Notable Quotables - 07/23/1990
Oh No, Wall Street Sets A Record
Reporter Mark Phillips:
"A record-setting day on Wall Street. Today, the Dow Jones average
reached an all-time high....the economic signs are not good. Consumer spending
has been down for three months in a row, the first time that's happened since
the recession of the early '80s."
Gary Shilling,
Economist: "It's very bad news for the economy, in that the Fed is
finally admitting what some of us have thought for some time, and that is that
the economy is already in a recession."
- Lead story on the CBS Evening News, July 12.
Admitting Abortion Bias
"I think that when
abortion opponents complain about a bias in newsrooms against their cause,
they're absolutely right."
- Boston Globe legal reporter Ethan Bronner in Los Angeles Times
reporter David Shaw's series on abortion coverage, July 1.
"I do believe that
some of the stories I have read or seen have almost seemed like cheerleading
for the pro-choice side."
- NBC News reporter Lisa Myers, same story, same day.
"Opposing abortion,
in the eyes of most journalists...is not a legitimate, civilized position in
our society."
- Bronner in the July 2 Los Angeles Times.
"There have been
times when I have felt that pro-choice organizations have easier access, that
their...spin gets somewhat greater credibility than the spin from the pro-life
community and that it sometimes does affect the sensibilities of
coverage."
- Washington Post reporter Dan Balz, July 3 Times.
What Was That, Ray?
"It used to be that
the United States was number one, dominant....So right now, we are fast losing
our position as number one, Connie....Yes, we're no longer dominant, we're no
longer the number one nation, Connie...so we are no longer that number one,
dominant nation. That's the big change here now."
- CBS economics reporter Ray Brady on the Evening News, July 8.
Everybody for New Taxes
"The hottest new
proposal was a broad-based tax on sources of energy - gasoline, oil, natural
gas, and nuclear power. In all, it would raise about $20 billion. Everybody
seemed to agree it was a good idea except, of course, the transportation
lobby."
- Unbylined box in Newsweek, July 16.
"Bush should never
have voiced his pledge, he should have never made it the focus of his
campaign, and he should have backed off from it long before he did. But in
budget deliberations, as in other walks of life, better late than never."
- Time Senior Writer George Church, July 9.
"All the hard work
remains to be done, but anything that makes John Sununu squirm is by
definition progress."
- Boston Globe columnist and reporter Tom Oliphant on Sununu losing
argument against taxes, June 29.
Disastrous Tax Cuts
"Darman has a
reputation in Congress as something of a glib trickster: after all, he helped
design the Reagan tax cuts that created the present problems."
- Newsweek Washington reporter Larry Martz, July 9.
Missing Malaise
"TV provided the
surrogate parenting, and Ronald Reagan starred as the real life Mister Rogers,
dispensing reassurance during their troubled adolescence. Reagan's message:
problems can be shelved until later. A prime characteristic of today's young
adults is their desire to avoid risk, pain, and rapid change."
- Reporters David M. Gross and Sophfronia Scott on the
"twentysomething" generation, July 16 Time.
"More than a decade
after President Jimmy Carter warned of a crisis in the spirit of America - a
warning that proved politically disastrous for the President and a boon to his
rival, Ronald Reagan - a broad spectrum of the nation's social and
intellectual leadership is coming to the conclusion that Carter was
right."
- Beginning of Boston Globe "news" story by reporter
Charles A. Radin, July 2.
Don't Boo the New George Washington
"Boo of the summer
to the Miami officials who refused to greet Nelson Mandela because of his
opinions about Castro, Arafat, et. al. One thing should have nothing to do
with the other. Mandela is a genuine hero in an age without many, and he
deserved recognition as such. Politics in Miami has always been weird
anyhow."
- CNN and Mutual Broadcasting talk show host Larry King in his USA Today
column, July 9.
"Mandela leaves as
a principled man, with all but the dullards understanding why he would embrace
the Palestinians, whose children are being killed and family homes bulldozed
in Israel just as black families' are in Soweto....Moreover, if Mandela is a
terrorist - as conservatives have called him - he would fit right in with
U.S. patriots such as George Washington, Patrick Henry, Nat Turner, and
Harriet Tubman. If it had not been for those terrorists, what would we have to
wave our flags about on the Fourth of July?"
- USA Today Inquiry Editor Barbara Reynolds, June 29.
Ann Compton, Consult Your Atlas
"But that is a
political fact of life for Germany, which is working now on reunification, and
sits right on the Soviet border, and today will lead the effort to try to get
more help for Gorbachev."
- ABC White House reporter Ann Compton on Good Morning America, July
10.
Thin Skins
"When I was at NBC
News, I tried to start a weekly letters-to-the-editors feature, videotaping
members of the public who were critical of our reporting or who wanted to
correct particular stories. Our star anchors and producers were unalterably
opposed to airing such criticism on our own network. They could dish it out,
but when it came to receiving criticism, their jaws were made of glass. The
weekly letters-to-NBC feature somehow usually ended up on the cutting-room
floor."
- Former NBC News President Lawrence K. Grossman in the July/August Columbia
Journalism Review.
Money for Gorby
"But as Bush and
the other Western leaders are well aware, the U.S. alone spends an estimated
$177 billion a year on NATO and the defense of Western Europe. One way to
reduce that monstrous outlay and reap a peace dividend may be to invest a
modest portion of it in the Soviet leader and the perestroika that ended the
cold war. Even the simple offer of Western aid may strengthen Gorbachev's
position; it would demonstrate that his international friends can deliver, and
it would lessen his people's fears about weathering the hard course he has set
for his country."
- Senior Writer George Church in the July 16 Time.
Ralph Nader the Great
"But the great
activist doesn't just bemoan the current state of affairs. He offers excellent
suggestions for consumers and citizens to fight the power with lawsuits and
group action."
- USA Today magazine writer Deirdre Donahue
recommending Nader's new column in the far-left magazine Mother Jones,
June 21.
- 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
