FACES AND PLACES: Three Humpty Dumpties, see how they teeter (09/26/04)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Three Humpty Dumpties, see how they teeter

Dan Rather had a great fall. Now that he's blown his cover of impartiality by breathlessly pedaling what practically everyone now believes to be forged documents produced to discredit George W, how long will it be before the other two "evening news" Humpty Dumpties fall as well?

Take that ABC fella. The sole anchor for ABC since 1983, the Canadian-born, supercilious Peter Jennings finally condescended to becoming an American citizen this year. How noble. He now enjoys dual citizenship.

According to a recent article by Rachel Zabarkes Friedman in the National Review, Mr. Jennings had an interesting childhood in Canada. "My mother ... was pretty anti-American," Mr. Jennings told Dave Letterman in September of 2002. "And so was I, in some respects, raised with Anti-Americanism in my blood, or in my mother's milk at least."

Is that important? Mightily important given the fact that, despite a shrinking audience, too many Americans still get their evening news from "World News Tonight." According to the Center for Media and Public Affairs, writes Ms. Friedman, the Jennings show had the most anti-war coverage of the nightly broadcasts on all three networks in both 1991 and 2003. Anti-war rallies were featured regularly, while support-the-troops gatherings were consistently ignored.

Like Tom Brokaw and Mr. Rather, Mr. Jennings believes his liberal bias isn't bias at all. It's simply mainstream thinking. During the Clinton impeachment process, for example, as the senators were signing their names to the oath book promising to be fair and impartial in their decisions, Mr. Jennings went out of his way to identify each of the right-leaning Republicans as "conservative." No Democrats were identified as liberal, however, not even Tom Daschle, Barbara Mikulski, Ted Kennedy or even John Kerry. "In the world of the Jenningses and Brokaws and Rathers," writes Bernard Goldberg in his fascinating book, "Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News," "conservatives are out of the mainstream and need to be identified. Liberals on the other hand, are mainstream and don't need to be identified."

"Too many news people, especially the ones at worldwide headquarters in New York where all the big decisions are made, basically talk to other people just like themselves," writes Mr. Goldberg. He mentions a writer for the New Yorker who was shocked when Richard Nixon carried 49 states in the 1972 election. "I can't believe it!" she cried. "I don't know a single person who voted for him."

On June 16, writes Ms. Friedman, Mr. Jennings declared: "One of the Bush administration's most controversial assertions in its argument for war was that Saddam Hussein had links to al-Queda. Today the 9/11 Commission said unequivocally, not so." Really? On page 61 of the Commission Report we read that bin Laden established the Muslim terrorist group Ansar al Islam within Iraq in 2001. "There are indications that by then the Iraqi regime tolerated and may even have helped Ansar al Islam against the common Kurdish enemy." No smoking gun but hardly unequivocal, eh?

Is there a vast left-wing conspiracy in the news rooms of ABC, CBS and NBC? Absolutely not. Since only liberal views are allowed to percolate within the inner sanctums of the major networks, the climate of liberalism is perceived as "mainstream." Mr. Rather, for example, told Mr. Goldberg that The New York Times was "middle of the road." Middle of the road? The gray lady hasn't endorsed a Republican for president in 50 years! Trying desperately to salvage Mr. Rather's credibility, a recent NYT headline read: "Memoes on Bush Are Fake But Accurate." Sounds Kerryesque.

How "mainstream" has Mr. Jennings been during his 21-year reign as ABC news guru? Consider the following Jennings reporting gems tallied by Media Reality Check.

Castro the Great: "Medical care was once for the privileged few. Today it is available to every Cuban and it is free. Some of Cuba's health care is world class. In heart disease, for example, in brain surgery. Health and education are the revolution's great success stories." (June 15, 1989). Right. Soviet health care was once world class, too, remember? With Soviet doctors no longer performing "medical miracles," perhaps Americans with heart problems can now be treated in Cuba.

Intolerant Republicans: "We begin tonight with what you could call zero tolerance ... Today by the time Mr. [Bob] Dole spoke by satellite to his party delegates, who were already gathered in San Diego, all notions of tolerance on the subject of abortion had disappeared from the party's platform." (August 6, 1996) Hey, Mr. Jennings, how come you never mention the fact that no pro-life speakers have ever been allowed to speak at Democrat conventions?

Soviet Pussycats: "There are some of you, I'm sure, who remember the days when we in the West were afraid that the Soviet Union would outdo the West technologically. They had been first in space. The CIA was pretty impressed, remember? And then the Soviet Union fell apart and we discovered how far behind they were ... Ah yes, we used to take the Soviet Union so seriously." (July 7, 2000). Golly, Miss Molly. How silly of "some of you" to have worried about the Soviet Union which had dozens of client states on four continents, ballistic missiles aimed at our major cities, and the largest military arsenal in the world.

The ancient Greeks had a word for what ails our three Humpty Dumpties: hubris. Fortunately for those who still believe "journalistic ethics" is not an oxymoron, ABC, NBC and CBS no longer dominate the air waves with their "unbiased, middle-of-the-road" reporting. The Humpty Dumpties have either fallen or are teetering. Cable networks such as Fox News are taking their place. Blogs on the Internet are doing their part. One day, one can only hope, Messrs. Jennnings and Brokaw will either repent or fall, victims of their own bloviating bias. Humpties may soon become Dumpties, and no one, not even George Soros and Michael Moore, will put them back together again.

Myron Kuropas's e-mail address is: kuropas@comcast.net.

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