Let's Leave Out the Inconvenient Speeches
"Though not without
controversy, it's expected to be the biggest rally ever in the
nation's capital. Organizers are viewing the march as a
peaceful time of atonement for African-American men, a time of
reconciliation, a time of personal responsibility, and a time
of healing today."
- Bryant Gumbel opening the October
16 Today, the morning of the Million Man March.
"Responding to a common
problem, hundreds of thousands of black men gathered in a
peaceful rally of prayer and atonement and were encouraged to
go home and make a difference...very peaceful, it was a day of
prayer, of song, of atonement, and one hopes of considerable
action."
- Gumbel, next morning.
"It would be astonishing
if this public performance of Farrakhan were to end or even
minimize the controversy which he inspires in the country as a
whole, but it would be a terrible mistake not to recognize
that here today, he inspired many people, and in a broader
sense, as one participant after another has reaffirmed, this
day, at this time and this place, really did mean unity over
division."
- Peter Jennings ending World News Tonight,
October 16.
"Were you struck by the
fact that these hundreds of thousands of men...did not come to
the seat of power to ask their government for anything?"
- CNN's Bernard Shaw to U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Penn.)
Reality Check:
"Blacks should atone not for our anger, but for not being
angry enough at the growing racism and incipient fascism of
white America. We should atone for not developing more
political independence, more cultural identity, and more
control of our economy, in defiance of white power, in
defiance of Jewish influence....White dreams have crippled
many black children and white values have maimed many black
families....In the military, we died to save European Jews in
the 1940s and South Koreans in the '50s and Vietnamese in the
'60s. Yet, since then, all three have taken from our community
to enrich their own....We are an oppressed colony in the most
imperialist nation the world has ever known."
- Former
U.S. Rep. Gus Savage (D-Ill.) addressing the march, as shown
on C-SPAN.
"When I grow up, and find
a man of my choice, I'll produce like Mary, a man of God's
divine race."
- Tiffany Jamille Mayo reading a Maya
Angelou poem adapted by Louis Farrakhan, on C-SPAN and CNN.
"Did Minister Farrakhan
organize the march? No, Clarence Thomas and Gingrich organized
the march just like Bull Connor organized the march in
1963."
- Jesse Jackson, shown by C-SPAN and CNN.
"Whereas African black
people have been forced to invest vast amounts of labor in the
development of U.S. capitalism, but have never received due
compensation for slavery....the Virgin Islands shall seriously
explore the political status of foreign relations,
reparations/repatriation issue within six months of the
enactment of the resolution."
- March speaker Adelbert
Bryan, shown by C-SPAN.
"In the middle of this
mall is the Washington Monument, 555 feet high. But if we put
a one in front of that 555 feet we get 1555, the year that our
first fathers landed on the shores of Jamestown Virginia as
slaves. In the background, is the Jefferson and Lincoln
Memorial. Each of these monuments is 19 feet high. Abraham
Lincoln is the 16th President, Thomas Jefferson the 3rd
President, and 16 and 3 makes 19 again."
- Louis
Farrakhan in a portion of his speech shown live by CNN and
C-SPAN but not on network news shows.
"Before I leave you, a
very personal question. How many times have you felt like
crying today?"
- CNN's Bernard Shaw to Rep. Kweisi Mfume
(D-Maryland), during October 16 live march coverage.
Someone Got Released Too Early
"Black men's tension is
compounded when we see how many, but by no means all, white
Americans respond with apathy and outright hostility to our
distress. The fashionable formula offered by white demagogues
for addressing black men's monumental woes -
three-strikes-and-you're-out, mandatory sentencing, and the
abolition of parole - is especially vicious and destructive.
As an African-American who's gone the prison route, these
sinister measures make me so furious sometimes my vision gets
blurred. They make me want to lash out at whites in the basest
way."
- Convicted armed robber turned Washington Post
reporter Nathan McCall, October 15 Outlook section article on
why he would join the march.
Another Day, Another Round of Media Lies
"Republicans began
pushing the last and perhaps most controversial elements of
their ambitious legislative agenda yesterday, seeking to scale
back medical aid for the poor and the elderly."
- Reporter Peter Gosselin in a Boston Globe story headlined
"GOP Pushes Health Cuts for the Poor," September 27.
"[Clinton's] focus on GOP
Medicaid cuts followed similar attacks the day before on GOP
Medicare cuts in talks to senior citizens in southern
Florida."
- Associated Press dispatch in the September
21 Los Angeles Times, headlined "Clinton Sounds Warning
on Medicaid Cuts by GOP."
E.J. Dionne, Washington Post
columnist: "No one has talked about the Medicaid cuts,
which are if anything much deeper and much more
significant...I think that with those kind of cuts in
Medicaid, you really could do, as Steve says, a lot of damage
or at least cause problems for middle class people."
Mara
Liasson, NPR: "....But you know, the cuts they proposed
in Medicaid are huge!"
- Exchange on CNN's Late Edition,
October 1.
Reality Check:
"Far from being a `cut,' MediGrant funding represents
nearly a 50 percent increase in federal assistance to help the
states pay health care costs for the needy over the next seven
years....On a per-person basis, MediGrants will increase the
average federal grant for each person in poverty from $2,188
in 1994 to $3,263 per person in 2002 - hardly a `slimmed down
grant,' as suggested in Post articles."
- House Commerce
Committee Chairman Tom Bliley (R-Va.) in an October 11
Washington Post op-ed.
Pope's a Cuomo Kind of Guy
"Without naming names or
even mentioning the Republican-dominated Congress, the Pope
seemed to admonish the supporters of proposed laws to restrict
immigration and dismantle many of the nation's programs for
the poor. In doing so, he appeared to echo many of President
Clinton's warnings."
- New York Times reporter Robert
McFadden, October 5.
"At times, the Pope even
sounded like a Democrat. His heart is clearly with the
have-nots. And for that, at least, liberals appreciate his
views on peace and social justice and the responsibility of
rich nations to the poor....For sure, on sexual morality he is
predictably conservative, and he often repeats his boilerplate
message against abortion."
- Chicago Tribune reporter
Timothy McNulty, October 8.
Very Unifying
"Most of the KKK has
joined the Republican Party. They don't have to be there
[marching]."
- Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page
on the October 15 McLaughlin Group.
Yes, She Said "Popularity Control"
"The Pope's stands on
issues such as, for instance, abortion, popularity control,
birth control - is he aware that American Catholic women, the
majority, have different views than he does on these
matters?"
- Giselle Fernandez to papal envoy Mary Ann
Glendon, October 8 Today.
- L. Brent Bozell III;
Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Geoffrey Dickens, James Forbes, Steve Kaminski, Gesele Rey,
Clay Waters; Media Analysts
- Kathleen Ruff; Circulation Manager
- Gene Eliasen; Intern