Another fine example of media bias:
www.mediaresearch.org
NBC’s Lisa Myers: "This Unpretentious Midwesterner...Is Adept At Striking Just the Right Political Note"
Bouquets, Not Barbs, For Darling Daschle
When Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1995 — after an election, not an inside-the-Beltway defection — the media tried hard to deflate his triumphant moment.
Bias flashback: "You called Gingrich and his ilk, your words, ‘trickle-down terrorists who base their agenda on division, exclusion and fear,’" Bryant Gumbel, then co-host of NBC’s Today, reminded Democratic leader Dick Gephardt on January 4, 1995, the day the last party changeover became effective. "Do you think middle-class Americans are in need of protection from that group?"
This morning, as Democrats prepared to seize the Senate, the networks gave no Republican the chance to rain on the liberals’ parade, and no host infer-red that incoming Senate leader Tom Daschle is surrounded by "ilk," is a divisive "terrorist" or poses a threat to middle-class taxpayers. Instead, ABC and NBC celebrated Daschle’s rise with gushing profiles which were completely devoid of criticism of the one-man coup that roiled the Senate, or of any other aspect of the liberal Daschle’s partisan career.
"If you happened to catch Tom Daschle at a South Dakota airport, you’d never guess he’s about to become the most powerful man in a Capitol full of very large egos," NBC’s Lisa Myers enthused on Today. "Once a year, this unpretentious Midwesterner drives across his prairie state alone, without any aides, visiting all 66 counties. At home and in Washington, Daschle, who is 53, is described by colleagues as mild-mannered, straightforward, even nice."
Myers assured viewers that Daschle will be an effective champion of liberal causes: "Beneath the friendly exterior is a shrewd, tenacious politician with 23 years in Congress, skilled at holding his party together...Married to a former Miss Kansas with three grown children, Daschle is adept at striking just the right political note."
NBC even raised the prospect that Daschle could duplicate the performance of the last Democratic majority leader, George Mitchell who, Myers related, "was what one Bush aide called ‘a partisan pit bull,’ regularly ripping then-President Bush to shreds. Some Republicans now worry that what Mitchell visited on the father, Daschle will visit on the son."
On Good Morning America, ABC’s Claire Shipman used some of the same talking points to compliment Daschle: "Being underestimated is the story of Daschle’s political life, but as his colleagues and adversaries always discover, he may be 5 feet, 7 inches and mild-mannered, but he has a steely determination behind his consensus-building style. Every year, the self-labeled ‘Prairie Populist’ methodically visits all 66 counties in his home state. Last week, he found himself in Lake Preston, where he was full of chuckles for the locals’ jokes."
ABC and NBC could have pointed out that Daschle’s partisan assaults of the past five months are wildly at odds with his advice that both parties must "work together." Daschle delighted in condemning President Bush’s delay of strict new arsenic standards, even though he voted with 18 other Democratic Senators in October 2000 for a similar delay. That audacious bit of hypocrisy has been widely disseminated by Rush Limbaugh, among many others, but ABC, CBS and NBC have so far failed to include it in their hyped environmental coverage.
On the May 27 Meet the Press, NBC’s Tim Russert uniquely challenged Daschle for his condemnation of a GOP fundraiser held at Vice President Cheney’s residence; Russert informed viewers that Daschle had charged donors $5,000 each to join him at the top of Mount Rushmore. National Review later reported that Daschle’s declaration to Russert that such excursions are done "regularly...almost every week," isn’t true, according to their interviews with National Park officials. But none of these criticisms were voiced this morning, as the networks greeted Daschle's ascendancy with bouquets, not barbs.
-- Rich Noyes |
