FNC Notes Donations by Justices & Democratic Double Standard -- 10/03/2002 -- Media Research Center CyberAlert

FNC Notes Donations by Justices & Democratic Double Standard; Thomas Rants About Killing Iraqis; Sawyer "Loves" Anti-Military Spending Poster; NBC's Curry Gently Slams Streisand; Jessica Lange: "I Hate Bush" & Am "Ashamed" of U.S.; Alec Baldwin Mocks FNC; Patricia Heaton: God Will Judge Me, Not Barbra Streisand

1) If we're a court why should we enforce the law? FNC's Special Report with Brit Hume revealed on Wednesday night the activist reasoning of the New Jersey Supreme Court, pointed out which justices had made donations to Senator Torricelli and Frank Lautenberg, and noted that while "Democrats are fighting to get the very much alive Robert Torricelli off the ballot," in Hawaii they want keep their congressional candidate, Patsy Mink, "on the ballot even though she has died."

2) Another round of incoherent left-wing rantings by Helen Thomas at the White House press briefing on Wednesday. She demanded: "Why is a family grudge included in the official paper that states our position on war and peace?" Then she painted the U.S. as the killer: "Does that justify killing thousands of people in Iraq?" and "Are you going to kill all these people to get democracy?"

3) ABC's Diane Sawyer "loves" the liberal anti-military spending propaganda which Charles Gibson's wife has displayed in a poster on her office wall. On Wednesday's Good Morning America, Gibson, whose wife runs a private school, boasted: "My wife has a sign on her office wall and it says, 'Won't it be a great day when the Air Force has to hold bake sales to get a new bomber and the schools have all the money they need?'" To which Sawyer gushed: "I love your wife! I love her for many reasons. Love that sign!"

4) A little shot at Barbra Streisand from Today news reader Ann Curry. Noting how Streisand had quoted Shakespeare to make her case against Bush's Iraq policy, a quote which turned out to be an Internet hoax, Curry observed: "The Bard did write this assessment about humans in general, 'Lord what fools these mortals be.'"

5) "I hate Bush," actress Jessica Lange spewed last week when receiving an award at a film festival in Spain. She added: "I despise him and his entire administration." She is also "ashamed to come from the United States" and, since the "atmosphere in my country is poisonous, intolerable for those of us who are not right-wing," she thanked the festival organizers for "allowing me to get out" of the U.S. for "a few days."

6) At a Minnesota Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party fundraiser in Minnesota over the weekend, actor Alec Baldwin praised Senator Paul Wellstone while he also denounced and mocked the Fox News Channel: If a Democratic administration been in charge on 9/11, "you'd see a banner across the bottom of Fox: 'Osama at large, Day 30, Day 40.' This administration's answer is, we can't find Osama? Let's go get Saddam."

7) Not all Hollywood celebrities are Bush-bashing liberals who hate conservatives. Reaffirming her pro-life stand, Everybody Loves Raymond co-star Patricia Heaton told FNC's Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday night: "As a Christian, it will not be Barbra Streisand I'm standing in front of when I have to make an accounting of my life." She's found Hollywood intolerant of her views. When she wore a Bush/Quayle button, "literally people would stop and look" and "give me dirty looks" and "say nasty things to me."

If we're a court why should we enforce the law? FNC's Special Report with Brit Hume revealed on Wednesday night the activist reasoning of the New Jersey Supreme Court, pointed out how two of the justices had made donations to Senator Torricelli, with one of them also having contributed to Frank Lautenberg, and how while "Democrats are fighting to get the very much alive Robert Torricelli off the ballot," in Hawaii they want keep their congressional candidate, Patsy Mink, "on the ballot even though she has died."

In illustrating how the New Jersey Supreme Court justices clearly leaned in favor of ignoring the law, something they did hours later in ruling that Frank Lautenberg could replace Robert Torricelli on the ballot for Senate, FNC reporter Carl Cameron played a clip, from the oral argument session, of one justice who was off camera: "Why should we strictly enforce a statute and penalize the voters, whose right it is to participate in the democratic process and have a real choice between two candidates?"

Of course, New Jerseyans would have had plenty of choices since, in addition to the Republican, the November ballot for the Senate seat already included Green Party, Libertarian, Socialist Worker and New Jersey Conservative Party candidates.

During the "Grapevine" segment on the same October 2 show, Brit Hume highlighted the liberal Democratic political donations of two justices:
"Two members of the New Jersey Supreme Court, which ruled today on the arguments on the Torricelli ballot case, gave money to Torricelli's campaigns in the past as we noted earlier. And one of the two, Justice Barry Albin, who gave to Torricelli in both 1996 and 1999, also gave to Frank Lautenberg's war chest that year -- 1996. The other justice who gave to Torricelli is Justice James Zazzali whose contributions came before the men where named to the court."

Hume also pointed out an inconsistency by Democrats in wanting Torricelli replaced on the ballot in New Jersey while making sure Patsy Mink, a Democratic Congresswoman in Hawaii who died last week, remains on the ballot. In Hawaii, Democrats want her name to remain on so she can win and then there will have to be a special election to replace her. Hume observed:
"So in New Jersey, Democrats are fighting to get the very much alive Robert Torricelli off the ballot while in Hawaii they want to keep Patsy Mink on the ballot even though she has died."

Another session of incoherent left-wing rantings by Helen Thomas at the White House press briefing on Wednesday. She demanded: "Why is a family grudge included in the official paper that states our position on war and peace?" Then she painted the U.S. as the killer of innocent Iraqis: "Does that justify killing thousands of people in Iraq?" and "Are you going to kill all these people to get democracy?"

Below is the exchange, during the October 2 briefing shown by the cable networks, between Thomas, the long-time UPI White House reporter who is now a columnist for Hearst Newspapers, and Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer:

     Thomas: "Why is a family grudge included in the official paper that states our position on war and peace?"
     Fleischer: "Helen, if you're referring to an attempt to assassinate a former United States President, which Iraq tried to do when former President Bush went to Kuwait-"
     Thomas: "Does that justify killing thousands of people in Iraq?"
     Fleischer: "Helen, I think it's also why former President Clinton responded to that assassination attempt with four days of Cruise missile strikes against Iraq, because an attempt to assassinate a former United States President-"
     Thomas: "So this is a repetition [?] to try again, for that reason?" [The White House's transcript shows this verbiage, but up to the ? mark it was inaudible on the tape since she was talking at the same time as Fleischer.]
     Fleischer: "I think the President cited multiple reasons why Saddam Hussein is a menace and a threat."
     Thomas: "But you people are acting like this is a conversion to democracy by the sword. How can you -- I mean, are you going to kill all these people, to get democracy?"
     Fleischer: "Helen, I think that when you heard the powerful statements that were made by Democrats and Republicans alike, some of the most thoughtful and reflective members of the Congress, what you are about to see is going to be a very healthy and important congressional debate that underscores how reluctant democracies are to go to war, about how determined we are as a people and a united Congress to protect the American people from the threats that Saddam Hussein presents."

How about some protection from Helen Thomas and her wackiness.

ABC's Diane Sawyer "loves" the liberal National Education Association-type of anti-military spending propaganda which Charles Gibson's wife has displayed in a poster on her office wall.

At the end of Wednesday's Good Morning America, Gibson, whose wife runs a private, all-girls school which is very discriminatory in that it excludes boys, boasted: "My wife has a sign on her office wall and it says, 'Won't it be a great day when the Air Force has to hold bake sales to get a new bomber and the schools have all the money they need?'"
To which Sawyer gushed: "I love your wife! I love her for many reasons. Love that sign!"

But as an expensive private school in a tony Manhattan neighborhood, Mrs. Gibson's school is hardly lacking for money.

     MRC analyst Jessica Anderson caught the endorsement of liberal propaganda uttered in a time-filler minute near the end of the October 2 GMA. Gibson recalled an earlier story:
     "Very interesting story that Bob Woodruff had in his eight o'clock newscast that really struck me -- it was in the papers this morning and Bob was talking about it in the newscast. Caroline Kennedy, John Kennedy's daughter, is going to take a job as a fundraiser for the New York City public schools. I didn't know that public schools raised private money, and it turns out they're not actually certain how much money the New York public schools raised last year from private sources, but it was about $100 million and they think she's going to considerably increase that."
     Woodruff: "It's a lot more than my school district, and she's been reluctant to join the limelight, to be in the limelight. This is going to be a big step up."
     Gibson: "This is very interesting, though. I mean, everybody in New York talks about how important the schools are, and here she's really, I was about to say putting her, putting the money where the mouth is -- that's really not the good expression -- but she's really stepping up to the plate to do this."
     Sawyer: "I work with an organization called Robin Hood here in the city, and Robin Hood has given millions of dollars to help build libraries in public schools in the country, and again, we don't realize the extent to which all of a sudden, what we thought was always publicly funded, is, I guess, it's a necessary that public funds step in and help out."
     Gibson: "It's a lot of bake sales."
     Sawyer: "Yeah."
     Gibson: "My wife has a sign on her office wall and it says, 'Won't it be a great day when the Air Force has to hold bake sales to get a new bomber and the schools have all the money they need?'"
     Sawyer: "I love your wife! I love her for many reasons. Love that sign! We'll be back in a minute."

I bet the parents of her students were grateful on 9-11 for some Air Force air cover over Manhattan. And yet, even after the terrorist attacks, such a poster is still up on her wall?

Excess union contracts and bureaucratic management may mean that while tons of money is spent on New York City's public schools not enough of it makes it to the classroom, but the school run by Gibson's wife has plenty of money, so I don't understand what she has to complain about.

Arlene Joy Gibson is "Head of School" for The Spence School, at 22 East 91st St. It's slogan: "Not for school but for life we learn." Its Web site: http://www.spenceschool.org/index2.cfm

Check this recitation of the school's features, as described in a letter from Arlene Joy Gibson: "Walk in any hallway or look in any classroom and you will understand why Spence students are so happy to be here. You might hear a first grader reading her own poem at an assembly. Or catch a seventh grade English class where students, clad in period costumes, are reading scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Or hear eleventh graders debating the moral and legal aspects of DNA research in an Advanced Biology class. Wherever you look, Spence students are fully engaged in the invigorating process of learning and self-discovery."

For the whole letter and a picture of Mrs. Gibson:
http://www.spenceschool.org/pages/sitepage.cfm?id=31&pname=
About%20Spence&purl=spence_about.cfm

     As for the facilities, they sound about as expensive as an Air Force bomber:
     "The Spence Library Media Center (LMC), which houses a collection of 24,000 books, was recently renovated to provide the latest in computer technology for students in kindergarten through grade 12. The New York State Education Department recognized the Spence LMC as an 'Electronic Doorway Library,' one of the first libraries in New York State designated for its pioneering use of computers and telecommunications technology. Nodes throughout the facility offer full telecommunications capability when connected to laptop computers.
     "Other facilities include three state of the art science laboratories for use by students in grades 6 through 12, with a fourth lab designed to scale for students in the Lower School. These laboratories offer the latest in computer and scientific technology for classroom use. Two computer labs, one in the Lower School and one in the Middle and Upper Schools, are used for computer science instruction and individual work. The visual arts facilities provide three art studios, a darkroom and a ceramics studio. Concerts and school plays are given in the assembly hall, which is equipped with a proscenium stage and a computerized light board. Dance classes and rehearsals take place in the dance studio."

That's online at:
http://www.spenceschool.org/pages/sitepage.cfm?id=52&pname=
About%20Spence&purl=spence_about.cfm

A little shot at Barbra Streisand from Today news reader Ann Curry. Noting how Streisand had quoted Shakespeare to make her case against Bush's Iraq policy, a quote which turned out to be an Internet hoax, NBC's Curry observed: "The Bard did write this assessment about humans in general, 'Lord what fools these mortals be.'"

MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens noted Curry's quip at the end of an October 2 news update. Curry announced:
"And finally now singer Barbra Streisand has just found out that people who quote people sometimes aren't the luckiest people in the world. Streisand performed at a Democratic fundraiser on Sunday and she had some tough words for the President about Iraq. She told the crowd quote, 'So in the words of William Shakespeare, 'Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood just as it narrows the mind.' There is just one slight problem with that. That is, that Shakespeare never wrote that. It turns out the quote was actually written by an Internet prankster. The Bard did write this assessment about humans in general, 'Lord what fools these mortals be.'"

"I hate Bush," actress Jessica Lange spewed last week when receiving an award at a film festival in Spain. She added: "I despise him and his entire administration" and that "what Bush intends to do with Iraq is unconstitutional, immoral and illegal."

The actress best-known for roles in films ten-plus years ago, such as King Kong, Tootsie and Cape Fear, also said she was "ashamed to come from the United States" and, since the "atmosphere in my country is poisonous, intolerable for those of us who are not right-wing," she thanked the festival organizers for "allowing me to get out" of the U.S. for "a few days."

Lange's September 25 comments first came to light in the United States via an item in MSNBC.com's "Scoop" gossip column by Jeannette Walls, who appears to have lifted her item from a German publication's account which included some additional obnoxious quotes that Walls left out.

An excerpt from Walls' October 1 posting about what Lange said when receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Madrid, Spain:

...."I hate Bush. I despise him and his entire administration -- not only because of its international policy, but also the national," Lange told the audience, according to various reports coming from Spain.

"It makes me feel ashamed to come from the United States -- it is humiliating."

"Bush stole the elections and since then we have all been suffering the consequences," Lange told the enthusiastic crowd....

END of Excerpt

For the short MSNBC item in full, with a photo of Lange: http://www.msnbc.com/news/815250.asp?0bl=-0&cp1=1

Doing a search in Nexis, I found only one account of Lange's bombast, a September 26 article in a German publication called Deutsche Presse-Agentur, and it included some quotes not cited by Walls.

An excerpt from the September 26 Deutsche Presse-Agentur piece which carried a Madrid dateline but was unbylined:

....The 53-year-old Oscar-winning actress lambasted the U.S. government at a press conference at the San Sebastian film festival, where she received a lifetime achievement award on Wednesday. "What Bush intends to do with Iraq is unconstitutional, immoral and illegal," Lange was quoted as saying.

"I hate Bush, I despise him and his entire administration. Not only because of its international policy, but also the national. Today it makes me feel ashamed to come from the United States, it is humiliating."

"Bush stole the elections and since then we have all been suffering the consequences. The Iraq plan is absolutely mad, but what I do not understand is that nobody tries to stop it, neither inside nor outside the United States," the actress added.

"The atmosphere in my country is poisonous, intolerable for those of us who are not right-wing, so thank you for inviting me to this festival and allowing me to get out for a few days," Lange said on receiving the Donostia Prize, which was presented by Spanish actor Jose Coronado.

Lange also said she did not think much of Hollywood and preferred to work in Europe. "How could I be interested in Hollywood? Studios only make movies which will earn them a lot of money. Hollywood is ruled by accountants and not film makers."

END of Excerpt

Lange hasn't done much recently, but she is known for the 1982 movie Tootsie, 1988's Everybody's All American and 1991's Cape Fear.

For her bio and a rundown of all her film roles, check the Internet Movie Database's page on her: http://us.imdb.com/Name?Lange,+Jessica

For more examples of celebrities bashing Bush, see the October 1 and 2 CyberAlerts: http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20021001.asp
http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20021002.asp#7

[Web Update: The syndicated program Inside Edition aired a story showing soundbites from what the actress said at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain last month where she won a ?lifetime achievement? award; how you can watch a RealPlayer playback of what she uttered; Lange's comments as originally reported in a newspaper in Spain; and how Barbara Walters condemned Lange for her remarks. See October 7 CyberAlert.]

Speaking of celebrities threatening to leave America, at a Minnesota Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party fundraiser in Minnesota over the weekend to raise money for the party's gubernatorial candidate and for far-left U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, actor Alec Baldwin praised Wellstone while he also denounced and mocked the Fox News Channel.

Baldwin admitted to the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he "once joked that if Bush senior became President 'it might be a good time to leave the country.'" Actually, I think that was of more recent vintage and so would be Bush junior.

Former MRCer Andy Szul alerted me to a New York Post "Page Six" item about how conservatives protested outside of Baldwin's September 28 appearance, which prompted me to track down a more complete accounting by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

An excerpt from the September 29 Star Tribune story by Patricia Lopez:

Minnesota politics took an edgy turn Saturday night when Republicans staged an in-your-face protest outside the Fine Line Café in downtown Minneapolis, where Hollywood celebrity Alec Baldwin appeared at a DFL fundraiser for gubernatorial candidate Roger Moe and U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone....

On Saturday, about 16 to 20 Minnesota College Republicans and staff members from Republican U.S. Senate candidate Norm Coleman's campaign stood in the rain in front of the Fine Line, chanting "Deport Baldwin" and waving signs that said "Paul Wellstone, bad for Minnesota farmers"....

Inside, Baldwin delivered a fiery speech railing against Republicans and told a packed crowd of several hundred that "you have a senator who is an iconic figure to Democrats across the country."

Republicans, he said, are trying to define Americans as only those who support the president, pledge allegiance and salute the flag. "What an American really is -- Paul Wellstone gets it," he said. "He gets that government should do its best for all Americans, that it should do the most for the most it can."

He criticized "muscular, conservative" media outlets such as Fox News and the Drudge Report for jumping on the war bandwagon. Had a Democratic administration been in charge on 9/11, he said, "you'd see a banner across the bottom of Fox -- 'Osama at large, Day 30, Day 40.' This administration's answer is, we can't find Osama? Let's go get Saddam."

Talking to reporters later, Baldwin said he is dogged by Republican protesters at many stops. Often, he said, they hand out fake airline tickets -- as protesters did Saturday -- claiming that Baldwin once said he'd leave the country if George W. Bush became President.

Baldwin said he once joked that if Bush senior became President "it might be a good time to leave the country." Ever since, he said, Republicans have circulated the fake tickets at his appearances....

END of Excerpt

For the entirety of the article: http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/3333452.html

For the Internet Movie Database's bio of Baldwin: http://us.imdb.com/Name?Baldwin,+Alec

Not all Hollywood celebrities are Bush-bashing liberals who hate conservatives. Reaffirming her pro-life stand, Everybody Loves Raymond star Patricia Heaton told FNC's Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday night: "As a Christian, it will not be Barbra Streisand I'm standing in front of when I have to make an accounting of my life....She will not be in charge of whether I get my wings or not."

Patricia Heaton Heaton, who an interview last year on CBS's Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn said she had voted for Bush and was looking forward to her tax cut, related on FNC how she has found Hollywood very intolerant of her views: "The thing I found in Hollywood was that the Democrats were supposed to be all inclusive, but they weren't inclusive of my opinions."

Indeed, she informed O'Reilly, when she wore a Bush/Quayle button back in 1992, "literally people would stop and look at the button and look at me and give me dirty looks" and "say nasty things to me."

MRC analyst Patrick Gregory caught the appearance of Heaton on the October 1 O'Reilly Factor. Heaton, who has twice won an Emmy for playing "Debra Barone," Ray's wife on CBS's Monday night sit-com Everybody Loves Raymond, is in the midst of a tour to promote her light-hearted book, Motherhood and Hollywood: How to Get a Job Like Mine.

As unusual as not being liberal in Hollywood, Heaton is married with four sons -- and they all live together.

Most interviews I've seen with Heaton in the past few days concentrated on how her book recounts the plastic surgery she has had to lift her breasts and flatten her stomach after four Cesarian sections, and O'Reilly got to that, but he started the interview with her politics, asking her up front about the impact of being "pro-life" in "pro-choice town" like Hollywood.

     Heaton, a native of Cleveland, replied: "You know I'm a chairman of 'Feminists for Life,' and so I think because of that we have an interesting stand that most people don't, haven't heard before, which is being pro-life can be a feminist issue. The early feminists were pro-life. And really abortion is a huge disservice to women and hasn't been presented that way, so there's sort of an in for me because of that take on it."
     O'Reilly: "Do you take any heat from your peers on that?"
     Heaton: "I did, I mean I did originally. I vote Republican because of my pro-life stance, and of course that was a real hot button issue when Bill Clinton was first elected. People really, I wore a Quayle/Bush button and literally people would stop and look at the button and look at me and give me dirty looks, and you know say nasty things to me. I think since 9/11 a lot of that has calmed down a little bit."

     O'Reilly soon wondered: "But it all comes down to would you ban it [abortion] if you were a Supreme Court justice. Would you vote to ban it?"
     Heaton: "Yes."
     O'Reilly: "You would?"
     An unequivocal Heaton repeated: "Yes.
     O'Reilly: "Okay. Now that obviously takes guts in Hollywood, because in Hollywood there's a subtext that if you don't play the game, you know you could lose jobs. Did you ever think of it?"
     Heaton quipped: "Yeah, I've thought about it. On a personal level as a Christian, it will not be Barbra Streisand I'm standing in front of when I have to make an accounting of my life....She will not be in charge of whether I get my wings or not."

Thank God for that.

As the interview wrapped up, Heaton observed: "The thing I found in Hollywood was that the Democrats were supposed to be all inclusive, but they weren't inclusive of my opinions."

As recounted in the July 18, 2001 CyberAlert, on the July 16, 2001 Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn on CBS, Heaton admitted she voted for Bush, boasted to her friends about the then-upcoming tax cut and is "pro-life."

For all of what she said and a RealPlayer clip, go to: http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20010718.asp#10

If that doesn't work, try: http://archive.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20010718_extra.asp#10

For a picture and bio of her: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/everybody_loves_raymond/bio_pheaton.shtml

CBS's page for the show: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/everybody_loves_raymond/

To learn about her book, Motherhood and Hollywood: How to Get a Job Like Mine: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0739302574/qid=
1033601854/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-0130562-7751921?v=glance

Heaton's willingness to stand by her moral and political convictions in the face of hostility in her industry, is just one more reason to watch her very funny show, which is also now in syndication. -- Brent Baker

Sign up for CyberAlerts:
Keep track of the latest instances of media bias and alerts to stories the major media are ignoring. Sign up to receive CyberAlerts via e-mail.

questions and comments about CyberAlert subscription

You can also learn what has been posted each day on the MRC's Web site by subscribing to the "MRC Web Site News" distributed every weekday afternoon. To subscribe, go to: http://www.mrc.org/newsletters