Media Coverage of Dan Quayle
I was expecting it--and on Aug. 28, there it was: the front-page apologia for the media’s treatment of poor Dan Quayle. Seems to me that the press hasn’t dug into Quayle nearly so thoroughly as it ought to.
Where were the front-page headlines about Quayle and Paula Parkinson? We sure saw a lot about Gary Hart and Donna Rice! In point of fact, the evidence against Hart was much less damning--Rice never made a tape-recorded confession to an FBI investigator. Suddenly, however, The Times has decided that such stories are beneath the dignity of responsible journalism. I would applaud this reticence, were it applied even-handedly. Here, as elsewhere, The Times follows the dictum “left eye open, right eye blind.”
You’ve been particularly blind to the most important issues--Quayle’s employment of Robert Owen and possible involvement in Contragate. Of course, The Times has a history of “missing the boat” (to use the words of one of your reporters) when it comes to the hard investigative work done by the Christic Institute.
The Republicans are asking us to overlook this National Guard nonsense and concentrate on the real issues. Perhaps they’re right.
MARTIN CANNON
Canoga Park
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