Senate Crime Bill Unscrutinized by the Press

Bill Clinton signs the crime bill, September 13, 1994, in what Time called an effort “to shed his party’s reputation as law-and-order wimps.”

Sen. Joseph Biden’s crime bill passed the Senate on November 19, 1993, by an overwhelming 95–4 vote. But few in the general public know much about the content of the nearly 1,000-page bill beyond its promises to incarcerate more criminals and build more prisons. The mainstream press has failed to report fully on amendments to the bill, many of which would impose sweeping penalties or threaten key constitutional rights.

For example, mainstream media gave little note to the bill’s sweeping “anti-gang” measures. In what The Nation (12/6/93) called a “new kind of McCarthyism,” youth who “participate in criminal street gangs or induce others to join such gangs” can be sentenced to five to 20 years. At the same time, this section repeals $50 million for family-focused rehabilitation as well as gang-prevention programs in elementary and middle schools.

In one of the few articles dealing with the anti-gang measure, Business Week (2/21/94) totally ignored the effects the law may have on young inner-city residents. Instead, the article focused on the fear that the broadly worded provision could “be applied to management, directors, lawyers and accountants.”

A little-noted passage in the bill would require children as young as 13 years old to be tried as adults for certain violent crimes. Another section establishes a special court that can deport non-citizens “engaged in terrorist activity” using secret evidence, depriving them of their constitutional right to hear the evidence against them.

An alternative bill introduced by Rep. Craig Washington (D.–Texas) and supported by the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has been mentioned in many articles, but little attention has been given to the details of its preventative approach to crime. Only USA Today gave the bill consistent coverage, publishing three articles dealing substantively with its contents.

When the crime bill was being drafted, debated and passed by the Senate in 1993, most coverage focused on the political impact of the crime issue: “Trying to shed his party’s reputation as law-and-order wimps, President Clinton steps forward with a tough new plan to fight crime,” Time magazine declared (8/23/93) of the plan that became the blueprint for the Senate bill.

It was not until earlier this year, as the Senate crime bill moved to the House of Representative’s Justice Committee, that the coverage in the mainstream press began to focus on certain troubling issues that the bill presented. By January, several publications were openly expressing discontent with such provisions as “three-strikes-you’re-out,” mandatory minimum sentencing and increasing spending on prisons.

But there was still little coverage of the most extreme provisions of the bill. One exception was the paper Legal Times, which published an extensive analysis on March 7, along with critiques from civil libertarians. The paper noted that the bill still had to pass the House of Representatives, but “as Congress rushes headlong to pass sweeping crime legislation, these amendments–which passed the Senate with virtually no debate–could soon become law.”

And thanks to the omissions of the media, few Americans would know what that law contains.

Steven Dudley is a former intern at FAIR, now interning at The Nation.