...And the Show Gave Newt a Thumbs-Down
"Winnie Mandela's stock is on
the rebound now that South Africa is giving her a public hearing on charges
she's facing. But let the buyer beware here: those charges still include
abduction, assault, sabotage, and murder."
- Bryant
Gumbel offering "People Stocks" on the October 1 debut of his CBS
show Public Eye.
Good Morning, Glorious Child Care Commissar
"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.
"We've seen a real range from
$4,000 to $10,000 a year people spend per child. But the experts say that it
really costs $6,800 per child for a year to provide quality child care. The
average American only spends $4,000. Will this administration provide any
funding to help make up that difference if, in fact, it's going to cost more
to provide quality care?"
- Good
Morning America co-host Lisa McRee to Hillary Clinton, Oct. 23.
"What is the cost of ignoring
this issue?...If people are following the Wisconsin [welfare reform] example,
women will be required to go to work when their babies are six weeks old. And
these are going to be the working poor. There we're really looking for more
federal and state dollars or more private sector involvement, as you point to
Florida. Is that a great example for the country to look at? What makes it
so?"
CBS This Morning co-host
Jane Robelot to the First Lady, same day.
Teamster-DNC Donation Swap?
- USA Today,
October 10.
DNC Ex-Aide Denies Teamster 'Swap'
Plan
- Washington Post,
same day
Wonderful to See An Unrepentant Witness in This Piddly Scandal
"It was wonderful to finally
see a witness before this committee that wasn't intimidated. You know, you
clearly believe Harold Ickes says 'Look, what I did was within the bounds of
the law, and if you folks have a problem with the law, change the law. But
don't pick on me. You have picked on the wrong guy."
- CBS
and U.S. News correspondent Gloria Borger on the PBS show Washington Week in
Review, October 10.
"Ickes didn't give an
inch...It was a breathtaking display of nerve...Ickes was loyal to a President
who had not been loyal to him. In the end he drew grudging admiration from
Republicans...It was an impressive personal victory and it was the 'Political
Play of the Week.' For President Clinton, Ickes' testimony could not have come
at a better time. This was the week when Clinton was in the most trouble
because of the videotape fiasco. Senate investigators smelled blood. But when
Ickes was finished, there was no blood on the floor."
- CNN
political analyst Bill Schneider on CNN's Inside Politics, October 10.
"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.
Angry at Failure of "Campaign Finance Reform"
"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."
- Peter Jennings, Oct. 7 World News Tonight.
"Legislation in Congress to
reform campaign fundraising is dead, at least for now. It was killed in key
votes spearheaded by Republicans today in the Senate. This happened as the
political rhetoric turned hotter and nastier with Republicans charging the
White House coffee videotapes are a grounds for a special prosecutor. CBS's
Phil Jones begins our coverage of hot talk and no action on campaign
cash."
- Dan Rather,
October 7 CBS Evening News.
"For all the rhetoric and the
outrage about what happened in the '96 campaign, a bill that would overhaul
the system was all but killed off today in a partisan battle. It was sunk by
two procedural votes. One of which was a Republican amendment requiring labor
unions to poll their members before making campaign contributions. Democrats
saw that as a deliberate attempt to kill reform..."
Tom
Brokaw, October 7 NBC Nightly News.
"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, October 8 Today.
Everyone Except the 83 Percent Who Disagree
"We're going to start tonight
with a presidential decision... President Clinton's announcement today about
how to deal with the change in the world's climate which the overwhelming
majority of scientists now agree is being caused by man. The White House has
now signed onto a gradual approach for reducing the pollution which we are
spewing into the atmosphere. Many scientists think the problem is much more
urgent and a significant chunk of American industry still insists that some of
the proposals to reduce the gases will do harm to the U.S. economy."
- Peter
Jennings opening ABC's World News Tonight, October 22.
Reality Check:
"A Gallup Poll found that only 17 percent of the members of the
Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Society think that the
warming of the 20th century has been a result of greenhouse gas
emissions."
From the "Myths of Global Warming" by the
National Center for Policy Analysis, May 23.
Still Recycling Bias from the 1988 Campaign
"Atwater, a tightly wound
country boy from South Carolina who rose to the chairmanship of the Republican
Party before dying of a brain tumor in 1991 at the age of 40, will probably be
best remembered as the political illusionist who turned a black convict,
Willie Horton, into a national symbol of the fear of crime, thereby
successfully applying the tools of marketing to race-baiting. (In his final
days, he begged Mr. Dukakis's forgiveness for the smear)...[actor Bruce]
McIntosh conveys both the naked ambition and folksy charm of a young man who
advanced rapidly on an extraordinary instinct for the tastes, prejudices, and
resentments of white middle America."
New York Times theater critic Peter Marks on the one-man play Lee Atwater:
Fixin' to Die, September 16.
As If the Two Trends Are Unrelated
Crime Keeps on Falling, but
Prisons Keep on Filling
- September 28 New York Times headline over Week in Review article.
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
Carey Evans, Circulation Director
Rebecca Hinnershitz, Intern