By M. Elaine Hocker
Clarification is required to set the facts straight regarding Tom Campbell's election to fill the House seat vacated by Norm Mineta. Clarification is also required to set the record straight regarding the news media's ongoing attempt to do a character assassination on Newt Gingrich.
Prior to the election, the news media bought into and expounded on the theory that Campbell could not be elected because he held the same party affiliation as Newt Gingrich, a Republican. After the election, the news media attempted to explain away Campbell's election on the basis that he was a moderate Republican and that Campbell distanced himself from any association with Gingrich.
As a conservative Republican who witnessed Campbell's defeat when he ran against a conservative Republican candidate, it becomes difficult [for me] to give much credence to his "moderate" stance as the reason he was elected. It's much easier to give credence to the fact that members of the various conservative organizations in this area considered the gruesome alternative to Campbell and decided they would do everything in their power to get Campbell elected. Conservatives who previously opposed Campbell were in there fighting every step of the way for his election.
Newt Gingrich provides an excellent example of why there is such a great public distrust and resentment of the national news media. Newt Gingrich has become a marketable commodity, which means the more negative things you can write about him, the more copy you can sell. In the last six months, the news media has managed to systematically distort practically every word that has come out of Newt Gingrich's mouth.
The gullible or those in the public willing to buy into the news media's misrepresentation of the facts do become a little confused when a newsreel is shown of Gingrich speaking after hearing a report by the news media of what he was supposed to have said.
Consider the national news media's assertion that Gingrich "whined" about being ignored by President Clinton on Air Force One. My taxes help to pay the salaries of both Clinton and Gingrich, and I expect both of them to use their time productively. If Clinton did not attempt to use his time productively and initiate a contact with Gingrich on Air Force One, then that happens to be a fact, not a "whine."
Few people deny that our huge welfare system has been a major contributor to the moral and economic decline of our nation. Yet anytime Gingrich suggests a need for a welfare change, the news media immediately misquotes him and classifies him as "evil incarnate." His comments regarding welfare contributing to the crime rate in certain neighborhoods have been totally taken out of context.
One recent example, and a brilliant example of why the public hates the news media, was provided after a pregnant Chicago woman and her two small children were brutally murdered. The "compassionate" news media immediately contacted the murdered woman's family during her funeral and informed them before TV cameras that Gingrich blamed them for the woman's death. Gingrich will have to do an awful lot of evil before he can top the news media's evil relating to that one incident.
As a retired person who receives Social Security, I have the utmost admiration for Gingrich and the 73 freshman Republican congressmen. I still believe this country can survive and become a debt-free and productive nation again, but it will require Gingrich and the freshman Republican congressmen to ignore lies by the news media and to abide by the convictions that got them elected. They appear to be our last hope in combating the liberal left's socialistic agenda.
M. Elaine Hocker is a Saratoga resident.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, Wednesday, January 17, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.