
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 10, 1995                   TAG: 9511100097
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CABINET OFFICIAL SPENT $43,500 TO RATE MEDIA

Calling the project ``clearly unacceptable,'' the White House demanded Thursday that Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary explain why she spent $43,500 in tax dollars to rate journalists and analyze news reports for unfavorable coverage of her agency.

White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said he didn't want to speculate on whether the controversy would cost O'Leary her job, saying, ``I want to see what the report is first.''

But on Capitol Hill, some members of Congress - led by longtime Republican opponents of O'Leary and the department - called for her resignation. Several critics, including one of the journalists rated, described the rankings as a Nixon-like ``enemies list.''

One Democratic senator said O'Leary, already under fire for her frequent travel, should reimburse taxpayers.

O'Leary, who was traveling in Baton Rouge, La., said she didn't ask for an evaluation of reporters but for an analysis of news coverage. She said it would have cost the department $170,000 to do the job itself. She said she told Panetta on Thursday morning, ``There's no enemies list, no gumshoes, no investigators.''

The Energy Department hired a company that conducts media analyses to scrutinize hundreds of articles and dozens of reporters' stories each month, from December 1994 through August 1995, on issues from nuclear waste to O'Leary's reputation.

The Carma International service scored reporters, politicians, newspapers and others on a scale of 0 to 100, with zero denoting the most unfavorable content, 50 a neutral reading and 100 most favorable.

by CNB