Tower of Political Babel

Thesis: The lack of balance in news coverage by the national broadcast media is creating a Tower of Political Babel.

Just after President Clinton began serving his first term as President in 1993, national news correspondent Gloria Borger observed that Clinton was receiving a free ride from the national press. Part of it was political sympathy, but another part of it was generational affinity. Clinton was of the same generation as many in the press. They shared the same cynicism of previous generations caused by coming of age in the Vietnam era. They had similar value systems, shared much of Clinton's political agenda, and were burdened with the same overweening confidence in their own moral superiority. Since Clinton could be trusted, he did not require the same scrutiny. The credulous press accepted, indeed they needed to believe, the President's earnest promise to have the "most ethical administration in history."

Bush Administration cabinet officials had been criticized for having too much knowledge of the investments in their blind trusts. These officials could not be trusted because they were from a previous, less socially conscience generation. By contrast, so great was their moral rectitude that the Clintons did not even need to put their assets into such trusts. It was not until Vince Foster died and the Clintons' finances came under greater scrutiny, that the Clintons even felt a political need to set up a blind trust. Certainly there was little pressure from the press to do this.

In fits and spurts, newspapers and magazines have looked into the Clinton's political and financial scandals. However, the major broadcast news organizations, the biggest source of news for most people, have largely turned a blind eye, afraid to serve as unwilling allies to Republicans. In 1998, it was apparent that the 1996 Clinton presidential campaign was involved in trading nights in the White House for campaign contributions, had received money from agents of foreign governments, and generally had pushed the envelope on legal behavior in raising campaign funds. Front section news report s appeared daily over an entire summer in the New York Times and the Washington Post documenting the revelations, while ABC, NBC, and CBS largely ignored the issue.

Do you require more contemporary evidence of the unwillingness to cover Clinton scandals? In the civil rights suit brought by Paula Jones, Bill Clinton decided that truth was optional and certainly inconvenient. After all, the suit was politically motivated and need not be taken seriously. Who cares about stretching the truth under oath?

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