Marxist Reporter
"You wouldn't
expect someone who has written for the Monthly Review, The
National Guardian, and The Daily Worker to have reported for The
Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times as well. But I
have. Eugene V. Debs may be my all-time favorite American and Karl Marx my
favorite journalist. But my employer for a decade was The Wall Street
Journal, and for another decade it was the Los Angeles Times.
- A. Kent MacDougall, now a journalism professor at the University of
California, Berkeley, in an article published in the November Monthly
Review.
The End of the World
"Someone once
predicted the way that the end of the world would be covered by four major
American newspapers. The New York Times would carry a two column
headline saying 'World to End Tomorrow. Details page A6.' The Wall Street
Journal would feature a one-column headline reading, 'End of World Fears
Fuel Bond Market Jitters.' USA Today would say, 'End of World Coming.
How We Really Feel About It.' And The Washington Post would say
'World Ending Tomorrow. Poor and Minorities Hardest Hit.'"
- from a recent column by Mona Charen.
Geraldo
"Transsexuals
imprisoned is our focus in this edition of Geraldo."
- Geraldo Rivera opening his December 9 show.
Stock Market Advice
"Brokers say stick
with stocks: 'Don't Worry'"
- USA Today, January 3, page 6B.
"Sickly six months
seen for stocks: Analyst: Bad signs abound"
- same paper, same day, page 8B.
Glasnost and Atheism
"Religion, belief
in God, takes away one of our greatest assets: the possibility and the right
to question. It says you simply must believe. So that's totalitarian."
- Vladimir Posner on The Koppel Report, telling why he's an atheist,
December 27.
Nicaragua Policy
"Helping the
Sandinistas is more problematic because the thrust of U.S. policy for more
than seven years has been to make the Nicaraguan people as miserable as
possible....Why not acknowledge Managua's glasnost? The Nicaraguan government
has pursued flexible domestic policies and made diplomatic initiatives that
would have long since have met the objectives of the United States if those
aims had been reasonable."
- Boston Globe editorial writer Randolph Ryan in a December 26
op-ed.
Network Political Views
"As for my
colleagues who write, edit, and report the news, as far as one can tell, they
appear to be a good reflection of the nation as a whole, perhaps being
slightly more liberal. A few conservatives surfaced in office bull sessions
during the Reagan Administration, but by and large a majority have been
moderate to liberal."
- Marlene Sanders, a CBS News reporter who resigned in 1987, in her new book,
Waiting for Prime Time: The Women of Television News.
Balanced Reporting?
"The established
press in this country has to a large extent reverted to the symbiotic
relationship with the executive branch....It is the press's desire to look
objective which I think has become a dangerous obsession of American
journalism....The notion that journalism should be balanced goes against the
grain of American history and the Constitution."
- New York Times columnist and former reporter Anthony Lewis, quoted
by Editor & Publisher, December 17 issue.
Planet of the Year
"Raising the federal gasoline tax by 50 cents per gallon, from 9 cents to 59 cents, over the next five years would renew drivers' interest in fuel conservation."
"Support Family
Planning. In 1984 the Reagan Administration cut off U.S. aid to the two major
international family-planning organizations...Unless the growth in the world
population is slowed, it will be impossible to make serious progress on any
environmental issue. The U.S. should immediately restore the aid it
withdrew."
- Time's recommendations on how to save the Earth, in January 2
"Planet of the Year" issue.
Reagan Legacy
"And so it goes
with President Bozo....coming to the end of his eight-year reign, and reign it
has been, no matter how it rained on the poor. The hell with the poor, it's
their own fault; we all feel that way."
- Boston Globe Associate Editor and long time reporter David Nyhan,
in a December 28 column.
Glasnost
"It's ending [the
Cold War]. What Gorbachev is doing in creating free speech in the Soviet
Union, allowing people to vote against candidates for office, opening up
economic opportunities and free markets, I think it's what we've been asking
for forty years, and it's happening. Not because of us, it's happening because
they want to do it, which is the really interesting thing."
- Chris Matthews, CBS This Morning "political columnist"
and former aide to Tip O'Neill, on January 3.
Quote of the Holiday Season
"Retailers woes may
not be over: if they have a good Christmas, many stores could find themselves
short of goods to sell in the New Year."
- Reporter Ray Brady on the December 20 CBS Evening News.
- L. Brent
Bozell III; Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Jim Heiser, Richard Marois, Patrick Swan, Dorothy Warner; Media Analysts
- Cynthia Bulman; Administrative Assistant