Presswatch/Big Media Jitters
Barnes, Fred
............................................................................................................................................... I ........ OQ*OI ..... 100DBODI PRESSWATCH...
...that was not mentioned...
...Of course, you could say the same thing about nearly every White House official, that he doesn't Fred Barnes is National Political Reporter for the Baltimore Sun...
...That's putting it mildly...
...Yet Germond doesn't think Buchanan will indulge in press bashing for Reagan...
...But apart from the terminally gullible, I suspect few are falling for this latest bit of selfcongratulatory rubbish...
...Unsatisfied with Regan's answer, Donaldson went on: "He says in a recent article last fall, 'An ideological bulwark of the Democratic party, polemical and publicity arm of American liberalism, the big media are the strategic reserve of the Mondale campaign.' He doesn't say some reporters, some media...
...At week's end he was not returning telephone calls from reporters seeking comment on his appointment...
...On the "NBC Nightly News," Chris Wallace said roughly the same thing, regurgitating an Agnew clip and harping on Buchanan's criticism of the press...
...It qualifies as one of the Three Great Lies...
...He defines that as an Eastern, liberal press corps, ever since he wrote that speech for Spiro Agnew and in his present writings and his present discussion...
...The national press as recovered hysteric and reformed liberal scold...
...Donaldson wound up his spot by raising the specter of a belligerent new tone emanating from the Reagan White House, thanks to Buchanan, and he implied that the press might be a target...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1985...
...Why, you might as well believe in the compassion of Colonel Qaddafi, the statesmanship of Jesse Jackson, the paranoia of the Soviets, the efficiency of socialism, the possibility of learning while asleep and dieting while gorging yourself, the CIA/FBI/right-wing role in the assassination of John E Kennedy, and the presence in our midst of little-bitty visitors from somewhere in outer space, perhaps Pluto...
...He didn't say which comes first...
...Sam Donaldson of ABC told Regan: "I'm sure you're aware that Pat Buchanan has expressed an unremitting hostility toward what he calls big media...
...Buchanan has shown no "mellowing...toward the press," Time said...
...Too many of us have reacted by probing Buchanan's view of the media, perhaps because we are preoccupied with ourselves...
...Why did you appoint him if, in fact, he sees the press as an enemy...
...Or so the notion goes...
...Which is exactly what the TV networks did...
...In all his pieces, Mr...
...Imagine someone suggesting that the ideological thrust of national press coverage is liberal...
...As a vivid reminder that nothing has changed, let me cite the press response to the appointment of Patrick J. Buchanan as the White House communications chief...
...But all that is changed now in the second term of Ronald Reagan's administration...
...Even Lou Cannon, the White House correspondent for the Washington Post and no press basher, blanched at the wild-eyed hostility among White House reporters toward President Reagan's hiring of someone who had criticized the "big media" for its liberal slant...
...Cute ending...
...Silence that person...
...The press is more sober, mellow, evenhanded, less adversarial, reckless, liberal...
...Or at least he must be chastised if he is named to a high White House post...
...To buttress the point that Buchanan might start an anti-press crusade at the Reagan White House, Wallace gleaned from an interview with columnist Jack Germond a comment about Buchanan's suspicions of press scheming...
...This was a fleeting episode, I admit, but a revealing one...
...Donaldson noted on "ABC World News Tonight" the appointment of several new Reagan by Fred Barnes aides, saying that "eyebrows went up" on Buchanan's...
...But it was Nixon's speechwriter, Buchanan, whose words Agnew spoke and ever since, in and out of government, the articulate and combative Buchanan has merrily bashed away at what he calls the big media...
...Does anyone swallow such selfserving nonsense...
...Then, he recalled Vice President Spiro Agnew's attack on the press in 1969, and an Agnew clip was shown...
...I'm sure you're aware of that...
...My, my...
...He is always quick to see press conspiracies and press ,plots, because a lot of the press doesn't agree with a lot of things Pat agrees with," Germond says...
...Time had* its own snappy way of warning that trouble might be ahead between the White House and the press with Buchanan on board with Reagan...
...You know, the check is in the mail, I'm from the federal government and I'm here to help you, and--you can trust the press because it's fair-minded, neutral, and responsible now...
...Wallace concluded with this: "Buchanan said tonight he stands by his criticism of the media, but noted there's a difference between doing a talk show and working at the White House...
...He said he will serve, quote, my cause and my President...
...The transcript of the press conference at which Donald Regan, the White House chief of staff, announced the selection of Buchanan betrays more than the usual amount of media haughtiness...
...At this point, a clip from Cable News Network came on, one in which Buchanan castigates the Washington Post...
...Okay, we've made mistakes--the Hitler diaries, the Janet Cooke fabrication, the defamation of Ariel Sharon, the gratuitous trashing of William Westmoreland, the misreporting of the Vietnam war, and year after year of hyped accounts of hunger and homeless men and the perils of nuclear power and the immorality of American allies like Chile, South Korea, Taiwan, and Israel...
...There is something discomforting about the media reaction to Buchanan's appointment, something that indicates that he may have a point in suggesting that the big battalions of journalism are afflicted with self-importance," Cannon wrote...
...Regan, he lumps under the name big media every one of us...
...100DBODI PRESSWATCH BIG MEDIA JITTERS A wonderful notion is making the rounds in journalism these days to the effect that the press is finally wising up after years of unbridled arrogance, elitism, and liberal bias...
...The attitude was, How dare you pick a fellow who has knocked the media...
Vol. 18 • April 1985 • No. 4
