WASHINGTON 2002
Sunday Echoes
Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill did more before noon on July 28 than most of us did all day. Fundamentally more. First, he appeared on three of the five Sunday talk shows. Second, O’Neill drove home his message — that he is focused on the economy’s “fundamentals,” and that those fundamentals are strong — with drone-like consistency. Twenty-two times, in fact, during the course of Fox News Sunday, Face the Nation, and Meet the Press, the secretary spun some variation on this theme.
“I think my job is to work on the fundamentals, and we’re working on the economic fundamentals, which are good, which I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to say several times,” O’Neill told Tim Russert, as his Meet the Press interview wound down.
“You have,” said Russert.
O’Neill, reflexively, had the last word: “The economic fundamentals of our society are good and improving.”
At times there is a conveyer-belt quality to the Sunday talk shows — the same guests saying the same, carefully crafted things again and again as they move through the circuit. Indeed, it is more than just repeating an idea; often the exact language is repeated, giving the appearances the air of a stump speech. The shows prefer exclusives, of course, and their journalists prefer open discussions; but both are limited by the availability of relevant guests, competitive pressures to stick to the same handful of hot issues, and the fact that the Bush administration uses the shows to hammer home its message of the day. According to the Hotline’s Media Monitor, which lists the guests that are scheduled each week on the Sunday shows, twelve of the eighty-two guests scheduled from June 9 to July 28 were booked for multiple appearances in a single day, and twenty-seven were slated to appear more than one day.
Following are some snippets of this metronomic phenomenon:
June 9: Tom Ridge evolves
Ridge, the director of homeland security, repeatedly reminded viewers of Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and Late Edition that the new department that Congress has yet to create is “an evolutionary process,” focused on securing “the homeland.”
“But it’s an evolutionary process. It began back in May.” (Late Edition)
“But there’s an evolutionary process here that as a result of which comes the centerpiece.” (Meet the Press)
“Well, first of all, this has been an evolutionary process, Bob.” (Face the Nation)
June 9: Bob Graham’s vision
Graham, chairman of the Senate’s Select Intelligence Committee, beat the drum for having “one set of human eyes” on intelligence data.
“Information was collected by different intelligence agencies but never got before one set of human eyes so that the jigsaw puzzle could begin to take some form.” (Late Edition)
“I think the president has taken a step in the right direction by setting up this single analytical agency so that one set of human eyes will be looking at all the information which comes in.” (Face the Nation)
June 30: Powell’s direction
Referring to Yasir Arafat, Secretary of State Colin Powell used the word “direction” eleven times on This Week and Face the Nation, coupled with the words “correct,” “new,” or “right.”
“He [Arafat] does not use his moral authority to call for new directions, to tell the people that the direction in which they are going with terror and violence is wrong.” (This Week)
“And I said to him [Arafat], when this siege is over you have got to move in a new direction or we will not be able to continue to try to help you. And frankly, he has not moved in that new direction.” (Face the Nation)
June 30: Rice’s progress
Dovetailing with Powell’s message, Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, expressed her “forward” thinking fourteen times while discussing Palestinian leadership on Meet the Press and Late Edition.
“We’re not going to move forward until we can get new leadership — through democratic means, elections — to move forward.” (Late Edition)
“But if we’re going to move forward, we have to have
a new dynamic, and we believe that begins with reform of Palestinian
institutions, it begins with the emergence of new leadership,
but that is by no means the end.” (Meet the Press).
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