Newsweek Pundits on the Election: Whoops
"Florio will win
substantially. Whitman's offer of a 30 percent tax cut, she lost all
credibility. Last year's hustle doesn't work. Supply-side economics is
dead."
- Newsweek reporter Eleanor Clift, October 16 McLaughlin Group.
"Whitman tried a
Ronald Reagan rerun and proposed a 30 percent tax cut. The lost revenue could
be made up by cost-saving devices, such as no longer giving free Adidas
sneakers to prison inmates. A decade after Reagan, New Jersey's voters aren't
buying government by apocryphal anecdote."
- Clift in Newsweek, October 25.
"I think actually
there's a big national consensus developing on a lot of things. People are for
some limited gun control...to the point where Jim Brady, the former White
House press secretary, went up to New Jersey, he's a Republican, he went to
New Jersey this week to campaign for the Democrat, Jim Florio, because he's
for gun control. Florio's gotten on the right side of that issue."
- Newsweek Washington reporter Howard Fineman on CNN's Late Edition,
October 24.
L.A. Fires Reflect Society's Neglect
"One of the fires
was started by a homeless man trying to keep warm. It represents the strains
in our society, from neglect to the nihilism, the `burn, baby' nihilism of
people who actually go and start fires like this."
- Eleanor Clift, October 30 McLaughlin Group.
Economic Glory Years of the '70s?
"Adjusted for
inflation, average hourly earnings show a startling picture. Income growth has
been trending down for more than a decade...It wasn't always like this. There
were glory years for the American paycheck, from 1947-1979, with the peak
hitting in 1973...The U.S. economy shows some signs it may be perking up.
Experts say, though, that it would have to continue for at least 2 or 3 years
before the American paycheck could start returning to the glory years of the
1970s."
- Ray Brady, October 29 CBS Evening News.
Dumb Kids: Reagan's Fault
"Ronald Reagan
began the push for a constitutional amendment limiting taxes; Proposition 13
succeeded in 1978, slashing property taxes 57 percent. The state's schools
have never recovered."
- U.S. News & World Report Senior Editor Miriam Horn in the 60th
anniversary section, October 25.
Connie: For More Than One Hillary
"If each person is
unique, do we really want to make copies? And whom would we make copies of?
It's horrifying to think of anyone having that kind of power. But since we're
on the subject, here goes. Howard Stern? We think one is more than enough.
Paul Newman? He's clone-able. Ross Perot? He seems to be everywhere as it is.
Hillary Rodham Clinton? Mmm, yeah."
- Connie Chung discussing cloning on Eye to Eye, October 28.
Clinton's Free Market Health Plan
"Woven through the
1,300-page health plan is a liberal's passion to help the needy, a
conservative's faith in free markets and a politician's focus on the middle
class."
- Washington Post reporters Steven Pearlstein and Dana Priest,
October 28.
Valiantly Defending Her Misconception
Julie Johnson, Time
Washington reporter: "I live in the Maryland suburbs, but I've been
working in the city for eight years. I've never heard that gun ownership is
illegal in the District of Columbia."
Cragg Hines, Houston
Chronicle: "It is."
Bill Eaton, Los
Angeles Times: "Except by permit."
Johnson: "By permit
- but that's owning. I mean you can own a gun that's permitted."
Hines: "But I
believe D.C. has one of the toughest gun control laws..."
Johnson: "Well, but
that is not the same. I think we should be clear as saying it is illegal to
own a gun in the District of Columbia - that is not a true statement."
- C-SPAN's Journalists' Roundtable, October 22. (Since 1977 it has
been illegal for anyone but a law enforcement officer to obtain a handgun in
D.C.)
Why No Coverage of Clinton's Views on Gays in '92?
"We're liberal.
When Clinton says he'll fight for gay rights or rescind the ban [on gays in
the military], we're hearing some-thing that doesn't sound outlandish to us at
all. In fact, it sounded reasonable. It sounded fair."
- Knight-Ridder Washington bureau editor Vicki Gowler, quoted by former
Knight-Ridder reporter Carl Cannon in the premiere issue of Forbes Media
Critic.
Time: Still Plugging Gas Tax Hikes
"When Clinton's
`Climate Change Action Plan' finally debuted last week, environmentalists
could muster only faint praise...there are two major omissions: the plan does
nothing to raise auto fuel-economy standards, and it contains no energy-tax
hikes to boost conservation."
- Time Associate Editor Michael D. Lemonick, November 1.
Speaking of "Usual Suspects"....
"The usual suspects
lined up with Packwood - Alan Simpson, Jesse Helms, Arlen Specter, et cetera.
Will they be hurt by a vote that Patty Murray tried to characterize as a
with-us-or-agin-us women's rights vote?"
- Today co-host Bryant Gumbel on the Packwood diaries vote, Nov. 3.
(In her book Inside Today, former Today producer Judy
Kessler charged Gumbel with feeling for women's bras and making crude
remarks.)
Never Mind China, North Korea, Vietnam....
"No. 3-rated CBS
This Morning said Monday that it's sending rising star Giselle Fernandez
to Cuba to broadcast live Nov. 3 through Nov. 5. Fernandez...will report on
conditions from the world's only communist state."
- USA Today's
"Inside TV" section by writer Peter Johnson, October 26.
A Jonestown In Each of Us?
"But on Law and
Order they do have inner cerebral lives of the richest complexity. Their
scars glow in the dark. Watch Chris Noth at the shocking end of Wednesday's
episode. Look at Moriarty's face. It's not just that all the craziness in the
world can't be blamed on fundamentalist Muslims or Shining Path or Khmer
Rouge. But Jonestown and My Lai are everywhere. It's also that there's a
Jonestown in each of us."
- CBS Sunday Morning TV critic John Leonard, October 31.
Rather's Weather
"Unlike the Santa
Ana winds fueling the flames in California, look what the wind blew in here
today in Texas. It may not be much, but it's the first snow of the season, and
record cold dropping into the Texas panhandle. Down here we call it a blue
northern, nothing between Houston and a barbed wire fence - the North
Pole."
- Dan Rather on the October 29 CBS Evening News.
- L. Brent Bozell III; Publisher;
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Andrew Gabron, Mark Honig, Kristin Johnson, Steve Kaminski, Mark Rogers; Media Analysts - Kathleen Ruff, Circulation Manager;
- David Muska, Clay Waters; Interns