DOLE PRESSES MEDIA ASSAULT : HOPEFUL URGES VOTERS TO `FOCUS'.

Byline: Katharine Q. Seelye The New York Times

Sounding like a crusader, Bob Dole implored his audiences Friday to ``rise up'' against the nation's news organizations, which he said were protecting the Clinton administration, and be outraged that President Clinton had, in his words, violated the public trust.

``We got to stop the liberal bias in this country,'' Dole declared to more than 9,000 people packed into the coliseum bleachers here at Southern Methodist University. ``Don't read that stuff! Don't watch television! You make up your mind! Don't let them make up your mind for you!''

The appreciative crowds greeting Dole in Texas, where he is in a virtual dead heat with Clinton, have given him thunderous and sustained applause, shouting along with him that they do indeed care and yelling at members of the news media as they pass by.

Listing a string of questionable practices by the administration, including accepting ``laundered'' cash from foreigners and obtaining confidential FBI files, Dole demanded repeatedly in Houston earlier in the day, ``Where is the outrage?''

Appearing at the downtown performing arts center, where he stood before a giant mural depicting the glory days of the Lone Star State, Dole continued: ``Can you imagine former President Bush doing one of those things? No! And you never imagine Bob Dole doing one of those things, either. So where's the outrage? Where's the outrage? When will the voters start to focus?''

At another point he asked: ``When do the American people rise up and say, forget the media in America! We're going to make up our minds! You're not going to make up our minds! This is about saving our country!''

Continuing his two-day assault on the press, Dole went on: ``We are not going to let the media steal this election. We're going to win this election. The country belongs to the people, not The New York Times.''

In the litany of complaints detailed by Dole on Friday, there was a new charge: That the Democrats were ``rushing'' immigrants with criminal backgrounds into the country so they could vote for President Clinton.

``We have all these new people coming into America, rushing through the immigration process,'' Dole said. ``We find out that maybe as high as 10 percent are criminals. They want to get them ready for Election Day.''

The San Diego Union-Tribune has reported that Vice President Al Gore's staff, according to White House documents, pushed the Immigration and Naturalization Service to accelerate its plans to naturalize 1 million immigrants in time to vote. The assumption was that most new citizens would vote Democratic.

A Gore spokeswoman, Elaine Kamarck, said that Congress provided money last year to speed up the processing of a backlog of citizenship applications and that the INS was now carrying out that effort. She said that some immigrant groups had complained about the backlog, notably Latino groups that were concerned that their members would not be able to vote in the coming elections.

As Dole has swept across the South, his tone has become increasingly combative, and Friday he likened the campaign to war.

Speaking of his service in World War II, Dole declared here: ``We were the future of America! We saved the free world! And now we're called upon to do it again! We're fighting for the heart and soul of America in 1996.'' His words were then drowned out by cheers.

But if Dole wonders where the outrage is, it may be that voters sometimes need a fuller explanation of what outrages him. For example, as he told voters in Houston on Friday morning that no one would live long enough to see Clinton fulfill his pledge to put 100,000 police on the streets, Dole veered into this:

``Now we're having Texas state troopers rush to some other state to stop the flow of whatever, to stop the bleeding in the Clinton campaign.''

That was it. Even several Texans said they did not know what Dole meant. The reference was to Gov. George W. Bush's sending troopers to the state's Mexican border to help control drug smuggling. The Clinton administration, perceiving the drug problem greater in California than in Texas, then redeployed up to 100 immigration agents from the Texas border to San Diego.

Dole's complaints against the news media - reminiscent of those by President Bush in the waning days of his losing 1992 campaign - are greeted with wild cheers. Dole said Friday that Clinton would be losing the election if he was not ``getting propped up by the media.''

Dole has received such a favorable reaction in the South that day by day he has become more fiery and sharper focused. His attacks - against the administration, against the media - are the main feature of his speeches. He recites his tax-cut plan, once the centerpiece of his campaign, like a quick laundry list before circling back to the subjects that appear to move his audiences, if not the candidate himself.