The Democrats are starting to whine:
"Bush Is Darling of Cable News, Democrats Gripe"
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By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 13, 2002; Page A06
The Democrats are getting fed up with watching President Bush on television.
In an unusual letter to the heads of the three cable news networks, Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) and House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) complained about "the lack of television coverage of press events featuring elected leaders of the Democratic Party."
At the same time, the Bush White House "has received an extraordinary level of attention and coverage of their events," said the letter sent yesterday to Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes, CNN Chairman Walter Isaacson and MSNBC President Erik Sorenson.
The lawmakers are taking the issue so seriously that they asked the Democratic National Committee to study CNN's coverage. From Jan. 1 through March 21, the letter said, CNN carried 157 live events involving the Bush administration, or 96 percent, and seven involving elected Democrats, or 4 percent. They said anecdotal evidence suggests a similar pattern at Fox and MSNBC.
Privately, Democratic officials said party activists often complain that Daschle and Gephardt aren't doing much because the two men are rarely seen on cable newscasts.
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