Notable Quotables - 01/09/1989

 

Marxist Reporter


"You wouldn't expect someone who has written for the Monthly Review, The National Guardian, and The Daily Worker to have reported for The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times as well. But I have. Eugene V. Debs may be my all-time favorite American and Karl Marx my favorite journalist. But my employer for a decade was The Wall Street Journal, and for another decade it was the Los Angeles Times.
- A. Kent MacDougall, now a journalism professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in an article published in the November Monthly Review.

 

The End of the World


"Someone once predicted the way that the end of the world would be covered by four major American newspapers. The New York Times would carry a two column headline saying 'World to End Tomorrow. Details page A6.' The Wall Street Journal would feature a one-column headline reading, 'End of World Fears Fuel Bond Market Jitters.' USA Today would say, 'End of World Coming. How We Really Feel About It.' And The Washington Post would say 'World Ending Tomorrow. Poor and Minorities Hardest Hit.'"
- from a recent column by Mona Charen.

 

Geraldo


"Transsexuals imprisoned is our focus in this edition of Geraldo."
- Geraldo Rivera opening his December 9 show.

 

Stock Market Advice


"Brokers say stick with stocks: 'Don't Worry'"
- USA Today, January 3, page 6B.

"Sickly six months seen for stocks: Analyst: Bad signs abound"
- same paper, same day, page 8B.

 

Glasnost and Atheism


"Religion, belief in God, takes away one of our greatest assets: the possibility and the right to question. It says you simply must believe. So that's totalitarian."
- Vladimir Posner on The Koppel Report, telling why he's an atheist, December 27.

 

Nicaragua Policy


"Helping the Sandinistas is more problematic because the thrust of U.S. policy for more than seven years has been to make the Nicaraguan people as miserable as possible....Why not acknowledge Managua's glasnost? The Nicaraguan government has pursued flexible domestic policies and made diplomatic initiatives that would have long since have met the objectives of the United States if those aims had been reasonable."
- Boston Globe editorial writer Randolph Ryan in a December 26 op-ed.

 

Network Political Views


"As for my colleagues who write, edit, and report the news, as far as one can tell, they appear to be a good reflection of the nation as a whole, perhaps being slightly more liberal. A few conservatives surfaced in office bull sessions during the Reagan Administration, but by and large a majority have been moderate to liberal."
- Marlene Sanders, a CBS News reporter who resigned in 1987, in her new book, Waiting for Prime Time: The Women of Television News.

 

Balanced Reporting?


"The established press in this country has to a large extent reverted to the symbiotic relationship with the executive branch....It is the press's desire to look objective which I think has become a dangerous obsession of American journalism....The notion that journalism should be balanced goes against the grain of American history and the Constitution."
- New York Times columnist and former reporter Anthony Lewis, quoted by Editor & Publisher, December 17 issue.

 

Planet of the Year


"Raising the federal gasoline tax by 50 cents per gallon, from 9 cents to 59 cents, over the next five years would renew drivers' interest in fuel conservation."

"Support Family Planning. In 1984 the Reagan Administration cut off U.S. aid to the two major international family-planning organizations...Unless the growth in the world population is slowed, it will be impossible to make serious progress on any environmental issue. The U.S. should immediately restore the aid it withdrew."
- Time's recommendations on how to save the Earth, in January 2 "Planet of the Year" issue.

 

Reagan Legacy


"And so it goes with President Bozo....coming to the end of his eight-year reign, and reign it has been, no matter how it rained on the poor. The hell with the poor, it's their own fault; we all feel that way."
- Boston Globe Associate Editor and long time reporter David Nyhan, in a December 28 column.

 

Glasnost


"It's ending [the Cold War]. What Gorbachev is doing in creating free speech in the Soviet Union, allowing people to vote against candidates for office, opening up economic opportunities and free markets, I think it's what we've been asking for forty years, and it's happening. Not because of us, it's happening because they want to do it, which is the really interesting thing."
- Chris Matthews, CBS This Morning "political columnist" and former aide to Tip O'Neill, on January 3.

 

Quote of the Holiday Season


"Retailers woes may not be over: if they have a good Christmas, many stores could find themselves short of goods to sell in the New Year."
- Reporter Ray Brady on the December 20 CBS Evening News.

 

- L. Brent Bozell III; Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Jim Heiser, Richard Marois, Patrick Swan, Dorothy Warner; Media Analysts
- Cynthia Bulman; Administrative Assistant