Notable Quotables - 01/28/1997
Spoiled Spin on Tainted Meat
"A federal jury in North
Carolina ordered ABC television today to pay the Food Lion supermarkets five
and a half million dollars in punitive damages. That's in connection with an
undercover news investigation that proved to be true...Important to note that
the truth of the report was never at issue in the lawsuit, not even
challenged, only the journalistic techniques."
- Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, January 22.
Reality Check:
"Food Lion claimed 'the unedited footage provides an extraordinary look
at how a network news magazine can create false impressions,' and that 'ABC
producers and editors used a combination of staged events and selective
editing to fit a preconceived story line and systematically fabricate a story
to deceive the public.' In one specific instance, Food Lion claims that when
ABC used hidden-camera footage of a Food Lion employee talking about how she
had cooked a batch of out-of-date chicken, it edited out the part where she
says she brought the matter up with her manager, who directed her to throw the
chicken away."
- New Republic media columnist William Powers, January 20.
U.S. News Under Jim Fallows: More Liberal Bias More Often
"But there's
another reason why all but nine of the 225 House Republicans backed Gingrich:
deep reservations about the man next in line, the hard-right majority leader,
Dick Armey. Just as Dan Quayle's lack of gravitas led many Republicans to pray
for the health of George Bush, Armey's ideological stubbornness and hot-headed
rhetoric inspire in his colleagues protective optimism about Gingrich....In a
House brimming with mean-spirited rhetoric, Armey stands out."
- U.S. News & World Report Senior Writers Kent Jenkins Jr. and Paul
Glastris, January 20 issue.
vs.
"Gore's commitment to the world of big ideas is no pose. Unlike John F.
Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson, who became darlings of the highbrow set without
fully earning the honor, Gore is truly engaged in the life of the mind...Had
the younger Gore not become a Congressman at 28, a Senator at 36, and Vice
President at 44, he might have become the sort of essayist who aspires to
membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters."
- U.S. News Senior Writer Timothy Noah, January 27 issue.
Absolving Clinton
"There's been a lot of talk
lately, as you know, printed and so forth, about the Lincoln Bedroom and the
people who stay here. And obviously a lot of them are your friends. And I
don't think anybody would begrudge somebody having guests in their own house.
Some of them, though, it seems apparently you didn't know quite as well. And
we're wondering if you might feel let down a little bit by your staff or by
the DNC in their zeal to raise funds?"
- Question from Washington Post reporters in interview published Jan. 19.
Hillary's White House Hell
CBS reporter Martha Teichner:
"Health care was just the beginning. She has been the subject of a
non-stop, ceaseless litany of investigations. Three at the moment being
conducted by Whitewater special counsel Kenneth Starr. Speculation she may be
indicted continues."
Hillary Clinton: "I expect this matter to drag out as long as it
is to anyone else's advantage to drag it out and then it will end. I mean no
one likes to be accused of having done anything improper or wrong. It becomes
frustrating when you know that people are saying things that aren't true, but
you just learn to live with it and you just go on day after day and..."
Teichner: "But how do you do that though in the climate of a
non-stop four- or even eight-year bashing?"
- January 19 CBS Sunday Morning. (Teichner and Hillary were classmates at
Wellesley College.)
Illegal Taping? Don't Let It Distract from Nailing Newt
"I'm not trying to minimize the
offense here, though I would have to suggest that the ones of Speaker Gingrich
look considerably more severe than Mr. McDermott's."
- Chicago Tribune reporter Ellen Warren on CNN & Company, January 16.
"As a political matter, the
Republicans managed brilliantly on the last two weekends of television talk
shows to keep the focus where they wanted....Of course, they could not have
done it without the Democrats' giving them a clear field. The first weekend
the Democrats had available a Time magazine article suggesting that the
leadership, possibly waving campaign money, put pressure on two ethics
committee members to write an extraordinary letter telling colleagues to vote
for Mr. Gingrich for Speaker. The Democrats hardly brought it up. Then last
weekend the Democrats effectively failed to make their case that the taped
conversation, whatever its ancestry, showed that Mr. Gingrich had broken his
promises to the ethics committee."
- New York Times reporter Adam Clymer, who first reported the contents of the
GOP cellular phone conversation, in a January 16 "news analysis."
"The New Republic points out
this week that the book [To Renew America] leans heavily on copyrighted
materials developed for Newt's college course by the tax-exempt group that is
at the center of his current problems. That could well be a violation of IRS
rules that prohibit tax-exempt organizations from transferring assets to
private individuals. It also calls into question Gingrich's claim that he's no
Jim Wright - the Democratic Speaker whose ouster he spearheaded - because he
never sought to line his own pockets. After taxes, his royalties would have
stuffed his pockets with something like $300,000 - the amount of his fine.
Maybe he should hand it over. If nothing else, it would prove that even when
you can't count on the rule of law in Washington, there's always poetic
justice."
- Conclusion to Time Senior Editor Richard Lacayo's story, January 27 issue.
Shaw Fawns
"A very, very special day for
this President when you recall that four years ago he came to this city, he
was expecting so much. His mother was at his side there at the Inaugural. She
passed away a year later. And when you look at what was besetting the United
States, a four trillion dollar deficit, budget problems, foreign policy
problems. The budget deficit now has decreased. There seems to be relative
peace in Bosnia. The Middle East, the breakthrough of the Hebron agreement, a
lot has gone on in four short years."
- Bernard Shaw during CNN Inauguration coverage, January 20.
God, I Admire You
"Tribe's detractors think his
arrogance is finally catching up with him. 'He was his usual glib self,' one
veteran practitioner sniffed after the argument. But Tribe has a lot to be
arrogant and glib about. There is still no one better on his feet, no one
better able to respond to questions from the justices with a fully developed
and usually persuasive response. But sometimes he seems too nimble, too
cerebral, too able to see contradiction and ironies and nuances light-years
before the justices and other mere mortals are able to. Especially coming in
the last quarter of a two-hour argument, he seemed to make the justices' heads
hurt. Baryshnikov probably has had the same effect on dance aficionados - too
much dazzle to take all at once. Maybe Tribe needs to slow down and simplify
his routine the next time out - and dance the macarena instead of Swan
Lake."
- USA Today reporter Tony Mauro in the January 13 Legal Times.
CBS: Clueless Broadcasting System
Larry King: "I'm told by
our producers, that a lot of calls, so rather than make it microscopic here,
are complaining about advocates being hired by television stations. [Robert]
Shapiro was on one side in the Simpson trial, he's hired. [George]
Stephanopoulos is now at ABC - that we're not getting balance."
Dan Rather: "I think that's a valid criticism. I'm concerned about
it. Look, a Bill Moyers came out of the Lyndon Johnson White House and became
one of the great journalists of all time."
King: "But a major liberal, self-confessed."
Rather: "Ah, is he? I don't want to get into that, but he was
terrific. I do think, personal opinion, it's gone too far."
-Exchange on Larry King Live, January 13.
- L. Brent Bozell, Publisher; Brent
H . Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Geoffrey Dickens, Gene Eliasen, Jim Forbes, Steve Kaminski, Clay Waters;
Media Analysts
- Kathy Ruff, Marketing Director; Carey Evans, Circulation Manager; Brian
Schmisek,Intern
