INTIMIDATION FACTOR: Nothing more clearly shows the impact of the Bush campaign’s efforts to intimidate journalists than the timid response of much of the media to Dan Quayle’s daring them to check his facts.
When Quayle treated “telling the truth” as the central issue in the campaign, and responded to factual disagreements by saying that he would provide the real facts to the press “if they’re interested,” one expects that journalists would do voters the favor of telling them who, if anyone, was telling the truth.
Instead, the media mostly waffled. Dan Quayle got mostly positive reviews for a performance that included several extreme distortions–some of which had already been debunked in the press. Even when reporters did take Quayle up on his taunts and look up the record, the results were usually on back pages, and abounded in euphemisms.
ELEMENTS OF TRUTH: Perhaps the wildest charge was that Gore’s book proposed that “the taxpayers of America spend $100 billion a year on environmental projects in foreign countries.” As the New York Times pointed out the next day (10/14), what Gore said was that “an effort comparable to the Marshall Plan…would mean the expenditure of $100 billion a year. Mr. Gore notes in the book that such levels of spending would be impossible given the country’s economic distress and calls on the other industrialized countries to contribute.” So far, so good.
But the New York Times, apparently afraid of seeming to say that the vice president was making up facts, included in its description of the exchange over Gore’s book this inexplicable disclaimer: “There are elements of truth in the statements of both men.” To drive home the point, the passage that dealt with the question of whether Gore advocated a $100 billion U.S. program–he hadn’t, and Quayle said he had–was labeled “Truth on Both Sides.” (The review-of-the-facts article had no byline, which sometimes indicates that a reporter was unhappy with an edit.)
Another falsehood told by Quayle was the claim that 300,000 jobs would be lost if auto mileage standards were raised. As Michael Kinsley pointed out in the New Republic (9/28), this figure “assumes that anyone now involved in making cars that get less than 40 mpg will be unemployed ten years from now. That is, it assumes that neither customers nor manufacturers will make the slightest effort to buy or manufacture more domestic cars meeting the higher standard.” When translated into the more polite language of the Washington Post by Michael Weisskopf (10/14), this became “Quayle’s projection of job losses is subject to debate.”
ON THE BASIS OF FACTS: As usual, CNN’s Brooks Jackson was forthright in his attempts to set the record straight. He reported (10/13) that “judging it just on the basis of facts, Dan Quayle is the big loser here tonight.” Jackson also did a service by pointing out some Gore distortions, like the fact that welfare rolls in Arkansas have increased under Clinton, despite the half-truth that 17,000 individuals had gone off welfare.
ABC’s Jim Wooten also scrutinized the truthfulness of both Quayle and Gore the next day (10/14)–but neither the CBS or NBC newscasts made any attempt to do so, instead promoting the proposition that Quayle’s mendacious performance had made Clinton’s truthfulness the question of the day.
CROSS PURPOSES: George Will faced criticism when it was revealed that he coached Reagan for the 1980 presidential debates and then went on to praise his “thoroughbred performance” on Nightline–critics called him a “lapdog” and a “political shill.” Yet there have been few complaints that John Sununu is doing the same thing in 1992 that Will did in 1980. Sununu is coaching Bush, playing the role of Ross Perot in mock debates, while continuing to co-host Crossfire episodes that evaluate the real ones.
“We’ve invited spin doctors from all three campaigns,” Sununu said on the Oct. 12 Crossfire–failing to include himself, or even acknowledge that he played any role in the debates other than observer. His questions about Clinton were straight out of the Bush campaign playbook: “Is he ever going to expose himself to the detailed questions on trust?” “Gov. Clinton is talking about increased spending, but he’s hiding it behind his investment term.” “Last night Bill Clinton again claimed he’s only going to tax folks making $200,000 or more to raise $154 billion. All the analysis shows that only raises one third of it.”
Bush, on the other hand, was accused of “not arguing forcefully for what he’s accomplished.” In his wrap-up, Sununu predicted that “I think you’re going to see a tougher George Bush in the next two debates, and I think it’s going to be good entertainment and good policy.” In other words, maybe next time he’ll pay more attention to my coaching.
When CNN hired Sununu as a replacement for Buchanan, FAIR was concerned that conflict-of- interest problems would arise. But we were assured by Crossfire executive Rick Davis, “When the topic could be seen as a conflict of interest, we’ll put a substitute host on.” Crossfire has failed to follow that standard — or even to disclose Sununu’s coaching role when the subject is discussed.
REVISED DRAFT OF HISTORY: When it comes time to do the retrospectives on how the media covered the campaign, journalists should refer to Eric Alterman’s Sound and Fury, which ends with a chapter on how the punditocracy began choosing Bill Clinton as the Democratic frontrunner as early as September 1991–largely on the basis of his hawkish military views.
Counterspin is written by Jim Naureckas and edited by Jeff Cohen.
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