Notable Quotables - 06/25/1990

Fascist Flag Protectors


"By one measure, the eruption of patriotism comes at an unlikely moment. Typically, nations cling to symbols at times of insecurity - Adolf Hitler made it a crime to 'publicly profane' the Swastika."
- Newsweek Senior Writer Eloise Salholz, June 25 issue.

 

Reunification: Disaster for German Women


"Economic freedom means freedom to fail as well as succeed. And for most German women, whether in East or West, reunification is looking like a giant step backward."
- USA Today business reporter Martha T. Moore, June 4.

"East Germany provides what may be the world's most extensive family services system. It includes abortion on demand and free day care centers for children....Reunification threatens more than the economic security of East German women. It could also mean an end to their legal right to free, easy abortions."
- Reporter Allen Pizzey on the CBS Evening News, June 16.

 

Tax Hikes: Voting For Or Against?


"Firing up the next tax rebellion: Voters are rejecting most of the tax hikes on their ballots, and property-tax revolts are brewing all over the country"
- U.S. News & World Report, June 11

"Saying Yes to Taxes: Confronted with the deepening federal deficit, states are raising taxes - or letting the voters do it"
- Newsweek, June 18

 

Poor, Poor PLO


"Beyond words, what guarantees can you give the Palestinians that decisions you made on immigration will not result in further usurpation of their lands, and why is it that President Gorbachev has shown so much human sympathy for the Palestinians, while the U.S. vetoes even a U.N. look at their plight under military siege?"
- UPI White House correspondent Helen Thomas during the June 3 summit news conference.

 

Communists Winning or Losing?


"Ex-Communists Decisively Lead Bulgaria Voting"
- New York Times front page story, June 11

"Bulgarian Communists Take a Strong Lead in Early Returns"
- same paper, same day, same story, page A12

 

Koppel's Peacekeeper: The Soviet Union


"We may well over the next 10 or 15 years come to view the Soviet Union as being the power, the only power, that has the capacity of keeping China out of Europe, the only power that has the capacity of keeping Moslem fundamentalism out of Europe, the only power, in fact, we may find ourselves looking back wistfully five or ten years from now at Eastern Europe and saying 'Boy, I remember when Eastern Europe used to be nice and quiet.' "
- Ted Koppel on McLaughlin: One on One, June 3.

 

Nothing Like Keeping Opinions to Yourself


"Expanding food stamps is obviously something that needs to be done, but the survey done in Michigan showed that a significant portion of those who were going hungry were eligible for food stamps, but weren't getting them. They didn't think they were eligible. The rules are awfully confusing."
- Question by Deborah Norville to Rep. Mike Espy (D-MS) on Today, June 18.

 

Equal Blame for Wrecking the World


"It's hard to get the world psyched up for a summit when the stakes keep going down. It used to be the future of all mankind hung in the balance every time the Soviets and Americans talked. That's all changed since our respective leaders finally figured out the expensive and dangerous race to build more and more nuclear weapons was pretty much a waste of everyone's time and resources. There's a limit, after all, to how much of the world you can wreck and still feel good about yourself."
- CBS This Morning co-host Harry Smith in his weekly "Record of Who We Are" commentary, June 1.

 

Painless Tax Increases


"But states all over the country are in big hurt because the federal government has certainly taken a lot of money back that they were giving to the states traditionally, for years and years and years. Isn't this a pretty painless way to put money back in the coffers of states all over the countr?"
- Smith's question to economist Arthur Laffer on California's doubling of the state gas tax, June 6.

 

Proletarians of America Unite!


"The Marxist call for workers of the world to unite might be a dead issue in Gorbachev's home, but problems like poor health care are kindling the struggle anew for the proletariats in the USA."
- USA Today Inquiry Editor Barbara Reynolds, June 1.

 

Understating Soviet Achievements


"U.S. textbooks also have given little credit to the Soviets for their role in defeating Germany in World War II. And educators said there has been an emphasis on Soviet totalitarianism but little examination of the achievements of Soviet society."
- Washington Post education reporter Barbara Vobejda, May 27.

 

Same Old Sludge


"But the fact that George Bush and Ronald Reagan have presided over governmental scandals that make Teapot Dome look like a picnic seems to have no impact on their popularity. Indeed, none of the criminals involved in any of these massive frauds seems to really pay...Given the fact that crime seems to pay at the top, should we be surprised that young people nearer the bottom have such lax moral attitudes?"
- Washington Post freelancer and Boston Globe "frequent contributor" Suzanne Gordon in the May 27 Globe.

 

Little Subversive People


"There is no such thing as objective reporting...I've become even more crafty about finding the voices to say the things I think are true. That's my subversive mission."
- Boston Globe environmental reporter Dianne Dumanoski at an Utne Reader symposium May 17-20. Quoted by Micah Morrison in the July American Spectator.

"I do have an axe to grind...I want to be the little subversive person in television."
- Barbara Pyle, CNN Environmental Editor and Turner Broadcasting Vice President for Environmental Policy, quoted in the same Spectator story.

 

- L. Brent Bozell III; Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Callista Gould, Jim Heiser, Marian Kelley, Gerard Scimeca, Stewart Verdery; Media Analysts
- Kristin K. Bashore; Administrative Assistant