The curious relationship between Hillary Rodham Clinton, presidential candidate, and Rupert Murdoch, media baron, flashed briefly before the eyes of Iowans on Saturday night during a Clinton campaign event.
A woman in the audience rose to ask Mrs. Clinton about Mr. Murdoch’s ownership of multiple media outlets (Fox News, The New York Post, soon The Wall Street Journal, and various other organs), and also whether Americans would “lose out democracy” if one person is in control of the media.
And Mrs. Clinton played both sides in her answer, responding sympathetically to the woman’s concern about media consolidation, but also making clear that she wasn’t singling out “any company in particular” for condemnation.
Mrs. Clinton, as a senator from New York, has built a relationship with Mr. Murdoch over the years – not only due to his role as an employer in her home state, but also because, as the hands-on owner of the Post, he can make life easier or harder for her (and for her husband, who has been a target of the tabloid’s gossip pages at times.) And Mr. Murdoch has reciprocated, throwing a fundraiser on Senator Clinton’s re-election campaign in 2006 and participating in Mr. Clinton’s annual philanthropic conference.
As the woman asked the question Saturday night and criticized Mr. Murdoch by name, Mrs. Clinton nodded slowly – though, it should be noted, that is her standard habit when an ally or supporter is addressing her.
“There have been a lot of media consolidations in the last several years, and it is quite troubling,” Mrs. Clinton began her reply. “The fact is, most people still get their news from television, from radio, even from newspapers. If they’re all owned by a very small group of people — and particularly if they all have a very similar point of view – it really stifles free speech.”
Mrs. Clinton pledged that as president, she would appoint commissioners to the Federal Communications Commission who supported “competition in the media,” and she hailed Theodore Roosevelt as a model for his trust-busting approach to monopolistic corporate impulse.
“It’s bad for consumers because you limit choice,” Mrs. Clinton said of media consolidations, and “it’s bad for citizens because it limits the diversity we have.”
Just as this reporter began to wonder if she would side-step Mr. Murdoch altogether, Mrs. Clinton then added: “I’m not saying anything against any company in particular. I just want to see more competition, especially in the same markets.”
A couple of people applauded the answer; most seemed ready to move on to the next exchange.
A few other odds and ends from the event:
* Regarding the Chinese government’s charge that she had slandered China by raising concerns about defective toys made in that country, Mrs. Clinton said: “I wear that as a badge of honor. We’re going to start standing up for America again.” (Several white males in the audience, among others, applauded vigorously at this remark.)
* Asked whether universities should allow security guards to carry guns, Mrs. Clinton said the issue was filled with complexities.
“I believe in the Second Amendment, and I don’t see any contradiction between the Second Amendment and laws that keep guns out of the hands of criminals,” Mrs. Clinton said. “People like to say, ‘you’re in this camp, you’re in that camp.’ I don’t think that’s a productive way of thinking about it. I think security guards, campus police have to have some protection, but they need to be well-trained and they need to be understanding about what the system of security is.”
“This is one of those issues that people want to expend more heat than light on,” she added. “A lot of our problems are not yes or no answers.”
* Challenged by an audience member over her stated support for a “robust” manned space program, Mrs. Clinton said that the International Space Station and missions to the Moon or Mars were the sort of projects that do or would spark the “imagination” and excite people about science, research and the future.
That said, she noted that the manned space program “wouldn’t be at the top of my priorities.” A moment later she called it a secondary priority,” and added, “I have not bought into President Bush’s emphasis into going to Mars.”
Update: Some readers posting comments have raised concerns and objections to the reference to “white males.” Patrick Healy explains:
“At Mrs. Clinton’s events, I try to scan the audience every time people applaud, to observe if there are any trends among the people who are reacting to her remarks. At the event in Fort Dodge, I noticed that men in the audience applauded especially ardently to Mrs. Clinton’s comment about China.
“That is relevant because Mrs. Clinton is in a tight three-way race in Iowa and according to a Washington Post/ABC News opinion poll this month, she has the support of just 19 percent of the men who responded to the poll, compared to her 31 percent support among women. Her two main rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, lead her among men, and Bill Richardson was within the poll’s margin of sampling error. So, political analysts say, it appears she has to work some do attracting male supporters. And it appeared that men in the audience liked her line about China.
“I also noted that the men who were applauding were white because all of those that I observed were white.”
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