The Best of Notable Quotables; December 23, 1991

Peter Arnett Media First Award

Pat Buchanan: “If there was information you could have gotten out that could have saved scores, hundreds of American lives, you wouldn’t have transmitted that information?”
Peter Arnett: “I wouldn’t have transmitted that information. I would not have gotten that information in the first place. But I would not have transmitted it. I was in Baghdad because I was a correspondent for CNN, which has no political affiliations with the U.S. government, thank goodness.”

– CNN’s Crossfire, August 2.

Runners-up:

“[After World War II] Many of the Germans came to us after the revelations of the horrors of the concentration camps. They said ‘We didn’t know, we didn’t know’ – the tears were rolling down their cheeks. They claimed they couldn’t be held responsible, but they were. They accepted with cheers, and great enthusiasm, Hitler’s clamping down on a free press...Today we’re in the same position.”

– Walter Cronkite quoted on Gulf War coverage in the October 22 Philadelphia Daily News.

Reporter Arthur Kent: “Saddam Hussein is a cunning man and nowhere does he show that more clearly than on a battlefield when he’s under attack.”
Anchor Faith Daniels: “And that, Arthur, really seems to be this Administration’s greatest miscalculation.”
Arthur Kent: “That’s right, Faith. He is ruthless, but more than ruthless. In the past 11 days, he’s surprised us. He’s shown us a capable military mind and he still seems to know exactly what he’s doing.”

– Exchange from NBC special America: The Realities of War, January 27.

“Allied military units are on the move. Their positions, movements, and plans must be carefully safeguarded. We must assume that the enemy is confused about what is happening on the battlefield and it is absolutely essential that we not do anything inadvertently ourselves to clarify the picture for him.”

– Defense Secretary Dick Cheney in a press conference at the start of the ground war, February 23.

vs.

“As part of our CBS News live coverage of the beginning of the ground war offensive, we’re talking to Bob McKeown, a CBS News reporter who’s one mile from the Kuwaiti border. Bob, any indication of how far up you the think the Allies are now?”

– Dan Rather, 21 minutes later.

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