Notable Quotables - 07/19/1993
Free in France
"Here in France,
they have created a child care system that would amaze most Americans. Every
child in this country, from the richest family down to the poorest, gets a
chance at the same high standard of day care, preschool, and health care. Not
only is it free, or at low cost to everyone, but the quality is better than
what most youngsters get in the United States....Next fall, Benjamin will be
able to leave the [government nursery] and move on to the next stage of the
French government's child care system, the cole maternelle, or preschool,
which is totally free....There's one in virtually every neighborhood in the
country, and almost every single three-to five-year-old French child goes all
day - for free."
- CBS reporter Harold Dow on Street Stories, July 2.
PBS on the Reagan Years
"Thanks to a cartoon character called Col. Oliver North, scandal hit Ronald Reagan, too, but it didn't hurt him either. Though North obligingly took the fall, many said that Reagan was the true culprit because he must have known. But they were the same people who had already made Reagan famous for not knowing anything. They couldn't have it both ways. So all Reagan had to do was look as vague as usual and he was invulnerable....
"But there was only
one phrase for the way the two famous men [Reagan and Gorbachev] got on: they
got on famously. Incredulous observers said that although their double act
looked like Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, the real comparison was with Francis
and his talking mule. The sophisticated world laughed when the suave Gorbachev
and the bumbling Reagan met at Reykjavik. "
- BBC journalist Clive James narrating his PBS series Fame in the 20th
Century, July 10.
Concerned & Unconcerned About Taxes
Tax Plan worries
Lieberman 'Real people' advise
senator
- Washington Times, July 12
Beyond the Beltway,
Clinton Tax Plan Not a Hot Topic for Some Constituents
- Washington Post, same day
Schneider's Shock Over the Clinton Plan
"A lot of Americans
do not believe this program's going to work. A majority say it's not going to
improve the economy even if it passes. But even more people, 55 percent, don't
believe that this economic plan is going to reduce the deficit. Now that's a
surprise because that's the one thing it's almost certain to do."
- CNN analyst William Schneider on Inside Politics, July 1.
Lottery Hypocrites
"A lot of people
who shudder at the prospect of higher gasoline taxes gladly plunk down many
times the amount that would cost on lottery tickets, the budget deficit be
damned."
- CNN reporter Gene Randall, July 6 World News.
The Post's Cabinet
"For more than a
decade, many domestic Cabinet posts have served as dumping grounds for
slackbrained political buddies or party faithful. While Clinton too feels the
pull of patronage, he may simply have smarter friends."
- Washington Post "Outlook" section editor Katherine Boo,
June 20.
We Should All Be Dead
"Down in the polls,
looking wimpish? Bombing a Third World country always helps....In a civilized
world, Clinton wouldn't be cheered. He trampled on international law by
killing more Iraqi innocents, a crime we've grown accustomed to....The USA in
its bombing raids on Grenada, Panama, and Iraq, and its refusal to obey
international law to give Haitian refugees a hearing before returning them,
often to impending doom, shows what outlaws we have become....If death plots
on foreign leaders were justification for bombing raids and killing civilians,
most U.S. citizens would be dead right now."
- USA Today columnist and former Inquiry page editor Barbara
Reynolds, July 2.
USA Today on the 1980s
"Henry Kravis had
to do the deal, both friends and foes say. The legendary dealmaker wasn't
about to let anyone else mastermind the takeover that came to symbolize the
greed-is-good decade of the 1980s."
- USA Today reporters Beth Belton and Del Jones, July 6.
"A jealous guardian
of his power, Byrd is struggling to reverse a decade-long pattern of
scaled-back spending for education, infrastructure and other domestic
priorities."
- USA Today's Leslie Phillips, June 21.
Another Buchanan Fan
"I think he's a
jerk and his politics are repugnant."
- WWRC Radio Program Director and former NBC Radio reporter Peter Laufer on
Pat Buchanan, July 5 Washington Times.
Chancellor: Media Reviews vs. Reality
John Chancellor, Giving
The Voice of Reason a Rest
- Washington Post, June 29
"His [final]
commentary, scheduled for broadcast tonight....was like the other commentaries
in his 10 years as the network's resident pundit: 90 seconds of clarity and
conciseness."
- Former Boston Globe editorial page editor and Washington reporter
Martin F. Nolan in a July 8 front page tribute.
vs.
"The overall tax
burden for Americans, federal, state, and local, is actually quite low....The
fact is Americans could pay more taxes and the country wouldn't go down the
tube. Taxpayers don't believe this because they are being conned by the
politicians... The truth is that the United States needs higher taxes and can
afford them. Some political leaders are now starting to say that, but until
more say it, the country will remain in trouble."
- Chancellor commentary, April 17 1990 NBC Nightly News.
"It's short of
soap, so there are lice in hospitals. It's short of pantyhose, so women's legs
go bare. It's short snowsuits, so babies stay home in winter....The problem
isn't communism; nobody even talked about communism this week. The problem is
shortages."
- Chancellor on the Soviet Union, August 21, 1991.
"Greenpeace, the
public interest organization, believes that the Iraqi death toll, civilian and
military, before and after the war, may be as high as 198,000. Allied military
dead are counted in the low hundreds. The disparity is huge and somewhat
embarrassing. And that's commentary for this evening, Tom."
- Chancellor, March 12, 1992.
Flood Ratherism
"The Mighty
Mississippi. There isn't a dry `i' in the word. It means big river. And the
river is growing bigger by the minute."
- Dan Rather reporting live from the flood, July 12 CBS Evening News.
- L. Brent Bozell III;
Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Andrew Gabron, Kristin Johnson, Steve Kaminski, Mark Rogers, Bill Thompson;
Media Analysts
- Kathleen Ruff, Circulation Manager;
- David Felton, David Muska, Robert Vane; Interns
