CyberAlert -- 01/06/1998 -- Hubbell's in an ABC Reporter's Home

Hubbell's in an ABC Reporter's Home; December 29 Notable Quotables

1) Not enough judges or too many laws to judge? Rehnquist said
both, but two newspapers picked one over the other.

2) Mickey Kantor admitted he inappropriately helped Hubbell, but
the networks yawned. Meanwhile, an ABC News reporter's husband
paid off a contract that Hubbell failed to fulfill.

3) The December 29, 1997 edition of Notable Quotables. On naming
an airport after Ronald Reagan, Gloria Borger incongruently declared:
"So what's next? The Richard M. Nixon Jewish Community Center?"

1

The annual report on the judiciary from Chief Justice
William Rehnquist generated contrasting headlines as two
newspapers emphasized different parts of his report.

The top of page one New York Times headline on January 1
declared: "Senate Imperils Judicial System, Rehnquist Says." The
first subhead: "Many Judgeships Vacant." The second subhead: "In
Year-end Report, the Chief Justice Says Senators Must Move
Quickly on Posts."

The same day, The Washington Times accentuated not Senate
inaction, but too much past congressional action that has
federalized many crimes: "Rehnquist Asks Limit on Federal
Purview." The subhead: "Seeks to Reduce Judges' Caseload."

2

Catching up on some pre-Christmas developments on the
Webster Hubbell front, former Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor
admitted that he had indeed helped Hubbell obtain a do-nothing
contract with the Los Angeles city government. But the networks
ignored the news. Meanwhile, the husband of an ABC News
correspondent came to Hubbell's rescue, paying off a foundation
Hubbell defrauded.

-- "Kantor Admits Helping Hubbell Gain L.A. Fee" announced the
December 14 Los Angeles Times story by reporter David Willman. He
began his front page piece:

"A former member of President Clinton's Cabinet has for the
first time acknowledged that he helped former Justice Department
official Webster L. Hubbell pry loose a disputed consulting fee
from the city of Los Angeles, months after Hubbell pleaded guilty
to felony charges.

"Mickey Kantor, who served in the Cabinet from 1993 until
last January, said earlier this year that it would have been
'inappropriate' for him to have gotten involved with the Los
Angeles payment to Hubbell.

"But in sworn testimony to congressional investigators -- a
transcript of which was obtained by The Times -- and in an
interview, Kantor described steps he took to help Hubbell obtain
the $24,750 payment from the city government in late 1995.
Kantor's aid is important because at the time, prosecutors
examining the Whitewater affair were seeking the cooperation of
Hubbell, who had been a law partner of First Lady Hillary Clinton
and a close friend of the President.

"Those prosecutors now are also examining whether any of the
payments Hubbell received were intended to discourage him from
providing damaging testimony about the Clintons' role in
Whitewater...."

Coverage of the revelation that a former Cabinet Secretary
conceded "inappropriate" action? Zilch on the ABC, CBS and NBC
morning and evening shows, nor on CNN, not even anything on CNN's
Inside Politics.

-- The day after the LA Times story, the December 22 U.S. News
& World Report hit mailboxes. Tim Graham, the MRC's Director of
Media Analysis, caught a very interesting item in the "Washington
Whispers" section about how after spending the day failing to
report the latest revelations about who helped Hubbell, ABC News
reporter Linda Douglass arrives home where she can admire some
paintings bought by Hubbell. Here is the U.S. News piece in full:
"When former Associate Attorney Webster Hubbell resigned from
the Justice Department in 1994 amid allegations he skimmed money
from his partners at the Rose Law Firm, many friends stepped in
to help him bring in an income.
"The House Committee on Government Reform says Hubbell's
earnings from June 1994 to January 1995 totaled $600,000,
including a $45,000 grant from the Consumer Support and Education
Fund. The Los Angeles-based non-profit hired Hubbell to write a
series of papers about public service at the behest of its
founder, John Phillips, a friend.
"But Hubbell never completed the project, and an embarrassed
Phillips reimbursed the group the $45,000 out of his own pocket.
In a deposition given to the House committee, Phillips explained
that when Hubbell was only able to pay back $10,000 of the amount
owed, Phillips 'took security interest' in 21 pieces of art that
hung in Hubbell's Washington home.
"The artwork, which includes signed lithographs by Grant
Wood, Joan Miro, and Alexander Calder, now adorns the walls of
the home of Phillips and his wife, ABC correspondent Linda
Douglass."

3

The December 29, 1997 edition of Notable Quotables, the
MRC's bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous, sometimes
humorous, quotes in the liberal media.
Several quotes here which will be fresh to CyberAlert
readers, including the first one : a bizarre opening to a U.S.
News & World Report column by Gloria Borger who now co-hosts
CBS's Face the Nation. Plus, "Kyoto: Only a Success If Liberals
Win," a quote from NBC observed by MRC news analyst Geoffrey
Dickens; "Far-Right Robber-Baron Doctors," a New York Times item
picked up by the MRC's Clay Waters. And under "If He's Centrist,
What's a Liberal?" an example of CNN mislabeling a very liberal
Congressman upon the announcement of his retirement.

Notable Quotables

December 29, 1997 (Vol. Ten; No. 26)

Reagan Airport? Didn't Nixon Hate Jews?

"This being the holiday travel season, [Grover] Norquist has
another crusade: changing the name of Washington National Airport
to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The Reagan
Washington airport? Remind me, but didn't Reagan get elected by
running against Washington? Wasn't he the one who fired the
striking air-traffic controllers? (The Ronald Wilson Reagan
Control Tower?) And is there evidence that Reagan actually used
or liked this airport? (Nope, says a former aide.) So what's
next? The Richard M. Nixon Jewish Community Center?" - U.S. News
& World Report writer Gloria Borger, December 15.

Kyoto: Only A Success If Liberals Win

"Many nations say the U.S., the world's largest polluter, should
agree to higher targets for reduction of greenhouse gases. And
they argue that the U.S. proposal of differentiation, separate
targets for individual countries, benefits richer nations...If
the conference ends without an agreement it will be a huge
setback in the battle against global warming and a major
embarrassment for the United States and host nation Japan." - NBC
Nightly News reporter Kiko Itasaka, December 7.

Insult Those Who Don't Buy Global Warming Mantra

Karen Kerrigan, Small Business Survival Committee: "To say that
the science is conclusive, maybe from a bunch of those elitist
scientists over in Kyoto, but certainly there are plenty of
scientists here in the United States - those who actually have
expertise in this area who say that the conclusivity is actually
bunk."
Ted Koppel: "I was just going to make the observation that there
are still some people who believe in the Flat Earth Society, too,
but that doesn't mean they're right." - Exchange on the December
9 Nightline.

The Wall Street Journal's Indictment Expert

"You ought to be real careful about appointing a special counsel.
It seems to me it's ludicrous to talk about a special counsel
with Henry Cisneros..." - Al Hunt on the February 18, 1995
Capital Gang on CNN.

"Janet Reno is probably the most independent minded Attorney
General since Edward Levy. She has appointed outside counsels
when it was not warranted - in the case of Henry Cisneros." -
Hunt on the October 4 Capital Gang. (On December 11, Cisneros was
indicted on 18 counts of lying to the FBI.)

Far-Right Robber-Baron Doctors

"But other doctors are wondering more vocally than ever whether
the [American Medical] Association that claims to speak for them
still has any real right to do so. The organization's membership
is declining; its policy-making body, the House of Delegates,
espouses views far to the right of many members....Other
non-members ascribe their disaffection with the association to
its century-long advocacy of fee-for-service health care, which
they regard as a position inspired by Victorian sanctimony and
robber-baron greed that gave rise to today's health-care crisis."
- New York Times reporter Abigail Zuger, December 2 news story.

If He's "Centrist," What's a Liberal?

"California Congressman Vic Fazio, a centrist Democrat who is
retiring next year, has emerged as perhaps the leading candidate
to succeed Erskine Bowles as White House Chief of Staff." - CNN
Inside Politics weekend anchor Wolf Blitzer, December 8 (In 1996,
Fazio drew a zero rating from the American Conservative Union,
and an 80 from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action.)
Lawrence: The Facts Are Not Relevant?

"Larry Lawrence may well have been eligible for burial at
Arlington because he died while serving as an ambassador. But in
the rancorous atmosphere of Washington, the facts may be almost
beside the point." - ABC's Michel McQueen, December 5 Nightline.
"Ironically, the cemetery officials say that Lawrence may well
have been entitled to burial at Arlington simply because he was
an ambassador but over the last several days all kinds of
questions have been raised about his resume and record.

Questions, for example, about whether or not he embellished his
academic credentials. So the White House, in the end, says it
will not oppose removing his body." - ABC reporter Linda
Douglass, December 15 World News Tonight.

Reality Check:
"Government documents show that of six ambassadors granted burial
waivers for Arlington National Cemetery, three died violently in
the line of duty while two had records far more distinguished
than that of the sixth - M. Larry Lawrence, whose waiver by the
Clinton administration is under intense review." - From a
December 6 Los Angeles Times story by Paul Richter.

Lawrence Lies Exposed: More Spin Gymnastics

"Republicans are also busy rekindling a controversy over
Arlington National Cemetery, and whether the Clinton
administration gave a plot to a non-veteran as a political
favor." - CNN World Today anchor Leon Harris introducing a
December 4 story.

"Republicans refused Tuesday to call off their campaign to
embarrass the Clinton administration with revelations about a
dead ambassador who may have lied about his past to secure a
prime burial site." - Reuters report Jonathan Wright opening a
December 9 dispatch.

"No one dug into Larry Lawrence's past before making him an
ambassador, which then allowed him the higher honor of burial at
Arlington. While the non-rich get an FBI check that includes
asking the neighbors whether you take out your trash, no one
bothered to check whether the rich campaign donor Lawrence was
injured at sea, or in the merchant marine at all. Yet another
reason for taking money out of campaigns." - CNN columnist
Margaret Carlson's "Outrage of the Week," December 6 CNN Capital
Gang.

Those From "The Streets" Can't Be Expected to Behave

Sam Donaldson: "What he did could not be condoned. But it's
striking that we have taken these sports figures and in other
walks of life, too, and we've made them larger than life. We
throw all the money in the world at them, the adulation, the
people waiting in the aisles. And then when they do not act as if
they know that the dessert spoon goes in front of the plate,
well, we say, 'Well, that's horrible! That's terrible!'" George Stephanopoulos:
"Sam, he choked his coach!..."

Donaldson: "I'm not condoning it, but these guys, these guys did
not come up through finishing schools and we know it. Most of
them, many of them clawed their way up from the streets. It's one
thing they can do in life and I don't think we can all expect
them to have learned all the mores that all of us say we know." -
December 7 ABC's This Week.

No One Misses You

"Almost 20 years ago I began hosting the first national network
radio talk show for the Mutual Broadcasting System....I left
radio three years ago, although my TV show is simulcast on radio
by Westwood One. I was very proud of that program. Now I
apologize for what I might have started. Talk radio today is an
amalgam of screaming, angry hosts with a daily agenda. I love the

First Amendment and think hosts have every right to spew what
they spew. But in doing so they must open themselves to
examination as well....I'm sorry for the way talk radio has
developed and am encouraged by the fact that America is beginning
to see the light. The constant barrage against President Clinton
only proves what I said a couple of years ago. With enemies like
this, he doesn't need friends." - Larry King in his USA Today
column, December 1.

-- L. Brent Bozell III, Publisher; Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham;
Editors
-- Eric Darbe, Geoffrey Dickens, Gene Eliasen, Steve Kaminski,
Clay Waters; Media Analysts
-- Kristina Sewell, Research Associate; Sherri Pascale,
Circulation Director
-- Rebecca Hinnershitz, Karen Sanjines; Interns

-- Brent Baker

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