"Republican" Kenneth Starr Drops Another Distracting "Load"
"Ken Starr drops another
load on President Clinton....Good evening. Just as President
Clinton was enjoying a day talking up the economy, officially
announcing the first U.S. budget surplus in three decades, Ken
Starr hit him again. The Republican independent counsel and
special prosecutor decided late in the day to announce his
decision to press his subpoena for samples of Monica Lewinsky's
handwriting, fingerprints and her voice."
- Dan Rather at the top of the May 26 CBS Evening News.
Newt's Strange Words: "Chinese Communist" and "Threat"
"Newt loves to be able to
roll those words on his tongue, Chinese communist, you know, the
bear's back in the woods. You know, he loves bringing up these
issues and he loves talking about, you know, threats to national
security. There are even Republicans saying this could mean that
missiles would fall on America. Give me a break!"
- Former New York Times and U.S. News reporter
Steve Roberts reacting to Gingrich's recommendation that Clinton
cancel his trip to China, May 24 Late Edition on CNN.
The Right's Need for Red Meat
Ted Koppel: "He tried being a nice guy...Now he's dishing out red meat again..."
Chris Bury: "So his new
attacks on the President, if nothing else, will be heard by the
audience that matters most to him. Those Republicans made
restless by their leaders' silence on Bill Clinton and hungry
for some red meat on the party menu."
- ABC's Nightline, May 13.
Eternally Defending Clinton
"Republicans will get
scorched if they pursue the China money because Republicans
lobbied for technological transfers along with the Clinton
administration."
- Newsweek' s Eleanor Clift on The McLaughlin Group,
May 23.
"The administration may
have made the wrong decision. I don't know and we may never be
absolutely able to decide that. But I think to equate this with
treason or quid pro quo at this point is going a little far.
Because if they bought something, they got it awful cheap."
- NPR's Nina Totenberg on Inside Washington, May 23.
Helping Arm Our Enemies: Just Another Partisan Food Fight?
"Chinese Connection Has GOP
Drooling."
- Headline to Time's daily Internet update, May 22.
Geraldo Hates Scandal-Mongers...
"This man has scarcely had
a day in office untainted by accusations of scandal. His very
frustrated political enemies have tried every imaginable attack
on the President's so-far impenetrable armor. There's been
Whitewater, Filegate, and Travelgate, each trumpeted in its time
as the scandal that would bring down his presidency. All now
revealed basically as next to nonsense. Miserable flops costing
taxpayers millions."
- Geraldo Rivera, who has joined NBC News and will cover
Clinton's China trip for the Today show, hosting his
CNBC show Rivera Live, May 19.
...Loves Bill Clinton...
"How much of his vital
attention is being consumed by Ken Starr's endless probe, by the
Monica Lewinsky saga, by the fears that his trusted Secret
Service agents will be forced to rat out the maybe gory details
of his private life....And finally, and most importantly, how
can our bridge to the 21st century feel about the slanderous
charge amounting almost to treason, that for Johnny Chung's
bribe of 100,000 lousy dollars he sold America's missile secrets
to the Chinese, who now aim their deadly devices at America's
children?....I watch him and I wonder how he does it. I watch
him and wonder how much is too much for any man."
- Rivera, same show.
Matt Lauer: "As a
journalist, now a member of NBC News, why should I expect that
Geraldo Rivera is going to be objective when covering a story
about O.J. Simpson or Ken Starr in the future?"
Geraldo Rivera: "I think
objectivity is a fantasy. I don't believe reporters are
objective. Everyone comes to a story with their own bundle of
personal experiences."
Lauer: "But most keep it
secret or keep it private."
Rivera: "But they secretly
influence the take on the story or the angle, even if only
subconciously. What I do is lay out, 'Here I am.' I am - my
heart is right here on my arm. Read it. The question to ask is
whether I misrepresent anything? Am I factually correct? Is my
program balanced and fair?"
- Exchange on Today, May 7.
Forced Abortion: Worth a Try?
"China has a one-child
policy. Is that a good idea for all countries?"
- Good Morning America co-host Lisa McRee to Bill
McKibben, author of Maybe One: A Personal and Environmental
Argument for Single-Child Families, May 20.
The Federal Government "Saves" Better Than Average Americans
"The smart thing to do with
the money, says Adam Pozen of the Institute for International
Economics? Save it...A tax cut, Pozen says, is simply not what
the economy needs right now. While the federal government may be
getting better at saving money, Americans are not. Our savings
rate recently hit a record low."
- CBS reporter Anthony Mason concluding a May 26 Evening
News story on the irresponsibility of tax cuts.
A Tough Choice: Dan Burton or Felon/Female Impersonator?
"As he suffers through a
disastrous year in Washington, Representative Dan Burton is
facing the ultimate in the politics of disrespect here at home:
Democrats have chosen a convicted felon and occasional female
impersonator to challenge the flamboyant Republican
incumbent....Some local residents despair at the choice between
Mr. Kern, as the idiosyncratic insurgent, or Mr. Burton, as the
entrenched incumbent whose campaign finance investigation in
Washington has run into problems of chronic ineptitude and his
own vulgar prejudging of President Clinton."
- New York Times news story by Francis X. Clines, May
24.
Enthusiastically Gullible
Larry King: Your thoughts on how
good this White House spins?"
ABC's Cokie Roberts: "Oh,
it's fabulous. It is so good. It just unbelievably good. Look at
how they've managed to turn around this whole question about the
President's behavior to one of Ken Starr's behavior, you know,
just taken the whole focus off of the President and put it onto
the prosecutor. That's remarkable."
- April 28 CNN Larry King Live.
We Must Control the Internet
"And we'll take A Closer
Look tonight at gambling in America. Betting on the Internet. No
regulations and as of now no way to control it."
- Peter Jennings plugging an upcoming story, May 5.
Guns Don't Kill, Politicians Who Back the NRA Kill
"Jonesboro,
Arkansas; Edinboro, Pennsylvania; Fayetteville, Tennessee;
Springfield, Oregon - all towns that live in infamy because a troubled
teenager with access to a deadly gun went on a killing spree.
There are no panaceas to stop such violence but there are too
many guns and too many teenagers have too easy access to them.
It is an outrage to deny that as too many politicians in the
back pocket of the National Rifle Association are too wont to
do."
- Wall Street Journal Executive Washington Editor Al
Hunt, May 23 CNN Capital Gang.
Starr's Ridiculous Indictment
"And although Starr
indicted Clinton pal Webster Hubbell last week (along with his
wife Suzanna, his lawyer, and his accountant), it was only for
alleged tax crimes that are typically handled as civil matters,
which even some of Starr's supporters felt was a stretch."
- Time Senior Editor Nancy Gibbs, May 11.
"A lot of tax lawyers told
me today...this is kind of a ridiculous, marginal indictment,
that normally this kind of thing, someone who declares most of
his income, he didn't declare all of the $900,000, but he
declared almost all of it, would be dealt with in a civil
penalty kind of way. Or they'd find a way to make a deal with
him. The thing was is that he, there is some evidence or there's
a charge that he hid some of his assets and did a little bit of
evasion. And on that little hook, Starr has gone on a criminal
route."
- Time Washington Bureau Chief Michael Duffy on the PBS
show Washington Week in Review, May 1.
Newsweek's Isikoff: Obsessed?
"He's been kicking around a
Clinton book project for months. It's a dicey proposition in a
press culture still deeply ambivalent about going tabloid. If
Clinton falls, Isikoff may win a Pulitzer. But if Monicagate
fizzles, Isikoff may find himself in the dock. Rather than All
the President's Men, the Michael Isikoff story may end up
titled How One Man's Obsession with Blow Jobs Turned Off the
Country."
- Former American Spectator writer David Brock, June
George.
Four Years Didn't Dissuade Them
"I know a lot of Washington
journalists, and my guess is that more than 90 percent of them
voted for Clinton in both 1992 and 1996."
- New Republic Editor (and former Newsweek
reporter) Charles Lane, May 25 TRB column.
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