Media accused of showing double-standard in coverage of attorney firings

Media accused of showing double-standard in coverage of attorney firings

A conservative media watchdog group says the liberal news media is once again showcasing a clear double-standard in its coverage of the controversial firings of eight U.S. attorneys by the Bush administration.

NBC News has referred to the firings as a "constitutional crisis," and along with the other networks has supported the Democrats' calls for Congressional hearings on the matter. But the Media Research Center (MRC) points out that ten years ago, when a Republican-controlled Congress was investigating the Clinton scandals, viewers heard the networks "sing a very different tune." MRC's director of research explains.

"The media had a different standard when it was a Republican Congress investigating a Democratic president than they do now when it's a Democratic Congress investigating a Republican president," says Rich Noyes.

"Back then you had stories on ABC about whether or not hearings into campaign fundraising abuses by Clinton-Gore 96 was 'a waste of time and money,'" he continues. "The chairman who was investigating was called [by ABC reporter John Cochran] 'a hard-charging partisan.' The question on CBS was whether or not having the hearings was simply abusing the 'civility' that you need in politics. [And] NBC wondered if it was just an effort to embarrass the Democratic Party."

Noyes also points out that the networks almost completely ignored the outrage of Republicans when Bill Clinton fired all 93 U.S. attorneys shortly after he took office in 1993. Evidently, he says, that was "not a big story" to the media at that time.

"ABC didn't cover it at all; CBS didn't cover it at all; NBC gave it very, very minor coverage," he notes. "But the fact of the matter is, when Bill Clinton had his attorney general fire all 93, there were Republican protests -- Senator [Bob] Dole had a press conference [at which he called the firings] the 'March Massacre.'"

Essentially, says MRC, congressional subpoenas surrounding the alleged Clinton-Gore fundraising abuses in 1996 "drew TV yawns." In contrast, says Noyes, stories dealing with the firing of the eight attorneys by the Bush administration are leading the network news broadcasts "night after night after night."