Presswatch: Fawning All Over Themselves
Corry, John
this month's Playboy, but even they had a stunning pictorial, "The Boys and Girls of the New Yorker Editor Shortlist." Admittedly, not everyone is happy with this trend in American journalism. But...
...Reasserted for once and for all our bedrock values...
...It would have scored a great propaganda coup...
...Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, has said he feels so badly about what happened that he would "beat himself bloody" with a whip if he thought it would do any good...
...Meanwhile Walter Isaacson, the managing editor of Time, has apologized to the magazine's readers, and said Time would be more careful in the future...
...Ai P R ESSWATCH by John Corry Fawning All Over Themselves R eputation intact, and even enhanced, Michael McCurry will soon leave the White House...
...The Post would have had a more interesting story if it had amplified on the reference in the Times ediNothing in McCurry's job became him like the leaving it...
...ity" at the White House...
...We say a man who defined his job as 'telling the truth' slowly and helped maintain a stone wall against legitimate questions is not a model for other government employees...
...of using sarinnerve gas in a secret operation in Laos, and Time should never have published the companion piece by Peter Arnett and April Oliver...
...CNN should never have aired the program that accused the U.S...
...It reported his impend-ing departure at the top of page one under the headline "McCurry Exit: A White House Wit's End," and as examples of his wit cited "Memorable McCurryisms" in a box underneath the story...
...77 For serious fawning the television irregulars were much better...
...Actually these things are more complex than they seem...
...he roared...
...Mike, it seemed, was a really zany guy...
...And you know the investigation I did into CNN, 'A Flight From Truth—The Shame That Tars Us All...
...And is fawning politically based, or non-partisan, and does it happen more often in print or on television...
...had used nerve gas in Southeast Asia even once, North Vietnam would have made sure the world knew about it...
...For one thing, there was more fawning on television than in print...
...Still, it is unfair to pick on the Times...
...What's the big deal...
...The Washington Post knew better...
...they were extraordinarily stupid...
...Sources contacted by `NewsStand: CNN & Time," the Time story said firmly, "report that GB [nerve gas] was employed in more than zo missions to rescue downed pilots in Laos and Vietnam...
...Everyone does it...
...there were supposed to be at least 19 more, although CNN and Time would prefer it if that figure were forgotten...
...Clinton had just thrown a baby shower for political consultant Mandy Grunwald, whose husband is Matt Cooper, a Newsweek reporter, and whose father is Henry Grunwald, once the editor of Time...
...That was more like it, although the Times was hitting below the belt when it suggested McCurry was only another government employee...
...The American Spectator • September 1998 53...
...Talk about redefining...
...Better yet, Jane could do the honors...
...In the first issue of Brill's Content, dedicated to the ongoing Kenneth Starr investigation, it turns out that the story behind the story is that there is no story: In a searing 48,000-word exposé, Steven Brill reveals that he's actually pretty content with the Clinton administration...
...So he's told a few lies...
...The New York Times story about his impending departure began by calling it "a sign of growing confidence at the White House that it is weathering the Lewinsky investigation...
...McCurry's tenure...
...S o now we know...
...North Vietnam was always good at pushing the right buttons...
...Obviously media people and political people all along the Washington-New York axis have many things in common...
...Put a bag over your head, or eat a worm, and you're famous...
...If nothing else, Brill's Content nicely defines the limits of ethical agonizing...
...As Bill Clinton said, "Mike McCurry has set the standard by which future White House press secretaries will be judged" — he "redefined the job of press secretary in a new and more challenging era...
...Shields said McCurry was a devoted husband and father who knew both the names and the birthdays of his children, "unlike a lot of people in Washington," and also "was seen as both candid and loyal, loyal to Bill Clinton—and yet candid in dealing with the press...
...Berkeley, California, would have seceded, and Jane Fonda would have been beside herself...
...But it's still unclear what they're repenting for...
...Great piece, raised important issues...
...One example was "I'll refer you to my transcript yesterday, which referred to my transcript the day before," and another was "Two Huangs don't make a right" Ha ha ha...
...Hardly anyone seems to have noticed this, though, and other than Oliver, Smith, and one other producer, the same people who did the story are still around...
...Clinton had just been subpoenaed, and Bruce Lindsey had lost on executive privilege, and Secret Service agents were talking to a grand jury...
...Things were falling apart, but McCurry had turned everything inside out, and the New York Times had bought it...
...But obviously that could never have happened...
...But luckily we're now blessed with a media watchdog dedicated to uncovering the story behind the story...
...Really nailed the key ethical questions...
...Are you nuts...
...Mitchell said, "I don't think you can get any better than Mike McCurry," on the "NBC Nightly News...
...Meanwhile on an inside page there was another box, "McCurry's Many Faces," recalling some of the things that had made McCurry so special...
...At the same time there seemed to be two kinds of fawners: the ones who appear full-time on television, and the ones who appear only part-time, but probably would like to appear more often...
...Indeed everyone connected with the story, Oliver and her producer colleague Jack Smith excepted, seems to have repented...
...This, he said, was "an amazing personal achievement, and not to be underestimated in any way...
...The CNN-Time accusation, however, was much more serious than that...
...King, not once but twice, described McCurry as a "straight shooter" —yes, he really did—in a single report on "CNN Today...
...The day before Clinton announced McCurry's departure, for instance, the Post reported that Mrs...
...And you know the column I did about Patricia Smith, 'Truth —The Crisis in American Journalism...
...But best of all was columnist Mark Shields...
...Or as I said to my editor the other day: "Hey, you know that piece I did about Stephen Glass, 'To Tell the Truth...
...Its coverage is better than most, and, possibly embarrassed by the news story, it soon ran an editorial: "Some reporters have made fawning remarks about Mr...
...So there wasn't just the one incident...
...Eight paragraphs later the Times made the point again: "The departure of some of the President's most trusted lieutenants" seemed to be "a sign of growing stabilJOHN CORRY is The American Spectator's senior correspondent and regular Press-watch columnist...
...For example, who fawns when, and how often...
...In fact, you can't blame them...
...OK, just so you don't underestimate the fawning there, either...
...Sure, Haynes, but we can make an educated guess, and evasion is not wonderfully refreshing, and you never made that kind of argument when George Bush was in the White House...
...Rather called McCurry "widely respected" on the "CBS Evening News...
...Whoever wrote the Times editorial must have seen the PBS "NewsHour" before he wrote it...
...he said it was just great when he refused...
...There was the time he began a press briefing with a paper bag over his head, and there was the time he jumped into a swimming pool with his clothes on, and then there was the time he had eaten an African worm...
...Because of this scandal climate," Johnson declared, "he has to acknowledge that he doesn't want to know all the things that the President's talking about, i.e., regarding the scandal, which is candid, honest, wonderfully refreshing, and also frustrating because we don't know what the truth may be...
...Guests at the shower included Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Mary Matalin, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Katharine Graham, Ann Jordan (Vernon's wife) and New Yorker writer Jane Mayer...
...T he fawning over McCurry, however, may be relatively simple to sort out...
...There was no nerve gas, and CNN and Time were not just irresponsible in reporting that nerve gas was used more than 20 times...
...Other CNN executives say they feel awful, too...
...Thus what looks like fawning may really be friendship, or the other way around...
...In a panel discussion about McCurry, Haynes Johnson — joumalist/author Johnson, Jim Lehrer always calls him—not only defended McCurry's refusal to answer hard questions...
...Well, I was thinking after all that I might do a piece about all the things President Clinton's told lies about, failed to remember, evaded the truth on, completely invented...
...52 September 1998 • The American Spectator torial to fawning reporters...
...Certainly that was correct...
...Yeah, sure," he said...
...Fantastic," he said...
...McCurry was good at redefining...
...On the other hand, Washington is a company town, and other than politics there's never much going on there...
...Virtually every story rebutting the nerve gas charge, and every apology, too, has centered on the single incident in Laos...
...Even when the nerve gas story first surfaced, it was evident it had a great weakness: If the U.S...
...She seemed very nice, even though she is now married to Richard Holbrooke, whom she met when she was married to Peter Jennings, and Holbrooke was living with, although not married to, Diane Sawyer (who is now married to Mike Nichols...
...Ted Turner should reconsider, and beat himself...
...The day after that the Times ran an interview with the writer Kati Marton...
...The fawning here, however, was only casual and run-of-the-mill, the kind you hear all the time.44 So there wasn't just one incident, but at least 19 more, though CNN and Time would prefer if that figure were forgotten...
...In the first category we had Dan Rather, Andrea Mitchell and John King...
...Great stuff," he said...
Vol. 31 • September 1998 • No. 9
