Notable Quotables - 09/26/1994

 

Just In from Mars

"I don't think the national press is hostile to Dan Quayle any more than it is to Bill Clinton or any other politician."
- Newsweek's Eleanor Clift on CNN's Crossfire, September 8.

 

White House Plane Crash: Blame Reagan, Tom Clancy

"And if you want to talk about who messed up the air traffic controllers, we could go back a couple of administrations."
- Time Washington reporter Elaine Shannon on the Fox Morning News, September 12.

"Some people are saying that this incident is eerily reminiscent of a novel by Tom Clancy called Debt of Honor. Do you see any similarities and do you think this book might have played a role in the whole affair?"
- Today co-host Katie Couric to terrorism expert Neil Livingstone, September 13.

 

USAir Plane Crash: Deregulation's Fault

"The crash has raised deeper questions, whether flying anything is safe on today's deregulated airlines, especially one as financially strapped as USAir...Many continue to think that safety and much else was compromised by deregulation, and by the savage cost-cutting that's gone on in the airline industry in the 16 years since."
- ABC reporter Jack Smith on This Week with David Brinkley, September 11.

 

Jack Smith: Fudging Facts to Fit the Story

"Stocks had their best performance in months this week, on news of sustained growth with negligible inflation, and the job picture is good as well. But does the President get credit? No."
- ABC reporter Jack Smith, August 28 This Week with David Brinkley.

vs.

"The recovery of the 1990s does not seem to be translating into better living standards. Wages are generally flat, job creation last month slowed, and the new jobs are often low-pay, dead-end service jobs, roughly one-fifth of them with temporary agencies."
- Jack Smith, same show, one week later.

 

Summer Vacations, But You Couldn't Leave the Country

"Summer vacations, once as customary for workers in Eastern Europe as the annual May Day parade, have become an anachronism for people of everyday means under the new - and abruptly less obliging - rules of the free market."
- Los Angeles Times staff writer Dean E. Murphy, August 26.

 

Moderate Mitchell

"Sen. Mitchell and other moderates said they have narrowed their differences on health care legislation and vowed to press ahead with efforts to pass a bill this year."
- September 15 Wall Street Journal front page news summary on Mitchell (1992 American Conservative Union rating: 0; American for Democratic Action: 95 percent).

Russert's World: Socialists or Neanderthals

"Bryant, a Democrat can get insurance reform. It will take a Republican President to get universal coverage to prove that it's not a Neanderthal party ten years from now." - NBC News Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert on Today, September 7.

 

Cairo's Aftermath: A New Morality?

"The motto of the conference might have been `Our Bodies, Ourselves,' the title of a book and a rallying cry for American feminism a quarter of a century ago. It's a simple notion: what happens to a woman should be her decision and entirely within her control. And it's a good American ideal - that all individuals have rights...In the last 30 years, the world has come a long way both in trying to stabilize its population and in easing the position of women. It would be a tragedy if Cairo were to hand the initiative to those who were interested in neither."
- Newsweek's Michael Elliott and Christopher Dickey, September 12.

"If, after all, the essence of morality is respect for each life, and if, furthermore, all future life is threatened by rampant reproduction, then what could be more moral that teaching teenagers that homosexuality is a viable lifestyle? Or that masturbation is harmless and normal? Or that petting, under most circumstances, makes far more sense than begetting? The only ethic that can work in an overcrowded world is one that insists that women are free, children are loved, and sex - preferably among affectionate and consenting adults - belongs squarely in the realm of play."
- Time essayist Barbara Ehrenreich, September 26.

 

Joycelyn and the Pope: Perfect Together

"[Rep. Vic] Fazio and [Surgeon General Joycelyn] Elders have, in fact, been very critical of [Ralph] Reed's organization in recent months, but not of Catholics, a traditional and pivotal constituency of the Democratic Party."
- Cox News Service reporter Scott Shepard on the Christian Coalition conference, September 16.

Reality Check:
"The comment came during a clip in a televised interview with Elders that appeared July 13. In that news clip, she is shown saying 'Look who's fighting the pro-choice movement, a celibate, male-dominated church.'"
- Religious News Service dispatch published in The Phoenix Gazette, September 4.

 

Hillary vs. Sexist America

"She and her staff would be the first to admit that her role in health care wasn't perfect, that she made mistakes. I think the amount of hatred and criticism of her should make everyone in this country question our attitudes toward women and whether they've changed very much."
- ABC News White House producer Mark Halperin on C-SPAN's Sunday Journal, September 11.

 

Truth in Public Broadcasting

NPR anchor Linda Wertheimer: "Your tax dollars are not going to fund it. National Public Radio is funded by dues from member stations."
Caller: "It's not entirely funded by private donations. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds National Public Radio."
Wertheimer: "...No it doesn't. Which of us works there? I do. No it doesn't."
- Exchange from C-SPAN's Journalists Roundtable, September 9.

vs.

"About those 'dues from member stations,' to which Ms. Wertheimer referred: According to the 1993 audit, NPR received $28,147,648 in such dues - the money local public radio stations pay for NPR services. But where do the stations get the money for dues? Well, some of it, 16 percent on average comes from none other than CPB. A portion of that money is actually earmarked for national programming like NPR's."
- Washington Times editorial, September 21.

 

Appreciating Other Cultures

"Haiti, to those who didn't grow up here, is frequently a place where a sort of spooky feeling seeps in, land of voodoo drums and mangoes, so it's a little easier to perform a kind of psychological warfare, which apparently is what's been happening tonight."
- Dan Rather live from Haiti, September 15 Eye to Eye with Connie Chung.

 

Publisher: L. Brent Bozell III
Editors: Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham
Media Analysts: James Forbes, Andrew Gabron,
Mark Honig, Steve Kaminski, Gesele Rey, Clay Waters
Circulation Manager: Kathleen Ruff