The MRC@25: The Worst Media Bias of 1999
Each morning, the MRC has been showcasing the most egregious bias we have uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala September 27. (Click here for details and ticket information.)
If you’ve missed a previous installment, recounting the worst of 1988 through 1998, you can find them here. Today, the worst bias of 1999, including Eleanor Clift likening the House Republican impeachment managers to the KKK (“all they were missing was the white sheets!”), and Katie Couric misquoting author Edmund Morris to disparage Ronald Reagan as “an airhead.”
“Quite simply, for many workers around the world, the oppression of the unchecked commissars has been replaced by the oppression of the unregulated capitalists, who move their manufacturing from country to country, constantly in search of those who will work for the lowest wages and lowest standards. To some, the Nike swoosh is now as scary as the hammer and sickle.”
— New York Times columnist and former reporter Thomas Friedman, July 30, 1999 column.
ABC News anchor Carole Simpson to Bill Clinton: “I have to bask in this moment, for a moment, because I am here talking to the most powerful man on the planet, who was a poor boy from Arkansas...”
Clinton, cutting her off: “A place like this.”
Simpson: “Place like this. I am an African-American woman, grew up working class on the south side of Chicago, and this is a pretty special moment for me to be here talking to you. How does it feel talking to me? That I made it, too, when people said I wouldn’t be able to?”
— From Simpson’s taped interview with President Clinton, on ABC’s World News Tonight/Sunday, November 7, 1999.
“I think there are real questions about separation of powers and I don’t think he [Clinton] should go up there [appear before the Senate]. And second of all, that herd of managers from the House, I mean frankly all they were missing was white sheets. They’re like night riders going over. This is bigger than Bill Clinton.”
— Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift, January 9, 1999 McLaughlin Group.
“Good morning. The Gipper was an airhead! That’s one of the conclusions of a new biography of Ronald Reagan that’s drawing a tremendous amount of interest and fire today, Monday, September the 27th, 1999....We’re going to see why [author Edmund] Morris thinks Reagan was an airhead, but still a great President.”
— Co-host Katie Couric opening Today, September 27, 1999.
Check back each morning for more classic bias quotes, or visit our “25th Anniversary” section for the entire collection.
