Notable Quotables - 03/06/1989
The Media and Quayle
"I do not think the
public apprehends fully the difference between the reporting journalists did
on Dan Quayle, which damaged him politically, and, say, the job George Bush's
propagandist Roger Ailes did on Michael Dukakis. The work of the first was
guided by certain standards....The work of the latter was utterly without
them."
- Baltimore Sun Foreign Editor Richard O'Mara in the February 11 Editor
& Publisher.
The Washington Post
"But what's so
incredible is that while the Post's reporting is the best in the
country...its editorial policy, the tradition of Eugene Meyer and Phil Graham
and Alan Barth, has been squandered by the family, and by Meg Greenfield,
editorial page editor. I don't know what the paper stands for anymore. It's in
a kind of neoconservative bag. It's really sad that it's no longer a voice for
the kind of compassionate, libertarian viewpoint."
- Carl Bernstein quoted in the March Vanity Fair.
Oliver North
"Defense contends
North was deserted"
- Washington Times, February 22.
"North Flouted Law,
Court Told: NSC Aide a 'Fall Guy,' Defense Counters as Iran-Contra Trial
Begins"
- Washington Post, same day.
Capital Gains Tax Cut
"If you lower the
tax rates for investors, everyone will prosper, or at least that's the
philosophy that President Bush, and a lot of wealthy people espouse. This
would be achieved in the form of lower capital gains taxes, and everyone would
prosper, if it weren't for the fact that a lot of people believe it won't
work."
- Connie Chung on NBC Nightly News, February 18.
Cuban Human Rights
"Cuba watchers hail
U.N. report on rights abuses"
- Washington Times, February 27.
"U.N. Finds Some
Gain in Cubans' Rights"
- New York Times, day before.
Afghanistan
"By giving them the
weapons, we not only prolong the war, but we created a political condition
which made it less likely, much harder, to achieve a settlement."
- Richard Barnet of the Institute for Policy Studies, on the February 14 CBS
Evening News.
David Duke
"The Republican
Party has threatened to censure Duke because of his past association with the
Klan and Nazi groups, but one independent political analyst says the Bush
presidential campaign created a climate which helped elect Duke."
- Reporter Kenley Jones on the February 20 NBC Nightly News.
Tax Increase
"The
borrow-and-spend policies that Ronald Reagan presided over have bequeathed to
his chosen successor a downsized presidency devoid of the resources to address
long neglected domestic problems. The Bush campaign strategists-with the
candidate's active complicity-burdened the new President with an obdurated
stance on taxes."
- Reporters Michael Duffy and Richard Hornik in Time, February 20.
Reagan Administration
"Into second-rate
company, Baker brought a first-rate mind."
- Caption for picture of James Baker with Ronald Reagan in February 13 Time
cover story on Baker.
Bush Administration Ethics
"The President
defended the legality and benign intent of his aide [C. Boyden Gray], showing
the same kind of myopia toward one of his own that got Ronald Reagan in
trouble."
- Reporters Michael Duffy and Richard Hornik, February 20 Time.
Nicaragua
"How did a tiny
country with the most unstable political system in Central America become the
longest running, most damaging foreign policy controversy of the Reagan years?
Banana Diplomacy explains how it happened, re-creating the actions
and players behind the Reagan Administration's inconsistent, ineffective, and
usually deceptive policies toward Nicaragua. Roy Gutman, Newsday's
national security correspondent, reveals how Reagan's Nicaraguan obsession
exemplifies his administration's flawed foreign policy."
- from jacket of Gutman's book, Banana Diplomacy.
China
"Though there's
been a lot of economic change in China, there hasn't been any political
change, there hasn't been any movement toward democracy."
- CBS reporter Bruce Morton on the February 24 Evening News.
"This is a vastly
different China. A huge portrait of Mao still hangs from the front gate of the
Forbidden City. Mao's successor's have kept the picture, but discarded the
policies."
- Dan Rather, the next day.
East German Glasnost
"Erich Honecker
spent 10 years in Nazi prisons for his communist beliefs. That imprisonment
helps explain the veteran East German leader's resistance to glasnost
(openness) and perestroika (restructuring). Honecker's personal history also
explains his reluctance to abandon central planning and expensive subsidies.
As a young communist, he developed a hatred for the inequalities of the
capitalist system."
- Christian Science Monitor staff writer William Echikson, February
24.
- L. Brent
Bozell III; Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham, Marc S. Ryan; Editors
- Jim Heiser, Jay Marois, Patrick Swan, Dorothy Warner; Media Analysts
- Cynthia Bulman; Administrative Assistant
