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Times Watch for December 29, 2003

Mainstreaming Howard Dean

     Sunday's front-page profile of Howard Dean by Rick Lyman, "From Patrician Roots, Dean Set Path of Prickly Independence," makes another effort to mainstream Howard Dean. While his angry anti-war pose probably precludes the Times from calling Dean a conservative Democrat, reporter Rick Lyman feels his budgeting record in Vermont earns him the title of "fiscal conservative."

     Lyman argues that its simplistic to call Dean a liberal and that his record "belies" such a claim: "Yet besides energizing the left wing of his party, Dr. Dean has some Republicans worried that the characteristics he shares with President Bush could appeal to swing voters, especially when Dr. Dean's current image as a Vermont liberal is leavened with details of the fiscally conservative way he governed Vermont for 11 years....The image that has formed of Dr. Dean since he exploded onto the national scene last spring is of a passionate bulldog, an antiwar liberal who has almost magically tapped into the angry heart of a Democratic Party tired of feeling disenfranchised. The truth is more complicated. Dr. Dean opposed the war in Iraq, but he had otherwise been quite supportive of President Bush's antiterrorism initiatives. And his liberal credentials are belied by a long-standing predilection for political moderation and fiscal conservatism in Vermont."

     Yet the libertarian Cato Institute awarded Governor Dean a "D" for fiscal matters in its report card last year, noting: "He supports state-funded universal health care, generous state subsidies for child care, a higher minimum wage, liberal family leave legislation, and taxpayer-financed campaigns...After 12 years of Dean's so-called 'fiscal conservatism,' Vermont remains one of the highest taxing and spending states."

• Campaign 2004 | Howard Dean | Labeling Bias

Religious "Centrists" For Left-Wing Causes

     TV reviewer Virginia Heffernan pens "A Politically Minded Minister Who Preaches Ecumenism" for Friday's edition. It's a review of the latest "NOW With Bill Moyers," documentary, in which the sanctimonious liberal interviews Rev. James Forbes, minister of the Riverside Church in Manhattan.

     Heffernan positions Forbes in the political middle of the road: "As Christian proclamations have become common in American politics, middle-of-the-road Protestants have sought to anoint a pulpit superstar to rival White House favorites like the Rev. Franklin Graham on the one hand and the Rev. Jesse Jackson on the other. 'Speaking to Power: A 'NOW With Bill Moyers' Special Edition,' tonight on PBS, showcases one such effort."

     Here's a sample of Rev. James Forbes' "middle-of-the-road" outlook: "Dr. Forbes's vision of social justice, a throwback to the heyday of ecumenism, has familiar features. He opposes bigotry, poverty and empire building. He supports gay rights, job training programs and the alleviation of hunger." That indeed is middle of the road--on the Upper West Side.

     MRC's Brent Baker informs me of the pull-out quote from the New England edition of the Times, which is even more insistent in positioning the left-wing Forbes in the center: "Trying to be for centrists what Jerry Falwell is for the right." Strange, how the Times "centrism" sounds like everyone else's "liberalism."

     Later, Heffernan relates how even a convinced liberal like Rev. Forbes must prove his sophisticated liberal bona fides to Moyers: "Tension mounts as he tries to prove to Mr. Moyers, who seems to be insistently seeking a religious leader he can relate to, that he's temperate and sophisticated: neither a right-wing provincial nor a praise-the-Lord zealot."

For the rest of Heffernan's review, click here.

• Virginia Heffernan | Labeling Bias | Bill Moyers | Religion

Shut Up, Krugman Explained

     In the spirit of holiday generosity, columnist Paul Krugman on Friday gives to reporters something he clearly places premium value on--his opinion. In "New Year's Resolutions," Krugman deigns to advise reporters on how to cover the 2004 presidential campaign. In his fair-minded view, such advice is necessary to stop a right-wing takeover of the United States: "President Bush has turned this country sharply to the right, and this election will determine whether the right's takeover is complete. But will the coverage of the election reflect its seriousness? Toward that end, I hereby propose some rules for 2004 political reporting."

     In a typical lecturing tone that may rankle even liberal reporters, Krugman warns that those who make light of Al Gore risk being drummed out of respectable journalism: "If a reporter must use anecdotes, they'd better be true. After the Dean endorsement, innumerable reporters cracked jokes about Al Gore's inventing the Internet. Guys, he never said that: it's a malicious distortion of a true statement, and no self-respecting journalist would repeat it." (Krugman doesn't muddy the waters by revealing what Gore actually said to CNN's Wolf Blitzer in March 1999, so Times Watch will: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.")

     Here's another bit of advice from Krugman, though it sounds suspiciously like a Democratic talking point: Bush was no moderate as Texas governor, while Howard Dean was actually a fiscal conservative. He insists: "Look at the candidates' records. A close look at Mr. Bush's record as governor would have revealed that, the approved story line notwithstanding, he was no moderate. A close look at Mr. Dean's record in Vermont reveals that, the emerging story line notwithstanding, he is no radical: he was a fiscally conservative leader..."

     As mentioned in a previous entry, the libertarian Cato Institute awarded Governor Dean a "D" for fiscal matters in its report card last year, noting: "After 12 years of Dean's so-called 'fiscal conservatism,' Vermont remains one of the highest taxing and spending states."

For more of Krugman's advice, click here.

• Campaign 2004 | Columnists | Howard Dean | Al Gore | Internet | Paul Krugman | Labeling Bias

E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org