Notable Quotables - 10/25/1993
New Jersey: Florio Right on Taxes
"Many voters across
the country no longer believe it when they are told taxes will go down.
Furthermore, taxpayers, say some analysts, have come to accept they have to
pay for government that works."
- ABC reporter Jim Hickey on the New Jersey Governor's race, October 7 World
News Tonight.
New York City: About White Fear
"The election is
about homelessness and crime and the problems America's big cities all face.
But it is also about something else, race and fear. White fear, inspired by a
middle-class, soft-spoken mayor....This is, again, not an election about
political parties, but about white fear."
- Former CBS reporter and new CNN reporter Bruce Morton, October 15 World
News.
Insincere Anti-Black Conservatives
"And how sincere is
the Christian right's play for black support? Two major figures featured in
the video - Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott and former Attorney General Edwin
Meese - have pursued policies unfriendly to blacks. Lott opposed the Civil
Rights Act of 1990 and, as a Congressman in 1981, tried to reverse the ban on
tax exemptions for segregated schools. Meese led the Reagan administration's
war on affirmative action. With spokesmen like that, Gay Rights, Special
Rights looks more like a cynical appeal to black homophobia than a principled
defense of black civil rights."
- Newsweek reporter Farai Chideya, October 18.
Well Treated While Dragged Through the Streets
U.S. Captive Says He's Well Treated Somalis Provide Daily Medical Care
- Washington Post, October 9
US Captive tells of
being dragged through streets
- Boston Globe, same day
Bright Note: Hume Takes on Colleagues
"In fact, the
economy was growing throughout 1992, not very much, but it was growing. And
the portrayals of it in the media during that year were at times ridiculous
and I think to a great extent inaccurate. And it was kind of a dark chapter in
the recent history of the American media."
- ABC White House reporter Brit Hume, October 15 C-SPAN Journalists'
Roundtable.
A Reporter Blames the Messenger
Sometimes I think
the reports of liberal bias are a bit exaggerated. But you can subscribe to
newsletters that tell you there's liberal bias and another newsletter will
tell you there's conservative bias. What you realize is that those people
aren't really interested in media criticism. What they're doing, often, is
just ax-grinding for a political view in the guise of media criticism, getting
it through customs as criticizing the media."
- Newsweek media writer Jonathan Alter on CNBC's Tom Snyder, October
6.
Couldn't Be As Bad As Reagan or Bush
"You said recently
that there had been a bipartisan retreat on race. Surely you are not
suggesting that when it comes to civil rights, Bill Clinton is no different
than George Bush or Ronald Reagan."
- NBC reporter Lisa Myers to Jesse Jackson, October 17 Meet the Press.
Newt's Not Constructive
"Bob Michel is a
great guy but his time was up. He was a moderate, and it's the unmoderates who
control the House Republicans, that is, the Newt Gingriches of the world, the
firebomb throwers: burn this village in order to save it, destroy the House in
order to try to elect Republicans, have term limitations....Bomb throwers
don't believe in civility, bomb throwers believe in throwing bombs...opposing
every principle of the other party simply for partisan opposition."
- Sam Donaldson on This Week with David Brinkley, October 10.
"With the end of
Bob Michel, what you really see is the end of civility in the House of
Representatives in a very important way and that's what he represented and
it's a sad day to see him go."
- ABC News reporter Cokie Roberts, same show.
"What is over is a
generation and an attitude of members of Congress who had a love and a respect
for the institution of Congress. In the freshmen, there's no institutional
memory. In people such as Mr. Gingrich there is more desire just to confront
for the sake of confrontation than there is to achieve something. And I think
that's destructive of the House."
- Copley News Service White House reporter George Condon on C-SPAN's Journalists'
Roundtable, October 8.
In A Setback for Stupid People...
"In a setback for
consumers, the Agriculture Department backed off its order that all raw meat
carry safety labels beginning next Friday. The labels, which tell you how to
handle and cook the meat, will be required only for chopped and ground meat.
The food industry will have six more months to put the labels on all other raw
meat."
- Connie Chung anchoring the CBS Evening News, October 8.
Still Ahistorical on Russia
"The world watched
in horror and fascination this week while Moscow went through its worst
violence since the Russian revolution 76 years ago."
- CBS This Morning co-host Paula Zahn, October 8.
"Instruments of
war, now children's toys. Russia's military hardware sits benignly in a Moscow
residential neighborhood, just one week after the bloodiest revolt since the
Bolshevik revolution."
- CNN reporter Siobhan Darrow, October 10 World News.
Hillary, Mesmerizing Passionate Citizen
"Perhaps the most
startling thing about Hillary Clinton's performance last week on Capitol Hill
was the silent but devastating rebuke it sent to her cartoonists. This was not
the Hillary as overbearing wife, the Hillary as left-wing ideologue, or even
the Hillary as mushy-headed spiritual adviser to the nation. This was Hillary
the polite but passionate American citizen - strangely mesmerizing because of
how she matched the poise and politics of her delivery with the power of her
position. No wonder some of Washington's most acid tongues and pens took the
week off."
- Time reporters James Carney, Michael Duffy, and Julie Johnson,
October 11.
Small Shoes for Brian Williams to Fill
"NBC anchorman John
Chancellor in 1976 showed a clip of Carter acknowledging that he was `born
again,' then added in all seriousness, `By the way, we've checked this out.
Being born again is not a bizarre, mountaintop experience. It's something
common to millions of Americans - particularly if you're Baptist'....[Former
UPI reporter] Wesley Pippert related that 10 years later, when the story was
recalled during a panel discussion celebrating Harvard's 350th anniversary,
Chancellor chuckled about his naivete. Later during the panel, theologian
Harvey Cox used the term `liberation theology.' Pippert said that Chancellor
leaned over and asked in an audacious whisper `What's liberation
theology?'"
- From John Dart and Jimmy Allen's Freedom Forum report Bridging the Gap:
Religion and the News Media.
- L. Brent Bozell III;
Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham, Editors
- Andrew Gabron, Mark Honig, Kristin Johnson, Steve Kaminski, Mark Rogers;
Media Analysts
- Kathleen Ruff, Circulation Manager; David Muska, Clay Waters; Interns
