	id AA19877; Tue, 22 Nov 94 05:56:09 CST
Subject: Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 2 Num. 94


              Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 2  Num. 94
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                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")
 
 
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WHITEWATER BLACKOUT
Is The Media Missing The Story?
 
[From a *700 Club* Fact Sheet, based on a *700 Club* Newswatch 
feature broadcast on September 28, 1994.]
 
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The Washington press corps is famous for investigating White 
House "scandals" with the ferocity of a pit-bull. But regarding 
the most recent "scandal" called "Whitewater," many are 
wondering: has the pit-bull lost its bite?
 
While some have complained of a media feeding frenzy over 
Whitewater, Dr. Robert Lichter's Center for Media and Public 
Affairs reported earlier this year that media coverage of 
Whitewater has been lacking.
 
Prior to the Senate hearings on the subject, Whitewater had 
received just one-third the coverage Watergate received at a 
similar point in that episode.
 
Why have reporters been seemingly slow to thoroughly cover a 
story of political intrigue that first came to the surface at the 
height of the 1992 presidential campaign?
 
"It snuck under the national press' radar screen," says Stephen 
Hess, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Hess blames the 
complicated nature of Whitewater for the media's slow and 
inadequate coverage.
 
L. Brent Bozell of the conservative Media Research Center does 
not accept Hess' explanation. "[Whitewater] is very complicated, 
but guess what: so was Watergate and so was Iran-Contra... and so 
were a bunch of other things."
 
>From November 1, 1993, to August 15, 1994, Lichter's Center for 
Media & Public Affairs monitored media coverage of the major 
players in scandals surrounding the Clintons, classifying 
coverage as either "positive" or "negative." The results show a 
clear media bias in favor of the Clintons and against Clinton 
opponents: Bill Clinton, split at 49 percent positive; Hillary 
Clinton, 61 percent positive; Lloyd Cutler, 87 percent positive. 
Roger Altman was the only administration figure to receive 
overwhelmingly bad press (70 percent negative).
 
Critics of Clinton received consistently negative coverage: 
Congressman Jim Leach (R-IA), 60 percent negative; Senator Bob 
Dole (R-KS), 62 percent negative; Paula Jones, 67 percent 
negative; Arkansas state troopers, 77 percent negative; Kenneth 
Starr, 52 percent negative.
 
Members of the foreign media have been more willing than their 
American counterparts to cover Whitewater. The London 
*Economist*, and *Sunday Telegraph* both have published accounts 
related to Whitewater that received little coverage in the 
American media.
 
The *Economist's* Christopher Wood recently wrote a critique in 
*The Wall Street Journal* of the American press' coverage of 
Whitewater. He said he was "a little puzzled by my colleagues in 
the American media" for what he called the "genteel distance" the 
press has kept between itself and the strange events in Arkansas. 
He concluded by calling the American media's failure in this 
story "extraordinary."
 
In a recent *Wall Street Journal-NBC News* survey, just one in 
five Americans said the media are very or mostly honest. The 
media's seeming reluctance to delve deeply into the waters of 
Whitewater has only enhanced charges of media bias, making 
increasing numbers of Americans suspicious of both their 
president and their press.
 
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et 
  pauperem.                    -- Liber Proverbiorum  XXXI: 8-9 

 Brian Francis Redman    bigxc@prairienet.org    "The Big C"
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"Justice" = "Just us" = "History is written by the assassins."
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