As I said, Libby spun her failure in a way to do the maximum damage to the party:
***Media Research Center CyberAlert***
Thursday October 21, 1999 (Vol. Four; No. 169)
> 1) CBS and NBC on Wednesday night exploited Elizabeth Dole's
decision to drop out of the Republican presidential race as an
opportunity to crusade for restrictions on spending, portraying
Dole as a victim of big money in politics. "The Dole dropout comes
one day after Bush allies, among the Republican congressional
leaders, killed the latest attempt at campaign finance reform,"
declared Dan Rather. CBS's Bob Schieffer provided a one-sided
story revolving around how John McCain "calls the influence of
money disgraceful."
NBC anchor Tom Brokaw lamented how the money race hurt
"Elizabeth Dole's dream of running for President," claiming,
without citing any proof, that there's a rising tide of anger at
too much money in politics: "It's gotten to be so big and so
controversial there's a growing demand to change the system, but
that demand died again today when it hit the U.S. Senate."
On ABC's World News Tonight John Cochran relayed Dole's
reasoning that she didn't have enough money to compete and allowed
as to how McCain "blames the system," but refrained from
campaigning for more regulation. Cokie Roberts then told anchor
Peter Jennings what she thinks will happen to Dole's voters,
arguing the other party is the "more natural home" of many:
"She did energize women and young women in particular came to
her rallies in large numbers and were very enthusiastic. I think
some of them will now stay home. Some of the women will go to
their more natural home, which is the Democratic Party and some
will certainly go to some of the other candidates."
Later, on 20/20, Diane Sawyer assumed Dole's gender prevented
her from raising money, not that her message failed to excite
many, asking her: "What will it take to level the playing field
for a woman candidate on this pernicious issue of money?"
Now to how CBS and NBC crusaded for campaign finance "reform"
on Wednesday night, October 20:
-- CBS Evening News. Dan Rather opened the show by stressing
the "larger implications" of Dole's dropout:
"Good evening. Elizabeth Dole is out. The only woman running
for the presidential nomination of either major party said today
she was done in not by a clash of ideas, but a losing scramble for
cash. Dole says she was outspent at least 75-to-one by fellow
Republicans George W. Bush and Steve Forbes. Bush gets a lot of
his money from big business, Forbes spends a lot of his own.
Against this Dole said she had no chance. CBS's Phil Jones reports
the larger implications of all this."
Jones summarized Dole's complaint about how her opponents
could outspend her and how she believed she had paved the way for
the first woman President
Though George W. Bush has tried to separate himself from
congressional Republicans, Dan Rather then linked him to what he
clearly implied was a bad Senate decision: "The Dole dropout comes
one day after Bush allies, among the Republican congressional
leaders, killed the latest attempt at campaign finance reform,
underscoring yet again how big money special interests can turn an
election or even who's able to run."
Bob Schieffer began his subsequent story: "Well Dan, as you
know, money's always been a factor in politics but lately its
become virtually the whole ball game and there is a reason."
As if the world began yesterday.
Schieffer cited the cost of TV ads as the culprit and
explained that Dole realized she couldn't win when outspent 20-to-
one by Bush. Schieffer then picked up and promoted, without
bothering with a retort, the pet cause of McCain:
"Republican John McCain, who has made campaign reform the core
of his presidential campaign, calls the influence of money
disgraceful."
McCain: "John Kasich, Lamar Alexander, Dan Quayle, now
Elizabeth Dole have all left the presidential campaign before a
single ballot was cast. Why? Because they didn't have sufficient
money."
Schieffer: "Even the Democratic President who was out
fundraising for his party last night professed sympathy."
After a soundbite from Clinton, Schieffer continued his
crusade to limit the speech of others but not of CBS News:
"Current law limits contributions to candidates to a thousand
dollars, but frontrunner Bush has still managed to raise nearly
$60 million. An astounding number, but chicken feed compared to
the quarter billion dollars expected to flow to the political
parties, which are bound by no limit on contributions. Where does
it end?"
McCain: "There'll be more money and more scandals and finally
those scandals will grow to a point where the American people will
absolutely demand we clean it up."
Without addressing how more rules will solve anything when the
Clinton team violated the current rules, Schieffer concluded: "But
not yet. Yesterday it was the fourth time that Senate Republican
leaders had blocked a vote on McCain's reforms, even though a
majority of the House and Senate now favor them."
-- NBC Nightly News. Tom Brokaw opened not with a standard
introduction to a lead story, but with a personal pleading:
"Good evening. Tonight we begin with what has been called the
mother's milk of politics: Money, tons of money. So much money
these days it is spilling into the billions. How it affects those
who have it and don't want to give it up and how it effected
Elizabeth Dole's dream of running for President. We begin with
what is called soft money, but it's hard cash, hundreds of
millions of dollars in political cash funneled to political
parties to help members of Congress already in office. It pours in
from large corporations and other special interests with big
stakes in how those members vote. It's gotten to be so big and so
controversial there's a growing demand to change the system, but
that demand died again today when it hit the U.S. Senate."
NBC then ran three stories to support Brokaw's political
cause. First, Lisa Myers on the plight of the "reform" bill
blocked by Republicans in the Senate. She did at least note that
an "unusual coalition from the Christian Coalition to the ACLU"
opposes the "reform" proposal. Second, trying to be bipartisan,
Jim Avila profiled a big Democratic fundraiser in Chicago, but on
the policy issue he didn't bother to be balanced, giving
unrebutted airtime to a Common Cause hack who claimed only those
with money are heard. Third, NBC ran an "In Their Own Words"
segment from Elizabeth Dole complaining about how her lack of
money doomed her campaign.
Reality Check: Not a word in any of these stories about a
conservative reform proposal: Deregulate campaign finance and
require full disclosure. That way, a couple of wealthy friends of
Dole could have given her plenty of money, something the $1,000
per person limit now prevents.
On soft money, if parties are not allowed to raise and spend
all they want then the media will gain influence. What's the value
to liberals of the CBS and NBC stories crusading for their new
regulatory scheme?
As for "big money" and "tons of money" being spent on
elections, the U.S. actually spends very little on campaigns
compared to advertising other products. And, as noted by George
Will, George W. Bush's current fundraising is no greater than what
a certain candidate popular with the media raised way back in
1968. Here's an excerpt from Will's October 10 column:
....If fundraising continues at the current pace, candidates for
the House, Senate and presidency will spend $3 billion in the
1999-2000 cycle, an $800 million increase over the 1995-96
presidential election cycle. But to put that $800 million -- in
eight quarters -- in perspective: $655 million was spent on
advertising on the Internet in just the last quarter of 1998.
That $3 billion would come to $14.60 per eligible voter for
political communication about the determination of public policy
-- about the presidential contest, 435 House contests and 34
Senate contests. Too much? By what standard?
If today's fundraising pace is maintained, the two-year total for
congressional races could be $1 billion. But before fainting,
consider:
In a single year, 1998, the nation's largest advertiser, General
Motors, spent almost $3 billion communicating about its products.
The 14th-largest advertiser, McDonald's, spent more than $1
billion in 1998 communicating about food.
The Senate debate takes place after the Bush campaign's
announcement that it has raised $56 million in seven months.
However, Holman W. Jenkins Jr. of the Wall Street Journal reports
that in 1967-68 Eugene McCarthy, whose insurgent campaign against
President Johnson for the Democratic presidential nomination
lasted about seven months, raised $11 million. In current dollars,
that is almost $53 million. And most of it came from five people.
Under the political-speech regulations put in place since then, it
is impossible -- it is illegal -- to mount a McCarthy-style
insurgency against the political status quo. The political class,
which is the status quo, wants it that way.
It is indeed wrong that the political class must spend so much
time raising money. It also is that class's fault: It has not
repealed the $1,000 limit on contributions imposed, unindexed to
inflation, 25 years ago. That limit has created an artificial
scarcity of something -- money -- that is stupendously plentiful
in booming America....
END Excerpt |
