THE BEST NOTABLE QUOTABLES OF 1997
The Tenth Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting
Welcome to the Media Research Center's annual awards issue, a
compilation of the most outrageous and/or humorous news media
quotes from 1997. To determine this year's winners, a panel of 58
talk show hosts, magazine editors, columnists, editorial writers
and media observers each selected their choices for the first,
second and third best quote from six to eight quotes in each
category. First place selections were awarded three points,
second place choices two points, with one point for the third
place selections. Point totals are listed in the brackets at the
end of the attribution for each quote.
A list of the judges appears on the back page. (This issue covers
quotes from late 1996 through Nov. 1997.)
The first quote under each award heading is the winner, followed
in order by the top runners-up.
Clinton Camelot Award (for Creating a Clinton-Gore Mythology)
"His sturdy jaw precedes him. He smiles from sea to shining
sea. Is this President a candidate for Mt. Rushmore or what?...In
fact, when it comes to influencing the public, a single medley of
expressions from Clinton may be worth much more, to much of
America, than every ugly accusation Paula Jones can muster."
--Los Angeles Times television writer Howard Rosenberg reviewing
Clinton's Inaugural address, Jan. 22. [112 points]
Runners-up:
"Still their shared needs and mutual admiration cover an
essential difference between the two men. Both think deep
thoughts about saving the world, but they approach the task quite
differently. Clinton is often roundabout, if not waffling. Gore
is a plunger who thinks and acts in a straight line. Because Gore
has been a reserved politician, his sometimes messianic zeal has
been overlooked. The Vice President has written that his call to
save the environment began with the shock of a near-fatal car
accident to his son, Albert III. Characteristically, Gore felt it
wasn't enough to save one child; he wanted to save all the
world's children. By the same token, he has said privately that
his absorption with arms control in the 1980s began with dreams
that he could not rescue his family from nuclear war."
--Newsweek's Evan Thomas, January 27. [74]
"Gore's commitment to the world of big ideas is no pose. Unlike
John F. Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson, who became darlings of the
highbrow set without fully earning the honor, Gore is truly
engaged in the life of the mind...Had the younger Gore not become
a Congressman at 28, a Senator at 36, and Vice President at 44,
he might have become the sort of essayist who aspires to
membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters."
--U.S.News Senior Writer Timothy Noah, January 27 issue. [57]
"As he begins his second term you may lament that President
Clinton leaves little eloquence. But in an age of focus groups
and consultants saying, 'Keep it short. Don't take sides,' few
politicians do. He faces personal charges about his conduct in a
motel bedroom. And ethical allegations about opening the Lincoln
bedroom to the highest contributor. But you come back to the fact
that if Bill Clinton isn't always trusted he has twice been
entrusted by the largest responsibility we have to bestow by
voters who can have few illusions. Instead they seem to trust
that as President Clinton displays his own excesses and frailties
he forgives and accepts ours, too."
--NPR weekend anchor Scott Simon, January 19 NBC Today. [47]
The Harold Ickes "System Made Me Do It" Award
"In fact, Senator Specter, as Senator Torricelli mentioned, two
votes have left campaign finance reform legislation pretty much
DOA. Do you think that prompts the American people to wonder
about the sincerity of Congress to really enact change and
suspect that perhaps this is an intentional effort to embarrass
the Democratic Party?"
"But it's so ridiculous, you know people watching this just think
that reform is necessary. They can't understand why you guys
can't get your acts together!"
--Katie Couric to Senator Arlen Specter, Oct. 8 Today. [77]
Runners-up:
"We begin tonight with stalemate in the Senate. The majority
thwarted. Politics prevails. Campaign finance reform, which the
public wants, dead as a doornail, all of the above. After many
months of talking about it, the first real effort to reform how
campaigns for federal office are financed, the push to get some
of the big money out of election campaigns has gone nowhere."
--ABC's Peter Jennings, October 7. [56]
"Your hearings clearly reinforced the public's already low
opinion of politicians and politics. Beyond that, what did it
accomplish?....At the same time you were criticizing the misdeeds
of the Clinton administration, leaders of your own party were
opposing changes in the law to outlaw these huge contributions
that helped create this scandal. Do you think that undercut your
credibility with the public?"
--Questions from NBC's Lisa Myers to Senator Fred Thompson, November 7 Today. [54]
"At times it will seem as if an individual, or a presidential
campaign, or a political party is being investigated. That's only
partly true. What's really in the dock beginning today isn't any
politician but the system that politicians built. What's
important beginning today isn't what one party can show about the
other, but what the campaign-finance system shows about our
political system....The hearings that begin this morning aren't
really about John Huang and Charlie Trie or Abraham Lincoln's
bedroom but about the political loophole unregulated
'soft-money' contributions to the parties, not to the candidates
that makes them important. Soft money exploded in 1996..."
--Boston Globe Washington Bureau Chief David Shribman, July 8 "news analysis." [50]
Lanny Davis No Controlling Legal Authority Award (for Clinton Scandal Denial)
"So a couple of White House aides helped Webster Hubbell find
work, and he did find work, some of it with Democratic donors. It
may not look good, but is there any proof anything was done
wrong?...All right, similar kind of question about Jorge Cabrera,
a convicted drug smuggler who gave $20,000 to the DNC,wound up at
a fancy dinner with Al Gore, wound up at a White House Christmas
party with Hillary Clinton. But they gave the money back when
they found out about his background. It may not look good, but is
there any proof that anything was done wrong?"
--NBC weekend Today co-host Jodi Applegate to Tim Russert, April 19. [59 points]
Runners-up:
"President Nixon was investigated for obstruction of justice.
President Reagan was investigated for not telling investigators
what he knew of the Iran-Contra scandal. President Clinton is
being investigated for making telephone calls from the wrong room
in the White House."
--New York Times Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Adam Clymer opening Oct. 15 analysis of Janet Reno's decision to further probe Clinton's calls. [54]
"All right. So what if we made this case OK, he's pretty
tough with fundraising. But there's no proof that the Chinese had
any in, except they gave money. He did a bad deal for you. And he
has turned on his friends maybe a little. But nobody made big
money in Whitewater. It was years ago. He was in Arkansas. He's a
good President. I am happy. No boy is dying overseas. Country
seems to be coming around. Supreme Court is pretty good. Are you
better off than you were four years ago? Yes. What I if I made
that case?"
--Larry King to Jim McDougal, April 21 CNN Larry King Live. [52]
"What we've done is, we've got a face on a corrupt system and
we're doubting the probity who would ever have thought that
you would doubt the probity of Vice President Al Gore and three
nuns? So it seems to me you've got to look at the system when the
system is corrupting people that you would not otherwise think."
--Time columnist Margaret Carlson on CNN's Capital Gang, September 6. [51]
Evil Elephant Empire Award (for Bashing Congressional Republicans)
"In fact, the Speaker will forever remain his own caricature
a Dennis the Menace meets Darth Vader kind of guy. A fellow who,
for instance, wants to give all children in America laptops but
take
away their free school lunches."
--U.S. News & World Report Assistant Managing Editor Gloria Borger, April 7. [71 points]
Runners-up:
ABC reporter John Cochran: "Flood victims in Grand Forks do not
understand why Republican leaders refuse to pass an aid bill
without strings attached."
A flood victim: "The river took our home, our possessions, our
neighbors, our neighborhood and we still have our spirit. But the
government is taking our spirit and our strength. And that's
what's going to kill us."
Cochran: "Doug Sprehe is a life-long conservative Republican."
Doug Sprehe: "I believed in these guys and I voted for some of
them and I'm beginning to lose my faith in the conservative
party."
Cochran: "...People whose homes and businesses were destroyed say
GOP leaders should realize that what they really need is money to
rebuild."
--ABC's World News Tonight, June 6. [68]
"But there's another reason why all but nine of the 225 House
Republicans backed Gingrich: deep reservations about the man next
in line, the hard-right majority leader, Dick Armey. Just as Dan
Quayle's lack of gravitas led many Republicans to pray for the
health of George Bush, Armey's ideological stubbornness and
hot-headed rhetoric inspire in his colleagues protective optimism
about Gingrich....In a House brimming with mean-spirited
rhetoric, Armey stands out."
--U.S. News & World Report Senior Writers Kent Jenkins Jr. and Paul Glastris, January 20 issue. [62]
"It'll be interesting when he sits down with Jiang Zemin, the
President of China, and starts lecturing him about the rule of
law though, I think. I'd like to be a fly on the wall in that
session."
--New York Times columnist and former reporter Thomas Friedman disdaining Gingrich, March 21 PBS Washington Week in Review. [44]
Che Guevara Award (for Nostalgia for Communism)
"I thought that we Americans overreacted to the Soviets and the
news coverage sometimes seemed to accentuate that misdirected
concern. Fear of the Soviet Union taking over the world just
seemed as likely to me as invaders from Mars. Well, perhaps I was
naive, but I'd seen those May Day parades and Soviet bread lines
and miserable conditions hidden behind them. That war-devastated
country didn't seem that threatening to me...The nuclear arms
race was on in earnest. All the anti-Soviet paranoia that had
been festering since the war really blew up then. A Soviet bomb
was seen as an assault on us. But I saw it as part of their
pursuit of nuclear equality. After all, what should we expect,
that our enemy's just going to sit still there and not try to
develop the bomb?"
--Walter Cronkite on the year 1948 in Part 3 of the Discovery Channel's Cronkite Remembers, January 16. [64 points]
Runners-up:
"Open societies, it turns out, haven't been as generous as
socialism and communism to women who want to serve in public
office. From Albania to Yemen, the number of women in power
plummeted after the transition from socialist governments, which
sought to develop female as well as male proletariats. As those
governments died, so went the socialist ideals of equality and
the subsidies for social programs that aided women. In many
countries, traditional patriarchal cultures resurfaced."
--Los Angeles Times correspondent Robin Wright, October 2 Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed. [61]
"Under Cuba's communist form of government, a Cuban family's
basic necessities, housing, education, health care, and
transportation, are provided by the state for free or at very
little cost."
--CBS This Morning co-host Jane Robelot, March 24. [57]
"An editor's note: When your reporter was in China recently, a
very high ranking Chinese government official was repeatedly
asked questions about religious persecution. He told me, and I
quote directly, 'These stories are untrue. We do, as you do, have
some trouble with cults and we, like you, deal with them
accordingly, but that's all.' End quote."
--CBS News anchor Dan Rather after a story on persecution of Christians in China, July 22 Evening News. [52]
John Glenn Award (for Ensuring the Hearings Got Lost in Space)
"John Huang isn't the poster boy for what ails money and
politics Steve Forbes is...Forbes represents the purest, most
offensive challenge to the idea that money should equal
speech...Must we really accept a doctrine that lets a vain twit
pour Daddy's millions into so much flat tax propaganda that it
lands him on the cover of Time and Newsweek and influences the
national agenda? Forbes has been encouraged by what money can buy
and won't go away. If anything's sinister about campaign finance
nowadays, it's this..."
"Thus the key question: Is Steve Forbes constitutional? The court
might tell us that Forbes' fetishes are among those ugly things
we have to tolerate in a free society. In any event, this is the
kind of conversation that might begin to fix our campaigns, not
witch hunts for red perils that don't exist."
--U.S. News & World Report Senior Writer Matthew Miller in a July 17 op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer. [107 points]
Runners-up:
"The UFO comparison is apt in his case. He is considered flaky
and a bit of a crackpot, even though a nice guy. Some crackpots
are nice."
--Time columnist Margaret Carlson on House Government
Operations Committee Chairman Dan Burton, referring to Hillary
Clinton's comment that attention to Whitewater "reminds me of
some people's obsession with UFO's and the Hale-Bopp comet." Apr. 12 CNN Capital Gang. [48]
"President Clinton's best defense for any campaign fundraising
excesses or irregularities by Democrats appears to be that the
Republicans do it too. And even more."
--NBC's Jim Miklaszewski, Feb. 19 Today. [47]
Good Morning Morons Award
"Well, for centuries, I mean, Scandinavia has really been
known, all these countries, for their innovative and their
progressive social systems. But when it comes to protecting
women's rights and children's rights, Norway could really teach
most other countries a thing or two. They are the top priorities
here. Largely responsible for this, former Prime Minister Gro
Harlem Brundtland, and she is the first woman to hold that
post...
"She's been very instrumental in pioneering some of these
sweeping changes that have really greatly improved the quality of
life for women and for children in Norway. Nice to have you here.
I think most women, when they hear that, they just want to pack
up and come right over here. But these have been sweeping changes
that really have improved life here for women and children. Why
do you think it happened in such a short time?....And they also
have the lowest crime rate in the world. This is a very, very interesting country that we could learn a little bit from. Hopefully, we can get some of those programs instituted in America. Thank you for having us here."
--Good Morning America co-host Joan Lunden interviewing former Labour Party Prime Minister Brundtland during May 13 show from Norway. [94 points]
Runners-up:
"It is clear that day care in this country is inaccessible to
many, cost prohibitive for others, substandard in many
situations. What can the government actually do to alleviate some
of these problems?"
"As you know, Mrs. Clinton, regulations for at-home day care vary
so much from state to state in terms of the ratio of children to
day care provider, do you think there should be some kind of
overall federal regulations?"
--Today co-host Katie Couric to Hillary Rodham Clinton, October 23. [62]
"But in fairness, what is wrong with Newt Gingrich reaching out
to some other groups, extending himself? I mean, can't you catch
more flies with honey? Isn't there something about that? And
perhaps the rigidity of some of the conservative Republicans and
their almost religious adherence to the Contract with America,
didn't that ultimately backfire on them?"
--NBC's Katie Couric to Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), April 2 Today. [52]
Satan of the South Award (for Hating Jesse Helms)
Sam Donaldson: "I think Governor Weld has done this country a
service in a sense, even though I think that he's been shot down
in the ocean now, and that is by allowing the country to see
Senator Helms in action. Over the years I've run into him two or
three times at receptions here and he's the most gentlemanly,
courtly, friendly, pleasant individual you would ever hope to
meet. But, when you see him in action, you see beneath that
courtliness beats the heart of a dictator and I think the country
is appalled."
George Stephanopoulos: "Or a terrorist. The President is really,
I think made a mistake because he's been negotiating with a
terrorist here."
--Exchange on ABC's This Week, September 14. [106 points]
Runners-up:
James Warren, Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau Chief: "I also
find interesting this revisionism about Senator Helms. We've sort
of turned his dogmatism and bigotry into now, the iron-willed
principle of a man of the right."
Mona Charen: "What bigotry?"
Warren: "Oh, his gay-baiting, his union-bashing. His hatred of
any fundings for the arts. His isolationism."
--Exchange on August 3 edition of CNN's Capital Gang. [68]
"He had deep roots in the conservative traditions of the Old
South. In his campaigns, Helms had been known to exploit the race
issue for political advantage, which is exactly how slave owners
and conservatives used to dominate Southern politics."
--CNN's William Schneider in the Los Angeles Times, August 10. [64]
Bryant Gumbel Journalism Fellowship Award (for Liberal Advocacy)
"[Food] stamps, a blessing, allowed them [able-bodied adults
without children] to purchase about $25 worth of food a week.
They would not be able to eat like a President or member of
Congress, but they could have some soup, maybe a little pasta,
some tuna, some beans. They wouldn't starve, and they would have
enough energy to continue looking for a job...After 90 days, the
following notice is to be disseminated: Put down that soup spoon,
poor person, the Clinton administration and the Republican-led
Congress are clearing the table."
--New York Times columnist (and former NBC reporter) Bob Herbert, February 21. [99 points]
Runners-up:
"Governor Shaheen, you've said that you want kindergarten
available for every child in your state. And you're proposing to
finance it with higher cigarette taxes and more gambling in the
state. I guess you have to do that because you've locked yourself
away from calling for any sales tax or income tax in New
Hampshire. Are the kids not worth having a sales tax or an income
tax?"
--Washington Post reporter David Broder to New Hampshire
Democratic Governor Jeanne Shaheen, February 2 Meet the Press.
[76]
"Republicans got their tax cuts for families and investors and
some savings in domestic programs. But they dropped the plans
they had in 1995 and 1996 for crippling Medicare and Medicaid,
abolishing government departments and agencies, expanding the
military, and relaxing environmental protections."
--New York Times reporter David E. Rosenbaum, May 3 "news analysis" on the budget deal. [68]
The Paul Wellstone Award (for Championing Welfare Dependency)
"The most shameful act of '96 was welfare reform....welfare
reform became a political football in '96, an easy way to kick
around the poor and especially poor children and immigrants, even
legal immigrants. Bill Clinton thought the GOP had a hot issue,
so he closed his eyes and signed a bill that punishes children
and people who want to work, but can't find a job in a tough
market for entry level employment. This was a criminal act,
further dividing us as haves and have nots. It was shameful."
--Washington Post reporter Juan Williams on CNN's Capital Gang,
December 29, 1996. [94 points]
Runners-up:
"Like an ominous storm blown in from the East, the reality of
welfare reform has descended with relentless and unsparing force
on thousands of families like that of [Yvonne] Parris who begin
the new year today with less cash to live on and the prospect of
a welter of new rules aimed at restricting their access to
government aid....Many who are against the cuts argue that the
welfare overhaul does little to address the fundamental causes of
poverty, but is instead based on long-standing myths and
prejudices."
--Los Angeles Times reporters Carla Rivera and Hector Tobar in a front-page news story, January 1. [64]
"Are some current policies in Washington, however, exacerbating
the problem? For example, the new welfare reform bill is going to
put about a million kids on the street without a safety net
beneath them. We're also now pulling back from the benefits that
we've provided in the past to legal immigrants in this country
and it's putting a big burden on a lot of the states out there.
You come from an immigrant experience yourself. Do you think that
the welfare reform bill went too far in just those two areas?"
--Tom Brokaw to Colin Powell, April 27 Meet the Press broadcast
from the volunteer summit in Philadelphia. [52]
Damn Those Conservatives Award
"The right wing has lied repeatedly in an effort to move public
opinion on this issue....Lie No. 1: Conservatives care about
life. The renowned quipmeister, Rep. Barney Frank, Massachusetts
Democrat, once said, 'Conservatives' interest in life begins at
conception and ends at birth.' Truer words were never spoken. If
they did care about taking care of babies and protecting the
helpless, they would not be so driven to cut government programs
that help the poor, nor so concerned about paying a few dollars
less of their own money in taxes."
--NBC Radio/Westwood One reporter and PBS To the Contrary host Bonnie Erbe on pro-choice lies on partial-birth abortion in her syndicated column, March 29 Washington Times. [81 points]
Runners-up:
"You were raised, sir, in a subsidized housing project by a
single mother and yet you support welfare reform and oppose
affirmative action. How do you square those two sides?"
--Today's Ann Curry to Paul Harris, the first black Republican elected to the Virginia House of Delegates since 1891. [58]
Michael Barone, Reader's Digest: "I'm not as confident as Bill
Press that I know the inner workings of the mind of Paula Jones.
I don't feel that I do..."
Margaret Carlson, Time: "What mind?"
--CNBC's Equal Time, September 11. [55]
"The head of the Republican political lobbying group that calls
itself, quote, 'the Christian Coalition' said today he's leaving
to start a political consulting business. Ralph Reed's group took
a beating on some of its hard-right agenda in the last election."
--Dan Rather, April 23 CBS Evening News. [49]
Politics of Meaningless Award (for the Silliest Analysis)
"What if Watergate had elected McGovern?....The Cold War would
have ended in the '70s rather than in the '90s. McGovern, in his
campaign, debunked the threat and invincibility of the so-called
evil Soviet empire. Republican and Democratic Presidents preached
that myth for four decades, until the USSR self-destructed
....George McGovern. A man before his time. Prescient. Decisive,
but decent. The USA and the world would have been far better off
if we'd been heedful of his early Watergate warnings and had put
McGovern in the White House in 1972."
--USA Today founder Al Neuharth in his June 20 column. [78 points]
Runners-up:
"I said to somebody that if O.J. killed his first wife,
Marguerite [who is black], and her friend, then do I think George
Will and William F. Buckley would have written about it? No way.
Not on God's green earth. They wouldn't have even noticed."
--Bryant Gumbel in a Los Angeles Times Magazine profile, January 12 (Brackets theirs). [62]
Crime Keeps On Falling; but Prisons Keep On Filling
--September 28 New York Times headline over Week in Review
article [59]
"Overlaying this structure was a national politics heavily
conditioned by nearly half a century of cold war. Strength and
toughness trumped everything else. At one military briefing
during the 1980s, Reagan was shown models of American missiles.
The American power phalluses were long and white; the Soviets',
shorter and black. We were still safely ahead, but only by the
margin of our machismo."
--Newsweek's Jonathan Alter reviewing the 1996 political landscape, December 30, 1996/January 6, 1997 issue. [43]
Media Hero Award
"[I]n person, [Anita] Hill bears only passing resemblance to
her rather stern image from newspapers and television. At 41, she
is slender to the point of willowy. Her features are elegant, and
while she is intense while discussing her political
baptism-by-fire, she can also muster a warm smile and a hearty
laugh qualities that had little occasion to surface in the
nine hours that changed Hill's world. So, she was asked, does she
sometimes feel like the Joan of Arc of sexual harassment? Sure,
Hill replied, and here came the mirth the Senate never saw: 'I
refuse to die, though.'"
--Los Angeles Times reporter Elizabeth Mehren, October 1. [75 points]
Runners-up:
"[Mario] Cuomo was a rare combination: an intellectual and a
spellbinding orator. I would have bet that he could have won the
Democratic nomination and been elected to the presidency. He had
electrified the 1984 Democratic convention with his keynote
speech, and I never saw him fail to excite those who shared his
liberal vision of America's future. Despite the pollsters and
political operators' contrary opinions, I remain convinced that
the public was ready for a leader who could restore that vision
after the selfish eighties. I don't believe the public has
rejected liberalism; it simply has not heard a candidate
persuasively advocate its humane and deeply democratic
principles."
--Walter Cronkite in his book A Reporter's Life. [60]
"Justice William Brennan led the Supreme Court on a quiet
revolution that expanded individual rights and press freedoms to
an extent found nowhere else in the world...Brennan saw his
influence wane as justices appointed by Presidents Reagan and
Bush cut back the court's role as active protector of individual
rights."
--USA Today reporters Tony Mauro and Mimi Hall, July 25. [50]
If The Bias Fits We Won't Admit Award
"I don't think voting for Clinton makes you a liberal. I mean,
Bill Clinton isn't even a liberal, and second, if you're liberal,
does that mean you can't be fair? What hypocrisy that we sit
around and talk about the press like it's some sort of 'they.'
It's us. Are we too liberal? N-o....The bias is in favor of bad
news and you go after whoever is in power, and the name of the
game is kill the king, which is why Bill Clinton does not get a
free ride."
--Newsweek's Eleanor Clift on The McLaughlin Group, July 5. [79 points]
Runners-up:
"Although the experience and independence of Tom Brokaw, Peter
Jennings, Dan Rather, and Ted Koppel would give their opinions a
lot more weight than those of any politician, they still observe
the disciplines of their craft. Their on-air analyses plumb the
views and prejudices of others without parading their own."
--Former New York Times Executive Editor Max Frankel deploring
ABC's hiring of George Stephanopoulos, January 19 New York Times Magazine. [65]
"Scholar after scholar has disputed, in studying the actual
content of the press, what you've just blithely handed out that
it's this left-wing media. That's a charge from the '50s. That's
not the current press. Tom Patterson no, the bias is a bias
against politicians of all kinds, not a bias for one side or
other." Ellen Hume, Director of the PBS Democracy Project,
reacting to Bob Novak's assertion the mainstream media are
"tilted to the left."
--July 27 CNN Reliable Sources. [60]
Which Way Is It?
Nuns Tell of Panic About Fund-Raiser
Documents Destroyed or Altered to Conceal Temple's Role With DNC
--Washington Post, September 5
vs.
Nuns Say Temple Event With Gore Was Not A Fund-Raiser
--New York Times, same day [99 points]
Runners-up:
CIA Agent Says He Gave Huang Classified Data
--Los Angeles Times, July 17
vs.
C.I.A. Officer Says His Briefings For Huang Were Simply Routine
--New York Times, same day [97]
Dem tells of 'contribution swap' scheme
--USA Today, October 10
vs.
DNC Ex-Aide Denies Teamster 'Swap' Plan
--Washington Post, same day [67]
Quote of the Year
"The mood of the Republican congressional leadership is so
ideologically obtuse as to doom even this modest first step down
the path of responsibility. They would rather kill people than
raise taxes."
--Former Los Angeles Times reporter Robert Scheer in an April 22 column on the Kennedy-Hatch health for children bill. [111 points]
Runners-up:
"Newt Gingrich's problem, I've always thought, he's like Lenin.
They both made a revolution by shooting people Newt shot
Democrats, Lenin shot everybody and then they didn't have
enough sense to stop shooting once they won. So, I mean, once you
win, you say, 'Okay, now I've shot all your relatives, but you're
a good guy, let's work together.' Instead, Newt shut down the
government and kept on trying to shoot Democrats."
--ABC's Sam Donaldson on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, January 8. [96]
"Earlier tonight, we reported the President's apology for
medical experiments that allowed black Americans to die of
syphilis. The President noted how badly this hurt public trust in
government, especially among minorities. The same criticism is
being made today on another score. As CBS News correspondent John
Blackstone reports, it's the fallout from California's
voter-approved ban on state affirmative action programs."
--Dan Rather introducing May 16 CBS Evening News story on drop in
minority admissions. [66]
"The problem [of pedophiles] has been made only worse by the
passage of Proposition 187. It specifically says that no public
funds can be used to provide social services to anyone who's in
this country illegally. That means that even if social workers
for the city or the state wanted to help the boys of Balboa Park
they couldn't. It would be against the law. Proposition 187 is
now being challenged in court, but its message is clear."
--John Quinones in March 19 Prime Time Live story on pedophiles preying on Mexican boys in a San Diego park. [50]
Eric Darbe, Geoffrey Dickens, Gene Eliasen, Steve Kaminski,
Clay Waters; Media Analysts
Kristina Sewell, Research Associate; Joe Alfonsi, Web Manager
1997 Award Judges:
Brent Baker, Editor of MediaWatch and Notable Quotables
Mark Belling, talk show host, WISN in Milwaukee
Neal Boortz, talk show host, WSB in Atlanta
L. Brent Bozell III, Chairman, the Media Research Center
George Brown, talk show host, WTAG in Worcester, Mass.
David Brudnoy, talk host, WBZ; Boston U. communications prof.
Priscilla Buckley, Senior Editor of National Review
Tucker Carlson, staff writer, The Weekly Standard
Don Cook, Program Director, WCHS in Charleston, WVa.
Mark Davis, talk host, WBAP; columnist, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
Midge Decter, author, New York City
Jim Eason, talk show host, KSFO in San Francisco
Barry Farber, nationally syndicated talk show host
Don Feder, Boston Herald writer and syndicated columnist
John Fund, editorial board member, The Wall Street Journal
Tim Graham, Director, media analysis, Media Research Center
David Gold, talk show host, KWRD in Dallas and Salem Radio
Kirk Healy, Executive Producer, Cox Radio, Orlando
Arianna Huffington, nationally syndicated columnist
Marie Kaigler, talk radio host and broadcaster, Detroit
Cliff Kincaid, co-host, Media Monitor
Paul Koloski, Editorial Editor, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Tim Lamer, Director, Free Market Project; Editor, MediaNomics
Mark Larson, talk host and general manager, KPRZ in San Diego
Richard Lessner, Editorial Page Director, Union Leader (N.H.)
Jason Lewis, talk show host, KSTP in Minneapolis/St. Paul
G. Gordon Liddy, national talk show host, CBS/Westwood One
Rich Lowry, national political reporter for National Review
Ross Mackenzie, Editor, editorial pg, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Tony Macrini, broadcaster, WNIS in Norfolk
Marlin Maddoux, host, Point of View radio talk show
Don Markwell, radio talk show host, WACV in Montgomery
Mary Matalin, national talk show host, CBS/Westwood Radio
Patrick McGuigan, Editor, editorial page, The Oklahoman
Jan Mickelson, talk show host, WHO in Des Moines
Wes Minter, talk show host, KCMO in Kansas City
M. Jane Norris, WAVE-TV host, WHAS talk radio host, Louisville
Robert D. Novak, syndicated columnist; CNN commentator
Kate O'Beirne, Washington Editor for National Review
Marvin Olasky, professor of journalism, U. of Texas at Austin
Janet Parshall, nationally syndicated radio talk show host
Henry Payne, editorial cartoonist & columnist, Scripps Howard
Dan Pierce, talk show host, WGIR in Manchester, NH
Wladyslaw Pleszczynski, Executive Editor, American Spectator
Michael Reagan, nationally syndicated radio talk show host
Mike Rosen, talk show host, KOA; columnist, Denver Post
William Rusher, Distinguished Fellow, Claremont Institute
Melanie Scarborough, ed. writer, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Ron Smith, talk show host, WBAL in Baltimore
Ted J. Smith III, journalism professor, Virginia Commonwealth U.
Philip Terzian, syndicated columnist
Cal Thomas, nationally syndicated columnist
R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., Editor-in-Chief of The American Spectator
Armstrong Williams, nationally syndicated columnist
Dick Williams, columnist; host of Atlanta's The Georgia Gang
Walter Williams, Professor of economics, George Mason U.
Thomas Winter, Editor-in-Chief of Human Events
Barry Young, President of WestStar TalkRadio Network, Phoenix