Jonesboro Feedback
"Time now for Feedback and
some of what you've been e-mailing us since we came on the air
tonight. From Richard M. in Quincy, Massachusetts on school
shootings like the one in Arkansas. He writes:' Some wonder if
weve raised a generation of bad children. I think were a
generation of bad parents.' And he asks, 'How did those kids
get the weapons?' We'll send his letter to the NRA."
Bryant Gumbel at the end of Public Eye, March 24.
"Let me ask you because there's a lot of schools, I think
of my own district, there's one social worker for 1,200 kids.
I think the average is there's one guidance counselor for
every 800 middle school students in this country. Are we just
under-funding our schools for this kind of problem?"
Good Morning America co-host Kevin Newman to Dr.
Dennis Kenney of the Police Executive Research Forum, March 26.
"May I add here that in this particular case all the
victims except one of the shooting yesterday were female. Does
this raise in your mind the possibility of a notion of domestic
violence of some sort, of a reaction of young boys to young
girls, or a sense of trying to control young girls in their
actions toward a young man?"
CNN anchor Joie Chen to child psychiatrist Mathis Abrams,
March 25 The World Today.
"The National Rifle Association says the tragedy at
Jonesboro is a social issue, not a gun issue, yet the gun lobby,
like the tobacco lobby, targets kids. The NRA says, quote,
'The future of shooting sports rests on our grandchildren,'
close quote. They sponsor gun camps. Another group says age 10
isn't too young to start shooting. The three school massacres
happened in the states with the weakest juvenile gun control.
Guns don't kill kids, true, but guns in the hands of kids
do."
Time columnist Margaret Carlson on CNN's Capital
Gang, March 28.
No Label for the ACLU
"The
apparent decision by the White House to claim executive
privilege for the First Lady is running into heavy opposition
this morning. The White House wants to protect conversations
White House aides had with Hillary Clinton about the Monica
Lewinsky matter. Organizations from the ACLU to the conservative
Independent Women's Forum are opposing the claim."
Good
Morning America co-host Lisa McRee, March 25.
Which Way Is It on America's School Violence?
"Kids
killing kids. Just last week the White House released a report
on violence in American schools, which in recent years has
escalated to terrifying proportions."
Tom Brokaw beginning a NBC Nightly News piece, March
24.
vs.
"Despite the national
perception that American schools are turning into combat zones,
a national report released just last week found that most
American schools are indeed safe: 43 percent reported no crimes
whatsoever."
ABC's Michele Norris opening a World News Tonight
story on the same report, same night.
Campaigning for Liberal Reform
Peter Jennings:
"On World News Tonight this Monday. All that money
in politics. So many promises about change. They'll be no
reform from this Congress. All that money in politics and what
is it doing to the debate about drunk driving? Is the liquor
industry calling the shots?"
Linda Douglass: "For the first time it
appears there are enough votes in both houses of Congress to
pass sweeping campaign finance legislation. But today top
Republican leaders made sure it will not happen, prompting
outrage among reform supporters ....For nearly three years House
Speaker Newt Gingrich has promised to follow up on a deal he
made with President Clinton to clean up the money in
politics....Some Republicans...say they'd rather defy their
leaders than try to explain to the voters at home why they
failed once more to get the big money out of politics."
ABC's World News Tonight, March 30.
"And on Capitol Hill, after all the political lightning and
thunder about the need to reform the way campaigns are financed
in this country. In the House of Representatives tonight a
maneuver to kill off any chance of reform for this year. The
Republican leadership decided to put forward watered-down bills
and limit debate with no amendments and everyone says that will
end campaign finance reform efforts."
Tom Brokaw, March 30 NBC Nightly News.
"For those of us who worship the constitutional guarantee
of free press and speech, the spectacle of political hustlers
like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) using the First Amendment to
justify legalized bribery is offensive."
Wall Street Journal Executive Washington Editor Al
Hunt, March 12 column.
Bella Abzug, National Treasure
"One
of the most influential leaders of the women's liberation
movement in the 1970s, Bella Abzug, died Tuesday of
complications from heart surgery. Today she is being remembered
as a national treasure and a true pioneer in the struggle for
women's equality. Bella Abzug was 77."
Today news anchor Ann Curry, April 1.
Heroic Scandal-Squashers
"Everybody
at this table at one time or another has covered the Clinton
White House, more closely than we'd like, probably. The
question is, and we've all been subject as panelists on Washington
Week in Review, in the interest of full disclosure, to spin
on Friday afternoons. They call you up and say 'What are you
going to say? This is really what you ought to say.' Are they
rogues for trying to infiltrate our thinking or are they heroes
for getting the subject back to what the American people want to
hear about?"
NBC reporter Gwen Ifill on the PBS show Washington Week
in Review, March 20.
That Hypercritical Liberal Media
"You
say that scandal follows President Clinton, but aren't we also
in a time of media saturation and we're hypercritical about
every single news item that comes out?"
Good Morning America co-host Lisa McRee to Spin
Cycle author Howard Kurtz, March 12.
"What's creeping into the coverage, the subtext here. I
mean, they tried so hard to make the country care about
Whitewater. People didn't care. They tried very hard to make
the country care about John Huang and Charlie Trie. People greet
it with a collective yawn. Suddenly Monica Lewinsky comes along
and you can almost see between the lines journalists say 'Aha,
now we can show people what weve been telling you about Bill
Clinton is true.' And that is why this is the perfect scandal
for the press. Because it's interesting to the people."
Howard Kurtz on CNBC's Hardball, March 16.
Disgraceful Ken Starr
"Starr
has stood Watergate on its head. It is not the President who is
doing the taping; it is the prosecutor. It is not the President
who is assembling the dossiers and leaking dirt on the intimate
practices of an ideological opponent; it is the prosecutor. It
is not the President who is involved in the politically
motivated abuse of power; it is the politically motivated
counsel. It is not the President who is insufficiently
accountable; it is the prosecutor."
U.S. News Editor-in-Chief Mortimer Zuckerman, April 6
issue.
Which Way Is It? Clinton Apology for Allowing Apartheid
"Would
President Clinton today offer regrets for past U.S. support for
the old white apartheid government? He did not refer to it,
offering a new partnership instead....Some people here clearly
hoped the President would offer some kind of apology for past
U.S. cooperation with the old apartheid government. But after
lamenting the U.S. role in slavery and timidity in halting
Rwandan genocide, Mr. Clinton may be through with what some
reporters have dubbed his contrition tour. From now on, say his
aides, he'll talk about the future, not the past."
ABC's Sam Donaldson, March 26 World News Tonight.
vs.
Tom Brokaw:
"Once an outcast in the international community, the new
South Africa now wins high praise for overcoming years of racial
division. And today it also got an apology from President
Clinton. More now from NBC's Claire Shipman."
Shipman: "Clinton and Mandela met for the
first time today on South African soil and just before that
historic visit, the President made an unusual admission to an
independent television network. He said that the U.S. was,
quote, 'complicit in the racist apartheid' regime by
cooperating for so long with the South African government. But
the President also said that the U.S. fought to dismantle
apartheid."
NBC Nightly News, same night.
President Huckleberry
John
McLaughlin: "Do you think Bill Clinton can be
properly described as Satan, or is there another way you think
he could better be described?"
Eleanor Clift, Newsweek: "...I
think he's a charming rogue. He's closer to Huck Finn than
Satan."
Exchange about a New York Times column by Maureen
Dowd on The McLaughlin Group, March 14.
Primary Colors Primarily Great for Bill Clinton
Fred
Barnes, The Weekly Standard: "I'd give
the film a B+. It was enthralling, pretty good. But my objection
is that it is pro-Clinton, that it says though he's
a philanderer, that he's a liar and so on that because he's a
compassionate liberal that makes everything alright."
Eleanor Clift, Newsweek:
"Beautifully said, Fred. It's a good movie, it's not a
great movie. John Travolta's characterization of the Clinton
character is a little overdrawn, a little too much of the
Southern bumpkin. But his empathy with people trumps his
personal flaws. I'd say it's a B+ too."
Exchange on The McLaughlin Group, March 21.
L. Brent Bozell
III, Publisher
Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
Eric Darbe, Geoffrey Dickens, Gene Eliasen,
Steve Kaminski, Clay Waters; Media Analysts
Kristina Sewell, Research Associate
Michelle Baetz, Circulation Manager
Rebecca Hinnershitz, Karen Sanjines, Interns