NBC’s and
ABC’s nightly news programs have yet to cover the controversy over the
Bush administration’s dismissal of eight U.S.
attorneys, despite considerable congressional attention to the issue, including
hearings begun on March 6.
On March 6, in addition to
covering the conviction of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, events in Iraq, and the Walter
Reed Army Medical Center scandal, ABC also reported on the rising popularity of
“purity balls,” a
“new ritual aimed at encouraging girls and young women to abstain from
sex until marriage,” which is “on the cutting edge of a grassroots
Christian movement,” and reported on a Wikipedia online encyclopedia editor who,
as an ABC News online article reported, “forged his credentials and faked having a doctorate.”
NBC also covered Libby,
Iraq, and
Walter Reed, and additionally reported on a book deal signed by Jenna Bush,
President Bush’s daughter.
On March 6, both the House and Senate
began hearings into the Bush administration’s controversial dismissals of eight U.S.
attorneys starting in December 2006. As Media
Matters for America has previously noted, the fired attorneys — three of
whom were, according to the The Washington Post,
“conducting corruption probes involving Republicans” — were reportedly replaced, many by with interim
appointments drawn from the administration’s “inner circle.” One
former U.S. attorney, David C. Iglesias, has claimed that, in mid-October 2006,
he felt pressure to speed up an investigation involving local Democrats, and
that he received phone
calls from two Republican lawmakers
who
inquired on the
status of the investigation. At the hearing, another former U.S. attorney also testified that
he had received a call from a Republican congressman about an investigation.
But, as Media Matters noted, prior to March 2, none of the
broadcast networks’ evening news programs — ABC’s World News, NBC’s Nightly
News, and the CBS Evening News
—
had even mentioned the case. Since March 4, in addition to the
congressional hearings, two congressional Republicans have admitted to
contacting
Iglesias about his investigation of Democratic politicians. But as of
March 6,
neither ABC’s World News nor
NBC’s Nightly News has
reported on the story. By contrast, the CBS Evening
News has run two different reports on the attorneys’
dismissals, on March 4 and on March 6.
As Media
Matters noted (here and here), Attorney General Alberto R.
Gonzales claimed that each U.S.
attorney had been fired for reasons related to their performance in their jobs.
But, at a February 6 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Deputy Attorney
General Paul McNulty conceded that performance played no role in at least one
case: the forced resignation of H.E.
“Bud” Cummins III as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of
Arkansas to give the job to former Karl Rove aide J. Timothy Griffin. Moreover, a February
14 McClatchy Newspapers article reported that
“at least five of [the U.S.
attorneys] received positive job evaluations before they were ordered to step
down.”
Iglesias,
formerly the U.S. attorney
in New Mexico,
has alleged that Sen. Pete
V. Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-NM) “attempted to
pressure him to speed up a probe of Democrats just before the November
elections.” Both have since acknowledged contacting Iglesias about his
corruption investigations, as has been reported by a March 5 Washington Post article on
Domenici’s statement and a March 6 Post
article on Wilson’s comments.
The advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
has filed ethics complaints against both Domenici and Wilson,
alleging that
they are in violation of Senate and House ethics rules, respectively,
against lawmakers communicating with prosecutors about investigations.
On
March 6, both the House Judiciary Subcommittee on
Commercial and Administrative Law and the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings
on the attorneys’ dismissals. As The Washington Post reported, the witnesses
“testified on Capitol Hill yesterday that they had separately been the
target of complaints, improper telephone calls and thinly veiled threats from a
high-ranking Justice Department official or members of Congress, both before
and after they were abruptly removed from their jobs.” According to the Post, John McKay, a former U.S.
attorney in Washington
state, “alleged
for the first time that he received a call from the chief of staff to Rep. Doc
Hastings (R-Wash.), asking about an inquiry into vote-fraud charges in the
state’s hotly contested 2004 gubernatorial election. McKay said he cut the call
short.” Cummins testified that “a senior Justice Department
official warned him on Feb. 20 that the fired prosecutors should remain quiet
about their dismissals” and
made public an email that “cautioned that administration officials would ‘pull
their gloves off and offer public criticisms to defend their actions more
fully.’ ” Further, as the Post reported, in his testimony Iglesias provided further details of
Wilson’s and Domenici’s phone calls:
Iglesias testified that Wilson called him while he was visiting Washington on Oct. 16 to quiz him about an
investigation of a state Democrat related to kickbacks in a courthouse
construction project.“What can you tell
me about sealed indictments?” Iglesias said Wilson asked him.Iglesias said “red
flags” immediately went up in his mind because it was unethical for him to
talk about an ongoing criminal investigation, particularly on the timing of
indictments.“I was evasive and
unresponsive,” he said of his conversation with Wilson. She became upset, Iglesias testified,
and ended the conversation.“Well, I guess I’ll
have to take your word for it,” she said, according to Iglesias.About 10 days later,
Iglesias said, Domenici’s chief of staff, Steve Bell, called Iglesias at his
home in New Mexico
and “indicated there were some complaints by constituents.” Domenici
then got on the phone for a conversation that lasted “one to two
minutes,” Iglesias recalled.“Are these going to
be filed before November?” Domenici asked, Iglesias testified, referring
to the kickback case. Unnerved by the call, Iglesias said he responded that
they were not.“I’m sorry to hear
that,” Domenici replied, according to Iglesias, who added that the senator
then hung up.“I felt sick
afterward,” Iglesias said, acknowledging that he did not report the calls
to Washington
as required under Justice rules. “I felt leaned on. I felt pressured to
get these matters moving.”
—J.M.
::Tullycast:: 