's Schieffer Rues Lack of Coverage; Boss Says "Never Again" 6) Sidebar stories: The White Stuff?; Anti-Gore Bias?; Laura's Negative Attacks; Is Laura "Hillary-Like?" 7) Quote of the Morning. > 1) Front page story. NBC's Today Skeptical of "Made-for-TV" GOP: Powell Quizzed on Mandela, Confederate Flag and Abortion NBC didn't show Colin Powell's speech or provide any other coverage of the first night of the Republican Convention, but the gang on Today spent its first half hour questioning the sincerity of the GOP's Monday night program. "It's the face of the new GOP, or at least it's the made-for-TV image Republicans want to project: women, blacks and Latinos taking center stage in Philadelphia," reported David Bloom. Matt Lauer wondered whether conservatives could even tolerate the convention program. "You're listening to a more moderate message from speakers on the floor, yet the delegates on the floor, the people listening to those speeches are more conservative than ever. So how is the message playing to them," Lauer demanded of Tim Russert." Russert had to remind him that "the Democrats have done the same thing, that the Democratic delegates are to the left of their party leadership." In an interview, Katie Couric challenged Powell several times. "Speaking of inclusion," she told the retired general, "much has been made of the face the GOP is trying to put on and African Americans, as you are well aware, were very much in evidence last night in the program and at the podium, yet according to a poll, only four percent of the delegates in the convention hall are African Americans. Do you feel troubled at all by this, and do you feel used by your party?" Couric pressed Powell on every hot-button social issue she could. "You said last night that race still casts a shadow over society," she said, "Does that include the Confederate flag, and if so would you like Gov. Bush to suggest the Confederate flag come down everywhere?" Then, "Does the call for a ban on abortion in the Republican Party, in the Republican platform, rather trouble you?" She also wondered how Powell could support Dick Cheney, since the latter voted "against a resolution that would have allowed Nelson Mandela to be released from prison." No NBC coverage is planned for tonight, either. > 2) Top of page two article. He Did Vote Against Head Start": Journalists Continue Cheney-Bashing For Seventh Day" One week after Dick Cheney was announced as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, journalists continue to paint his conservative record as controversial. This morning, as Colin Powell made the rounds he was asked about his former boss. "If you are trying to be inclusive, why a Dick Cheney pick," CBS's Jane Clayson asked. "A man with such a conservative Congressional voting record?" NBC's Katie Couric pushed Powell even harder. "Let me ask you briefly, if I could Gen. Powell, about your former colleague Dick Cheney, the vice presidential candidate. Of course, he was Secretary of Defense when you were chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and much has been made of his conservative voting record. I'm just curious, do you have any problems with the fact that he did vote against Head Start -- because you care so deeply about education -- and against a resolution that would have allowed Nelson Mandela to be released from prison?"' Cheney wasn't Mandela's jailer, despite the persistant media buzz to the contrary. And in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, former Assistant Secretary of Education Chester Finn writes that "Head Start doesn't narrow the achievement gap. Study after study has found any academic gains vanishing after a child's first few years in school." But if you care deeply enough, maybe results don't matter. > 3) Article on the bottom half of page two. A Republican or Democratic Convention? Monday's Speeches Leave Many Journalists Confused The liberal media were befuddled by Monday night's convention festivities, which undermined their stereotype of a bigoted, intolerant GOP. "This convention looked more like a Democratic convention here," CBS's Jane Clayson said on Tuesday's Early Show, "with a podium full of blacks, Hispanics, and Asians, even a Baptist choir, Bryant, at one point." Even a Baptist choir. "If I closed my eyes, I would have imagined I was at a Democratic convention in many parts of [Colin Powell's] speech," former Clinton aide (and ABC News analyst) Dee Dee Myers told Charles Gibson on Tuesday morning's Good Morning America. "You could have switched the channel and been watching ‘Who Wants to Be a Democrat,' because it sounded exactly the same themes," Time's Margaret Carlson insisted on CNN during a special Capital Gang late last night. "It turns out that the Republican Party has morphed for this week into such a compassionate party that it does look like the Democratic Party." One strains to consider what would the Democrats have to do at their convention to make reporters think they were at a GOP meeting. > 4) Top of page three story. "Star Attraction" For Pro-Abortion GOPers: Early Show Profiles Doctor Who Conducts Partial-Birth Abortions The Early Show offered a sympathetic profile of a notorious abortionist this morning. "It might not have been the hot ticket this week, but hundreds of Republicans turned out for a Planned Parenthood reception to promote abortion rights," reported CBS's Jon Frankel this morning. "The star attraction: not a Hollywood celeb or a GOP heavy-hitter, but a soft-spoken doctor from Nebraska." Frankel meant Leroy Carhart, the late-term abortionist who was at the center of the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Nebraska's ban on partial-birth abortions. After Frankel reported how overworked Carhart is as one of only three abortionists in Nebraska, the doctor told him, "The first thing we have to do as providers is be proud of what we do, make it a legitimate part of medicine, make it a fundamental part of medicine, and I don't think we can do that if we're uncomfortable talking about what we do." Frankel offered no criticism of Carhart, nor did he quote any opponents of partial-birth abortion. Instead, he portrayed Carhart as brave for risking his own safety to promote his cause on the national stage. "Are you willing to give your life?" Frankel asked. "If I have to," replied Carhart. "Monday, as expected, abortion-rights advocates lost the platform battle," Frankel concluded, "but they hope the defeat re-energizes supporters for the long-term war." Watch a RealPlayer clip of Frankel and the abortionist. Go to http://www.mrc.org and click on Campaign 2000. > 5) Story in the bottom half of page three. "We Can't Justify This Amount of Coverage": CBS's Schieffer Rues Lack of Coverage; Boss Says "Never Again" In an interview with PBS's Terence Smith that aired last night on NewsHour, CBS News President Andrew Heyward said "we all walked away from the ‘96 convention saying, ‘it's really never going to be this way again.' I think what's happened, Terry, is that the conventions themselves have changed. There's less at stake. It's no longer a nomination process, it's really a coronation." CBS carried about thirty minutes of last night's convention, packaged inside a regularly-scheduled episode of 48 Hours. Heyward added, "From the journalistic point of view, we simply can't justify this amount of coverage of something that -- without using the pejorative word ‘infomercial' -- really is a political pep rally." But on Tuesday's Imus in the Morning, CBS correspondent Bob Schieffer said that while he agreed that gavel-to-gavel coverage was undesirable, "I sort of wish we had done a little more last night because I think a lot of people would have liked to have seen and heard Laura Bush's speech in its entirety." Instead of Mrs. Bush's speech, 48 Hours ran a story on alleged abuses in using human test subjects in medical experiments. > 6) Sidebar stories down the sides of pages two and three. The White Stuff?"; Anti-Gore Bias?; Laura's Negative Attacks; Is Laura "Hillary-Like?" The White Stuff In this week's Newsweek, Howard Fineman described how "Democrats saw the GOP ticket as Central Casting villains -- wealthy white males from upper-income America -- in the us-versus-them psywar they were already preparing to run. ‘They represent the men's club view of the world,' said [Gore advisor Bob] Shrum. ‘They couldn't be more out of touch.'" But in the magazine's up-front item "The Buzz," Newsweek pitched the names of potential Gore running mates, but they only mentioned wealthy white males: John Kerry, Dick Gephardt, Dick Durbin, Tom Harkin, Bob Graham, George Mitchell, Evan Bayh and John Edwards. But Central Casting would hardly cast a trial lawyer like Edwards as a villain. Anti-Gore Bias? Margaret Carlson thinks the media are out to get Al Gore. "[Bush's] Big Tent will be the biggest ever," she writes in this week's Time. "Why should a little disagreement over abortion make us all tense and angry with one another? The ideology-lite candidate, Bush was able to change from compassionate conservative to Bob Jones conservative and back again inside six weeks with near impunity, while Al Gore was ripped apart for changing the color of his clothes." Laura's Negative Attacks "Republicans say they'll stress positive politics over these four days," Charles Gibson said on Tuesday's Good Morning America, "and for the most part on Day One, they did -- for the most part." So who went negative, at least in Gibson's eyes? None other than Laura Bush, who at one part in her speech Monday night said that parents she and her husband meet campaigning "say to George, I'm counting on you. I want my son or daughter to respect the President of the United States of America." "The verbal shots at President Clinton, pretty obvious," said Gibson. Is Laura "Hillary-Like?" Later on Tuesday's GMA, Gibson asked ABC Political Analyst George Stephanopoulos whether Laura Bush was "the antithesis of Hillary Clinton?" "By her bearing, I mean the whole tone is that she's anti-Hillary, but what struck me is what a Hillary-like speech it was," responded Stephanopoulos. "If you go back to the 1996 convention and Hillary's speech to the 1996 convention, it was a merging of biography, policy and philosophy, exactly what Mrs. Bush did last night from the podium. So that was quite striking to me." He probably meant it as a compliment. > 7) Quote of the Morning: "Speaking of inclusion....only four percent of the delegates in the convention hall are African Americans. Do you feel troubled at all by this, and do you feel used by your party?" -- NBC's Katie Couric, interviewing Colin Powell, August 1 Today. END Reprints of Conventions 2000 Media Reality Check 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 ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day. ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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