CBS Defends Airing Chung Interview Despite Attacks : Media: Some say the episode illustrates a liberal bias by journalists and their efforts to embarrass conservatives.

Regardless of how viewers reacted Thursday night after seeing Connie Chung’s full interview with Newt Gingrich’s mother, CBS appears to have played into the fears--and accusations--of media critics and average citizens who believe either that the “liberal” media are “out to get” conservatives or that reporters are simply uncivil and tasteless.

Chung and CBS executives maintained in interviews Thursday that Kathleen Gingrich’s remark about her son having called First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton “a bitch” was knowingly made in a playful “stage whisper,” as she had previously done with other comments during the session.

But in cyberspace and on radio talk shows, the vote was overwhelmingly sympathetic to the outrage expressed by House Speaker Gingrich, who blasted the network and said that his mother had been misled by Chung’s suggestion that Mrs. Gingrich whisper the remark to Chung “just between you and me.”

“For a conservative critic like Rush Limbaugh, this flap will be a great example to reinforce their belief that the media are liberals who are out to get a conservative like Newt Gingrich,” said Everette Dennis, executive director of the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University. “I’m sure that CBS released those quotes for the simple reason of hyping the story and getting a good rating--but the timing, the day before the Speaker was inaugurated, looks like they were trying to spoil a very important day for him.”

Limbaugh was on vacation, as it turned out, but other radio call-in shows and computer bulletin boards were filled with people who agreed.

“The Connie Chung duping of Newt’s mother and their using her confidence is disgusting,” one Prodigy subscriber wrote. “CBS has now proved they serve no higher standard than the National Enquirer.”

“CBS News is wrong, morally and ethically, in deciding to air this portion of the interview,” wrote another. “This is not news, it’s sheer commercialism.”

Peter Tilden, co-host of a morning talk show on KMPC-AM (710 AM) in Los Angeles, said callers “were 2-to-1 against Connie. They felt it was underhanded the way she got the comment, and that she handled it poorly.”

In an interview, Chung defended her technique and said that, seen in context, the full interview gives a different impression than people might have gotten from reading the quotes that CBS released or seeing the excerpt shown on “CBS This Morning.” Before the remark about Mrs. Clinton, Chung said, Mrs. Gingrich had made another comment in a “stage whisper.”

“We talked about the Speaker’s birthplace--which was Pennsylvania--and there was a funny moment where Mrs. Gingrich talked about it in a playful ‘stage whisper,’ talking about his being born there and joking about how we ‘wouldn’t tell anyone’ that, because people think he was born in the South,” Chung said. “The remark about Mrs. Clinton was made in a similar way. And when you see the interview, I think it’s obvious that Mrs. Gingrich knew both comments were being recorded, with three cameras rolling.”

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Gingrich’s parents, Robert and Kathleen, will discuss the controversy over the Chung interview with talk-show host Tom Snyder on Monday night when they appear on the premiere of CBS’ “The Late Late Show With Tom Snyder.”

CBS appears to have been hoisted on its own public relations by having released a transcript of the controversial exchange late Tuesday in an effort to generate interest in Thursday night’s broadcast of “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung.” In retrospect, CBS News President Eric Ober said, the network should not have released the quotations.

“I am confident of our journalism on this story, but I don’t think we should have released those quotes about just one element in the story,” he said. “The timing may cause conservatives to think we were out to ‘get’ Gingrich--but in no way was that the case.”

Chung, who was condemned by Gingrich on Wednesday as “despicable” and for being “in effect, a liar,” said she felt the Speaker was, “as politicians are wont to do, deflecting attention away from a controversial statement he has not denied he made with an attack on the ‘liberal’ media.”

“It seems very apparent to me that Mr. Gingrich has whipped up a frenzy about this, drawing attention away from the question about the issue of what he said about the First Lady,” Chung said.

But the criticism of the CBS newswoman wasn’t only from conservatives. She also was blasted by Bryce Nelson, professor of journalism and director of graduate studies at USC.

“It was inappropriate for her to say ‘just between you and me,’ ” Nelson said in an interview. “Connie Chung was dealing with someone who is not a public figure. There was no reason for this woman to think that Connie was not telling the truth, that she was asking something that would not be broadcast and would be edited out.”

However, Jim Thistle, head of the broadcast journalism department at Boston University, argued that Gingrich’s mother should have recognized Chung’s tactics.

“When someone says ‘just between you and me,’ and there are three cameras going and lights blaring, it should raise a light bulb in the interviewee’s head,” said Thistle. “This is not exactly a bag lady they found somewhere.”

He also said that the comment had legitimate news value, and that CBS had a responsibility to release the excerpt beforehand.

Thistle and Nelson disputed the notion that this was a case of the liberal media throwing darts at a conservative.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with ideology. It was the quest for gossipy journalism,” Nelson said. “They would have done it no matter what party.”

As for President Clinton, he roared with laughter Thursday when, during a meeting with the new congressional leaders in Washington, a reporter asked him, “Between you and me, is it going to be compromise or combat?”

“My answer to that is, Mr. Gingrich will whisper into your right ear and I will whisper into your left ear,” he said.

Then he put a hand on Gingrich’s arm and added, “God knows what she could’ve gotten my mother to say.”

Gingrich said he told the Democratic President he “was very sorry what Connie Chung had done, and he agreed with me.” But he declined to comment on whether his mother had accurately repeated his characterization of Mrs. Clinton.

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Jane Hall reported from New York and Greg Braxton from Los Angeles. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.