More alleged bias:
In the May 11 Special Report with Brit Hume's "Political
Grapevine" rundown of short items, Hume relayed: "More information you haven't heard from the rest of the media on Donna Dees-Thomases, organizer of that women's march for gun control here this weekend. NBC News says she's quote, 'a mother who's never been politically active,' but, in fact, she once worked for retired Louisiana Democratic Senators Russell Long and Bennett Johnston. And the Media Research Center says she's been giving to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign since last year."
.
.
.
Later, during the roundtable segment, Hume raised the subject of how the media have portrayed Dees-Thomases:
"Let's talk a bit about this upcoming event which hasgenerated so much attention, the Million Mom March. It's expected to not generate a million moms, maybe something like a seventh of that, but there's a lot of excitement about of it, a lot of publicity, and this character has emerged, Donna Dees-Thomases, who is leading it and is widely described in quite favorable media accounts as a mother who was simply there watching television at home one day, while tending to her children one presumes, and she saw horrible scenes of a shooting at a youth center where kids were killed and she had to do this. So what are we to make of all this?"
Fred Barnes contended, as transcribed by the MRC's Brad
Wilmouth: "Of course all that's fakery. I mean this is a woman who is a contributor to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign. She's the sister-in-law of Susan Thomases, who is a hard-nosed liberal operative and one of Hillary's best friends. She's a New York City PR woman who's worked for Dan Rather. I mean this is not some stay-at-home mom who's mad about Columbine. It's just ridiculous, and, Brit, when you talk about all this excitement over this thing, what there is is inordinate media attention because, not
because there's a huge groundswell against, in favor of gun
control around the country. Far from that, it's because the media is biased in a liberal direction, and they like this issue, so they're pretending like this thing is much bigger than it is."
Morton Kondracke defended the march's cause and argued you can be both politically active and be a concerned mom, an idea NPR's Mara Liasson picked up upon, though she soon scolded her media colleagues: "I just wanna say I agree with Mort about Susan [actually Donna] Dees-Thomases. You can be both, a concerned mother and a Democratic activist. However, I think it was a great, great failing on the part of the press that this wasn't pointed out. I mean, you know, on the New York Times editorial page today they called her a New Jersey suburban mom with no additional, you know, references or identifiers."
Indeed, the May 11 New York Times editorial concluded:
"The idea for the march originated with Donna Dees-Thomases, a New Jersey mother who says she was energized by the televised images of terrified children being led from their day camp to escape a gunman's shooting rampage in Granada Hills, Calif., last August. The tactic of invoking the moral authority of mothers to gain progress on a pressing social issue is not new. It worked remarkably well for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, for example, which played a big role in shifting attitudes on drinking and driving. We suspect, and strongly hope, that mom power can work similar magic for the gun control movement."
A May 11 USA Today news story similarly linked the march to apolitical "moms." In a story headlined "Moms set policy goals for Sunday's rally," Alison Gerber reported:
"The Million Mom March started as the idea of one woman in her New Jersey living room. It's now an army of volunteers and a public relations team. Celebrities such as Reese Witherspoon and Melissa Etheridge will march. Rosie O'Donnell will be master of ceremonies. Antonia Novello, the first female surgeon general of the USA , will be the keynote speaker."
A May 8 CNN allpolitics.com story by Amy Paulson, caught by
the MRC's Brad Wilmouth, also failed to note the political
activism of Dees-Thomases: "The march is the brainchild of a New Jersey mother, Donna Dees-Thomases, who conceived of the idea as she watched footage of shootings at an area day camp. 'This started in my family room and has grown to a mantra across the nation,' said Dees-Thomases. 'There is nothing more powerful than a mother's drive to protect her children. Mothers across the country are harnessing that energy, and it is their passion that will have the impact here.'"
Their passion plus the passion of the news media for her
political agenda.
***Media Research Center CyberAlert***
Friday May 12, 2000 (Vol. Five; No. 82)
Million Mom March Hype; Media's "Great Failing"; Today Hit Hillary
from the Left
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