Notable Quotables - 06/13/1988
Glasnost
"Oh, Mr. Gorbachev!
You are so different from all the other boys!
I think I'm falling in love with you!
Clap your hands, clap your hands, Gorbachev!
Clap, clap, clap, clap
your hands!"
- a Hungarian pop singer featured during story by NBC reporter John Cochran,
May 26.
"The reality is
that even if the communist state were to protect individual rights
aggressively, many of its people are not prepared to tolerate diversity... It
points to a basic problem within this society: schooled in intolerance for so
long, many Soviets equate non-conformity with treason."
- Dan Rather, CBS Evening News, May 27.
Education
"Back-to-Basics in
Education Produces Gains in Arithmetic"
- New York Times, June 8.
"Student math woes
add up to big trouble"
- Washington Times, same day.
Rambo III
"It is marginally
less offensive, I suppose, killing Reds in Afghanistan than killing Reds in
Vietnam. (This way, racism isn't so prominent an aspect of the movie's rabid
patriotism.) Then again, having Afghan rebels speechify about the barbarism of
the Soviets just as their troops are pulling out has its down side, as does
the film's idealization of the mujaheddin (who are characterized here as
"freedom fighters").
- Washington Post film reviewer Hal Hinson on May 25.
Hollywood
"But I think if you
seriously are questioning whether or not there is a left-wing bias in
Hollywood you really have to be kidding. I mean there is something like 10,000
members of the Writers Guild - I've never been able to find another
Republican."
- Ben Stein on Crossfire, debating message of Rambo III,
June 3.
SDI
"Soviets' new
weapons threaten SDI, Hill told"
- Washington Times, June 6.
"SDI Seen Unlikely
to Give U.S. an Edge Over Soviets"
- Washington Post, same day.
START Treaty
"Of all the
accomplishments at the Moscow summit, moving this complex [START] treaty a few
steps closer to resolution may well be the most important."
- ABC's John McWethy, World News Tonight, June 1.
Soviet Religious Freedom
"Today the state
permitted church bells to ring throughout Moscow. They seem to be saying that
after decades of repression of religion, church and state are reaching toward
each other because they need each other."
- NBC News Moscow correspondent Sandy Gilmour, June 5.
Soviet Human Rights
"He explained
afterwards that we simply have a common enemy. This common enemy [of the U.S.
and the Soviet Union], really, is bureaucracy. So, you have your own
bureaucrats; we also have our own bureaucrats, and they violate the human
rights of our citizens. It's a very good explanation."
- Soviet foreign ministry spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov endorsing President
Reagan's explanation. Nightline, June 1.
Jim Wright
"On Capitol Hill,
Georgia's Newt Gingrich and 71 other House Republicans filed a formal request
for a probe by the House Ethics Committee. Wright, in turn, said his view of
Gingrich is the same as that of a fire hydrant toward a dog."
- ABC's World News Saturday anchor Barry Serafin, May 26.
Nicaragua
"Managua 'walk'
earns hours in jail"
- Washington Times, June 9, front page.
"Sandinistas,
Contras Report Chill in Talks"
- Washington Post, page A32.
Phil Donahue
"Oh, I tell you,
I'm so proud of my President. To go over there and see these people with these
smiling faces, to see them as part of the human race. To understand it's not
an evil empire and to reduce this ridiculous cold war tension. Oh, it's
wonderful. I think he's giving our children a gift."
- Phil Donahue, interviewed by Pat Buchanan on CNN's Larry King Live,
May 31.
"The [Catholic]
Church has always thrived on ignorance and oppression."
- Donahue, same show.
Campaign '88
"It is an unlikely
match, this seemingly moderate, passionless, East Coast politician and the
often rebellious Democrats of California."
- ABC reporter Joe Bergantino, World News Tonight, June 6.
George Bush: "Dan,
I'll take all the credit, I'll take all the blame ..."
Ted Koppel: "No,
Dan's, Dan's the other fellow...."
Koppel: "I'll tell
you what. If you stop calling me Dan; try calling me Peter, or Tom,
or..."
Bush: "Did I do it
again?"
Koppel: "Well,
that's all right, you can call me anything you like..."
Bush: "It's
Freudian! ... I promise you, it is Freudian...."
Koppel: "Next time,
call me Barbara."
- exchange on ABC's Nightline, June 9.
- 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
