WASHINGTON — Fox News Channel did a really dumb thing. It put George
W. Bush’s cousin, John Ellis, in charge of its decision desk on election
night.
From there, Ellis called states for Bush while chatting privately
over the phone with him and his other cousin, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Fox wanted an inside track — and an edge over the Big Three — but
this was just too cozy.
Old media critics, who are blind to their own liberal bias but always
alert to conservative bias, have pounced on Fox’s faux pas.
Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz, for one, said the public will have a
harder time trusting Fox now.
“The appearance of their man working both sides of the street has
damaged their credibility,” wrote Kurtz, who also works for Fox
competitor CNN.
Wait a minute, Howie.
“Working both sides of the street” presents a credibility problem for
Fox, but not for ABC News?
While cousin Ellis was schmoozing behind the camera on election night
at Fox, former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos was spinning the
results in front of the camera with Peter Jennings at ABC.
And Stephanopoulos clearly has the more egregious conflict. In a
first for TV news (forgive the oxymoron), a top aide to a president has
been allowed to report on White House issues while his former boss is
still in power.
Yet Kurtz hasn’t condemned ABC for hiring him.
Recall that Stephanopoulos initially was hired as a “commentator” or
“analyst” for ABC’s Sunday talk show.
But he soon flowered into a correspondent, reporting the “facts” to
Sam and Cokie, then Jennings and now even network doyen Ted Koppel. His
power and influence at ABC grows by the day.
You’ve probably noticed that those facts that Stephanopoulos reports
tend to involve issues that matter most to this administration, and
always seem to spin Clinton’s or Al Gore’s way.
Oh sure, Stephanopoulos will speak critically of his former bosses.
But it’s usually about style, not substance.
Point is, the former Clinton-Gore flack is still flacking. Most
recently, during the election crisis, he practically parroted Gore’s
talking points, including the lie that all votes haven’t been counted in
Florida.
Yet ABC is dressing him up as just another correspondent.
Have you ever heard Sam or Cokie identify Stephanopoulos as a
liberal, or a Democrat or even a former White House aide? Nope. But the
other George on the roundtable is routinely labeled a “conservative.”
They announce it as if it were an expiration date on a carton of sour
milk or spoiled meat. Watch out! This guy is contaminated with opinion!
The same goes for other “conservative” commentators, such as Bill
Kristol, Paul Gigot, Charles Krauthammer and Peggy Noonan. Viewers are
almost always warned of their “right-wing” bias.
But dependably liberal David Broder is just David Broder, the “dean”
of the Washington press corps. And Eleanor Clift, the shrill shill of
the Clinton White House, is just Eleanor Clift, contributing editor to
Newsweek. Stridently liberal Mara Laisson is just Mara Laisson, NPR
correspondent. Comically liberal Juan Williams’ dropline: Columnist.
Apparently, the viewing public needs no warning when flaming lefties
are on the air. They’re passed off as neutral journalists with no
political axes to grind.
The irony is that the “conservative” commentators who producers try
to label as partisan hacks — George Will, Kristol, Gigot, Krauthammer,
Noonan — are some of the most thoughtful analysts on TV. Whereas the
usual suspects on the left — who are perfumed as honest journalists —
are fonts of conventional wisdom. Rarely do they offer an original
thought.
Katherine ‘Republican’ Harris
Pinning the label on the Republican is a favorite game of the old
media. And they’ve played it throughout the election crisis, and not
just with guest pundits.
“Republican” is now Katherine Harris’ middle name. Americans may not
know she’s Florida’s secretary of state, but they can tell you she’s a
Republican, thanks to media chanting.
Palm Beach canvasser Carol Roberts is a rabidly partisan Democrat.
Yet the media didn’t make her politics a big issue.
The Florida legislature is described by the media, without fail, as
“Republican controlled.” They can’t say one without the other.
But how often have you heard the Florida Supreme Court, which is
packed with six Democrats, described as “Democratic controlled”?
When the conservative press breaks news, it’s instantly written off
as biased. But if the Miami Herald breaks a story, it’s embraced as the
gospel truth — even though the Herald endorsed Gore.
And when a Democrat rules in favor of Bush, as Leon County Circuit
Judge Sanders Sauls did, the media stops calling him a Democrat.
Even in the New York Times’ front-page smear of Sanders, which
masqueraded as a profile, readers didn’t learn of his party until the
10th paragraph. Hard to demonize a judge as pro-Bush when he’s a
Democrat.
I look forward to reading the above-the-fold expose on the four
Florida supremes who’ve been spanked twice now by the highest court for
what amounts to political activism.
Will the Times tell us of their personal and political ties to Gore?
Will the “newspaper of record” tell us if any of them had ugly divorces?
Will it fill us in on reports of professional misconduct and
incompetence during their careers on the bench?
Don’t hold your breath.
The media won’t ID other Democrats, either, who get in the way of
their fairy tales of GOP sorcery.
Misery merchant
Barry Richard, Bush’s lead attorney in Tallahassee, is called a
Republican lawyer, even though he’s a Democrat who works for a
Miami-based law firm with strong Democratic Party ties.
Misery merchant Jesse Jackson is charging Florida counties with
racism. He claims Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Leon counties
“disenfranchised” voters — and, somehow, Jeb Bush is behind the wicked
plot.
The media echo his unsubstantiated charges, while failing to point
out that the canvassing boards in the counties Jackson cites are all run
by Democrats. Apparently, Democrats are now racists, too.
But the media is quick to join Jackson in characterizing the U.S.
Supreme Court as being a “Republican court,” packed with conservative
Reagan appointees.
They knew the high court would rule against their candidate. So they
colored the decision as political before it came, daring the public to
accept it. And that’s the spin, now that it’s here: “A narrow, 5-4
Republican majority.”
Next: The Miami Herald will miraculously discover hundreds of hidden
votes for Gore in those disputed ballots that the mean Republican
justices kept from Gore. And Stephanopoulos will amplify the findings on
ABC, maybe even conducting some focus groups of voters who’ll say they
can no longer accept Bush as president.
Who needs the courts when Gore has the media on his side?
