From: niepornt@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David Marc Nieporent)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Man of the Year (was Re: Is the media liberal-biased)
Date: 12 Jan 93 23:00:39 GMT
Organization: Princeton University
Originator: news@nimaster

In <visser.726823495@convex.convex.com> visser@convex.com (Lance Visser) writes:
>In <1993Jan12.044846.122@cis.ohio-state.edu> csmith@tortoise.cis.ohio-state.edu (craig edward smith) writes:

>+>For me, however, the clearest indication of media bias was what they
>+>considered news during the election.Did we hear anything more about Clinton's
>+>draft dodging? Or Jennifer Flowers? No, it was all Iran-Contra and whether
>+>Bush knew about it or not.  And I STILL think the timing of the indictment
>+>was significant. The indictment was so full of holes it was thrown out only
>+>three weeks later.

Gennifer.  Jennifer was Bush's.

So, the fact that the news, after months and months and months and
months of Gennifer and the draft, spent 3 weeks on possible felonious
behavior by the Vice-President of the United States is a sign of bias?

And while the timing of the indictment may have been significant, it had
nothing to do with the media.  The indictment was not 'so full of holes'
anything.

>	The most public conflict of intrest in the media was probably 
>Rick Kaplin of ABC.  Kaplin was working for the Clinton Campaign as an
>advisor/consultant at the same time he was serving as executive producer
>of Prime Time Live for ABC....which could explain Prime time live's 
>style of coverage to a considerable degree.

>	I stopped believing in ABC as an unbiased source when they had
>Ted Koppel read the ROTC letter on niteline in its entirty.  I could
>have seen quoting parts of the letter on television, but doing the
>whole thing it looked like they were flat-out trying to help him.

Wait, this is a new one.  *Not* quoting out of context is a sign of bias?

> 	For the conspracy-minded, Kaplin formerly worked behind the
>scenes at niteline.

>	People don't seem to understand that politics and the national
>media have reached a point where there is a huge overlap and its hard
>to tell where one side ends and the other begins.

It seems to me that there's LESS overlap than ever.  It used to be that
the parties OWNED the papers.  That's why you'll see papers like the
Arkansas Democrat.  (It is now a conservative paper, though, having
merged with the Gazette.)

>	The worst example is Cokie Roberts whose brother is Tommy Boggs,
>super-lobbyist.  Their parents are rep. Lindy Boggs and former (now
>decised) majority leader Hale Boggs.

Brit Hume plays tennis with the president.  Ex-president.

>	I dont deny these people the right to be politically active or
>to be reporters, but I think that running a news program at the same
>time as working with a political campaign is just ethically wrong.
>That is what a Leave of Absense is for.  

>	I also believe that people who work in administrations and then
>move into or return to the media have an obligation to make that history
>clear.  

Like John Sununu?

>	The overlap of the media and politics is nothing new, but the
>trend seems to be accelerating and what is worse, the media seems to 
>well on its way to being drawn into the world of perks that politicians
>live in if it is not already there.

-- 
David M. Nieporent   | "We don't need anymore [sic] wretched refuse.  It's 
niepornt@phoenix.    |  time to send the Statue of Liberty somewhere else"
   princeton.edu     |      -- Jack "Not a bigot" Schmidling, 1/7/93
Baltimore Orioles 93 |