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It was not news that dominated Friday's network newscasts but the anniversary of news. Fully 49% of the three-network newshole (28 min out of 58) was devoted to the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. NBC had Brian Williams anchor from the motel, now the National Civil Rights Museum, and his network assigned 83% of its newshole (17 min out of 20) to his sometimes impenetrable coverage of the Story of the Day. It is a marker of the true lame duck status of President George Bush that his reaction to the anniversary was not even mentioned on any newscast. Williams, by contrast, interviewed all three current Presidential candidates about King. There was actual breaking news to report, too. ABC, with George Stephanopoulos as substitute anchor, led with Hillary Rodham Clinton's publication of her tax records. CBS and NBC both led with MLK.

Bill and Hillary, the former First Couple, have made $109m in the seven years since he left office. "They really are really rich!" exclaimed NBC's Andrea Mitchell, noting that he left office with $12m in unpaid legal fees. Those were paid off and then some. Most of the couple's income was made by the former President not the would-be President: $52m in speaking fees and $30m in book royalties. Her books, by contrast, made $10m. Together they paid $34m in taxes over the seven years and tithed $10m to charity. Bill Clinton had a partnership with Ron Burkle, a supermarket operator based in Los Angeles, that made him $15m, some of it from investments in Dubai, what NBC's Mitchell called a "controversial foreign country."

CBS' Jim Axelrod quoted candidate Rodham Clinton: "As recipients of all of George Bush's tax breaks, I can tell you I did not need them, I did not want them, I did not ask for them." "But she took them," mused Axelrod. "This does clear up the question of where she got $5m to loan to her campaign back in February." On ABC, Kate Snow noted the coincidence that Rodham Clinton announced plans to create the Cabinet-level post of a czar to end "poverty as we know it" on the very day she published her millionaire status. Still, Mark Halperin, ABC's political analyst, remarked to Snow that he was mystified as to why Rodham Clinton dragged her heels in releasing these records: "Yes they made a lot of money--but they gave a lot of money to charity; they paid a lot in taxes. I am not sure what they were trying to hide."


Andrew Tyndall 4/5/08 10:47:14 pm

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