KCAL Lets Huffington Off the Hook

The ineptitude of some media members is not limited to the O.J. Simpson case. As evidence, here is this anatomy of dangerously botched television interviewing.

The live interview came near the end of Wednesday’s 9 p.m. news hour on KCAL-TV Channel 9.

The interviewee was Mike Huffington, the Republican congressman making California’s illegal immigration woes a hub of his fierce campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Diane Feinstein.

The interviewers were co-anchors Pat Harvey and David Jackson, who had interviewed Feinstein the night before.

What had been a forgettable interview--with Huffington routinely dusting off the usual questions with the casual ease of someone flicking specks of lint from his lapel--turned interesting when Harvey brought up a potentially damaging story about Huffington by Dave Lesher in The Times, a story ultimately confirmed by the Huffington campaign.

Here (with my comments in italics) is the way that portion of the interview went.

Harvey: “There’s an article in the Los Angeles Times, tomorrow morning’s edition, that states that you hired an illegal immigrant to work in your own house. Is that true?”

The imprecision of Harvey’s question--The Times had quoted the candidate’s wife, Arianna Huffington, as saying she had done the actual hiring of the woman to care for the couple’s two small daughters in their Santa Barbara home -- allowed the candidate to issue an immediate denial, and he did, sort of.

Huffington: “No, it’s not (true), and I’m aware of the article. My wife did hire someone, found out that she was illegal, applied for a green card and filled out all of the necessary paperwork and paid the taxes.”

The employment of the illegal immigrant was in violation of federal law. Huffington, who had declined to talk to The Times about its story, should have been asked for details by the Channel 9 anchors.

When had the employee been hired and how long did she work for the GOP candidate and his wife? The Times reported that the woman began working for the Huffingtons in 1989--ending her employment only last year, shortly after Huffington became a first-term congressman--and that she never did obtain a green card during that period. Why wasn’t her citizenship status investigated by either Huffington before she was hired? Even if his wife had done the actual hiring, wouldn’t Mike Huffington have been curious himself about her status, given his strong campaign position opposing illegal immigration? If he did inquire about it and was informed that the employee was in the country legally, who misinformed him, and why? How long did it take for the woman’s illegal status to be discovered, and if there was a lengthy delay, what caused it?

Harvey and Jackson failed to ask the crucial questions, despite having the man with the answers right before them. Not pressed by the anchors on any of this, Huffington swiftly and aggressively counterattacked on his own terms.

Huffington: “But what’s ironic is, Mrs. Feinstein’s campaign raised the issue, and once again, we’ve been told by people that know a lot about her staff that she, too, had hired two people who are illegal. And the question I ask Mrs. Feinstein is, ‘Did she pay the taxes, as my wife did?’ ”

Whoa! First, what was his evidence that the Feinstein camp had planted the story about an illegal immigrant working for the Huffingtons? And, even if it had done so, what difference did it make, as the story was verified by Huffington’s own campaign staff? Neither of the anchors asked.

Much more important, though, what evidence did Huffington have that Feinstein had hired two people who were in the country illegally? He didn’t say, and he wasn’t asked. And who were these anonymous “people” he cited as sources for his allegation? Again, no one asked, nor did the anchors inquire why Huffington had waited so long--and somehow chose this moment in the long campaign--to make his alleged revelation about Feinstein, which, if true, would likely be a severe blow to her campaign?

By not asking any of these questions, the anchors allowed Huffington to move on to the payment of Social Security taxes, as if the unsubstantiated charge that Feinstein had hired illegal immigrants was now a given.

Jackson: “I think her response would be that even if that were the case, and even if taxes were paid-- . . . again, (she) not being a strong supporter of Prop. 187--(this) might put her in a different point of view than it might for you.”

Say what? Credit Jackson at least with attempting to challenge Huffington. Yet his partial acceptance of Huffington’s unsubstantiated charge--”even if that were the case,” was how Jackson had put it--tended to give it credibility that it hadn’t yet earned. Moreover, Feinstein is more than just “not . . . a strong supporter” of Prop . 187 -- the November ballot initiative that would end health, education and other benefits for illegal immigrants -- she’s said she’s flatly opposed to it. And, as Huffington was about to correctly point out, why would her opposition to Prop . 187 make her alleged employment of illegal immigrants--remember, it’s a violation of federal law--any more palatable?

Huffington: “. . . Prop. 187 has to do with the payment of funds for services such as schools, health care and welfare, and that’s a different issue. If someone, in fact, isn’t using those services, it wouldn’t be at all similar.”

Whatever his convoluted last sentence was supposed to mean, viewers wouldn’t be finding out from Channel 9, for Harvey moved on to a question regarding another area of illegal immigration, which found Huffington endorsing Californians carrying so-called tamper-proof Social Security cards as evidence of their citizen status. Asking to see her Social Security card presumably would have precluded the hiring of the Huffington employee who was in the country illegally. Or perhaps she was asked by the Huffingtons to produce such a card when hired and presented a forged one. Or perhaps not. Not that Harvey or Jackson bothered to ask.

End of tale? Not quite. In its 10 p.m. newscast that followed, Channel 9 did not repeat the story about the illegal worker at the Huffington household. Nor did it carry anything about Mike Huffington’s allegation against Feinstein, apparently believing that it was unnecessary to obtain a response from the senator or her campaign staff.

In fact, one was available to Channel 9.

It turns out that The Times’ story in Channel 9’s possession--which was written after the Huffington campaign earlier that day had issued a two-sentence statement charging Feinstein with hiring illegal workers--contained a flat denial by her campaign manager, Kam Kuwata.

The Huffington accusation, Kuwata told the paper, was “an outright lie,” a denial that Harvey and Jackson inexcusably failed to mention.

Other than the above, swell interview.