Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 28, 1993 TAG: 9309280055
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WALTER GOODMAN NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The assignment was carried off with informed charm. Having had her image problems with television, Clinton seems to have settled into a comfortable persona, one that suits her and that seems to suit most viewers: a woman who does not have to apologize because her interests and abilities stretch beyond the domestic quarters of the White House. The wife whose television career began with an understandably shaky my-man performance on "60 Minutes" was now beside him once again, but without defensiveness or embarrassment, on a more serious matter.
She made an appealing guest, but she did not have to face the sort of challenges that the president met last week on the "Nightline" town hall. Instead, she was asked the common questions about cost and freedom of choice, and she gave answers that must have seemed thin to any viewer who had been paying attention to the reports and analyses carried by all the network news programs through the week; even supporters of the plan were seen expressing doubts about the claims of money to be saved and choices to be preserved. But Clinton's interviewers acted as if they had not been paying attention.
One hopes that no sexist imputation will be drawn from the fact that the male interviewers, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, in the evening were softer than the female interviewers on the morning shows. In the anchors' paltry few minutes with Clinton, gallantry defeated professionalism. Wouldn't the new plan be even more bureaucratic than existing arrangements, both asked, and upon being assured that it would simplify matters, they went on the next question. Despite a touch of skepticism ("It sounds too good to be true"), Rather told Clinton how impressed he was with her grasp of details, which was exactly what his interview did not test.
He ended their exchange with a small joke about the unlikely possibility of Clinton's going on the David Letterman show, which seemed to amuse both parties. And Brokaw dribbled off by asking whether the president was still eating french fries. For all their expressions of regard for the first lady's competence, they wound up treating her like the little lady.
Not that the female interviewers were exactly tigers: Joan Lunden on "Good Morning America" prompted Clinton to deliver a plug for her husband's "great combination of heart and head." But the knees-to-knees encounters on the morning programs were better than the evening news interviews; there was a bit more time, and Paula Zahn on "CBS This Morning" actually asked four questions about paying for the plan before going on to another subject.
It may have been the producers' deference to the composition of their audiences that led both Zahn and Katie Couric on "The Today Show" to give so many of their precious minutes to mammograms. Zahn also paid particular attention to abortion before winding up with some mommy chat about "the introduction of yet another little miracle in your life."
Sunday, health care occupied "Face the Nation" and "This Week With David Brinkley," too. As usual, they dug more deeply into the subject. But Clinton wasn't there. Can it be that David Gergen does not trust her to hold her own against Bob Schieffer or Sam Donaldson? He could be underestimating his client.
Today, Hillary Clinton is to begin three days of testifying before House and Senate committees, where she will doubtless be more closely pressed than she was on the tube. But if she wants an opportunity to show her stuff to the nation without the coddling she has been enjoying, the Sunday programs would oblige. Hey, how about taking a chance on "The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour"?
by CNB