Touting a Terrorist's
Denials...
"It is Hezbollah, which means 'The Party of God,' that gets
credit for liberating Lebanon from the long Israeli occupation.
Yesterday, I went to see its 38-year-old leader, Hassan Nasrallah. He is
a popular member of the political establishment. The Bush administration
says Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. 'Hezbollah was proud to
resist the Israeli occupation,' he says. 'We gave our lives. We are
not terrorists.'"
- ABC's Peter Jennings in a report from Beirut, Lebanon, for the
March 27 World News Tonight.
...While Hiding Terrorists'
Guilt
"Today [the site of the former American embassy in Lebanon] is
an empty lot. This is where the U.S. experienced the first suicide
bomber. In 1983 a man simply drove his truck to the front door and blew
himself up. Sixty-three people died. Later that year, the Marine
barracks here were destroyed in much the same way; 241 Marines
died."
- Jennings later in the same report, failing to state that
Hezbollah was responsible for both anti-American attacks.
Unwise to Side with Terror
Victims
"President Bush is spending his Easter Sunday morning at his
ranch in Crawford, Texas. His administration's response to this latest
upsurge in violence has been hesitant, confused and contradictory....The
administration is now engaged in feverish diplomacy to get a hold of
this situation, but its mixed messages and the President's personal
endorsement of Prime Minister Sharon's tough tactics raises a question
if the United States can continue to play its traditional role of honest
broker in this conflict, a role that reached its apex under President
Clinton."
- ABC White House correspondent Terry Moran in a report for This
Week, March 31.
Anxious For Afghan Quagmire
CNN Pentagon reporter Bob Franken: "Sir, as you know, for
months, critics have worried about...the possibility that the United
States is going to get into - you know the word - a quagmire,
similar to Vietnam, where they're never going to really wipe out the
enemy, so to speak. They're going to conduct guerrilla situations;
they're going to escape; they're going to go to other countries, et
cetera, et cetera. What makes this different?"
General Tommy Franks: "I respect the question, but in my
view, what makes it different is - everything."
- Exchange at March 29 Pentagon briefing shown live on MSNBC.
Eager For Bin Laden Interview
"Absolutely I would like to interview Osama bin Laden. There's
no one I would not want to interview. I always am interested in hearing
points of view, conveying those points of view. I always find it sad
that people think by being the messenger you're somehow branded as
actually believing in the message yourself. It's not the case. I'd
be fascinated by anything Osama bin Laden would have to say."
- MSNBC's Ashleigh Banfield on the March 28 Region in Conflict.
The previous evening she had challenged another journalist's desire to
interview bin Laden: "You would not see this as a platform for a
maniac?"
Rationalizing Terrorist
Murderers
"Ari, does the President think that the Palestinians have a
right to resist 35 years of brutal military occupation and
suppression?"
- Helen Thomas's question to White House press secretary Ari
Fleischer, April 1.
Ashcroft's Terrifying Tactics
"Attorney General John Ashcroft today talked about the foreign
nationals who have been questioned by law enforcement in many parts of
the country since November. The Justice Department planned to interview
5,000 foreigners, most of them Arabs or Arab-Americans. Now Mr. Ashcroft
says he wants another 3,000 interviews. Many of those already questioned
say it was terrifying that they were, in their words, 'victims of
ethnic profiling.'"
- Peter Jennings on ABC's World News Tonight, March 20.
Paying Ransom = Imperialism
Jeffrey Birnbaum, Fortune: "There is a question
about this, the broader question, which is the U.S. is getting much more
involved in so many foreign countries now. Now, they're using, as we
say, technicalities. That maybe it's not taxpayer money here, but they
helped organize the ransom. That's at least what the Fox News report
is, that we are training the people on the ground to go in. I mean,
where exactly does this line, I think the question of imperialism, I
know that's a strong word, it is a strong word- "
Fred Barnes, The Weekly Standard: "A very strong
word."
Birnbaum: "- but I think it's the kind of question that
should be raised."
- Exchange on the March 25 edition of FNC's Special Report
with Brit Hume, prompted by a report that the U.S. had indirectly
paid a ransom on two Americans held hostage in the Philippines. They
were not released.
Cheering Anti-Free Speech Law
"On Capitol Hill, it took seven years, but the shame of Enron
finally got Congress to pass a campaign finance reform bill today. The
legislation bans soft money, the unregulated special interest donations
to national political parties. But it doubles the allowable hard money
with donations to individual candidates now to be capped at $2,000.
Let's get the real deal on what this means from CBS's Bob Schieffer.
Bob, is the fight finally really over?"
- Dan Rather on the March 20 CBS Evening News.
Phony "Influence
Peddling" Fears
"The White House and its connection with the energy business was
a hot issue before any of us knew much about that Houston company called
Enron. Critics want to know just how much energy companies, most of them
big campaign contributors, helped shape energy policy. That policy was
drafted last year by a task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.
Well, thousands of [Energy Department] documents released last evening
are only making a hot issue hotter....Tell me, do these documents
confirm the worst suspicions of influence peddling?"
- Connie Chung's lead-in and first question to Washington Post
reporter Dana Milbank, CNN's NewsNight, March 26.
Ignorant & Unjust Texas
Verdict
"Andrew, you know as well as I do, many have said that Texas
justice is an oxymoron. Just how much did the narrow nature of this
statute doom Andrea Yates?"
- CBS's Bryant Gumbel discussing Yates's murder conviction with
analyst Andrew Cohen, March 13 Early Show.
"You're the prosecutor here. I spoke to someone this evening
by telephone after the verdict who offered their opinion saying this
shows perhaps a regional tough mind-set on the part of the jurors and it
might just show an ignorance of mental health issues. What do you
think?"
- MSNBC's Brian Williams to former Denver District Attorney Norm
Early on The News with Brian Williams, March 12.
Media's Favorite
"Conservative"
"It is scandalous to think we are indulging ourselves at the
expense of the elderly....How can we look at ourselves in the mirror if
we keep shoving tax cuts into our pockets while letting poor, elderly
people go without doctors and medicine?"
- Editor-at-Large David Gergen, who is often used to balance
liberal pundits because he worked in the Nixon and Reagan White Houses,
in a back-page editorial for the April 1 issue of U.S. News &
World Report.
Happily Aiding Brock's
Vendetta
"His specialty was character assassination and throughout the
1990s he made a living as a right-wing hatchet man. But after years of
lies and, some would say, malicious journalism, this Washington insider
wants to clear his conscience. In his new book, Blinded by the Right,
best-selling author and ex-conservative David Brock, exposes how he says
the GOP tried to destroy the Clinton presidency through a series of
well-plotted smear campaigns."
- NBC's Matt Lauer setting up a March 14 Today interview.
"He helped trash Anita Hill, went looking for the illegitimate
children of Bill Clinton, took money from conservative patrons, and made
things up if it made Mr. Clinton look bad. And then he says he saw the
light, the errors of his ways, he says. He's written a book called Blinded
by the Right."
- CNN's Aaron Brown introducing a March 14 NewsNight
interview with David Brock.
Missing Bill's
"Unmatched Ability"
"The ex-President's existential predicament remains. What to
do? Where to focus? How to channel the legendary energies and
appetites?....Clinton's policy fluency - and unmatched ability to
explain a complex world - are already missed in some quarters. But he
still must confront the perception that he's a little 'September
10th.' Not a relic; too young and forward-thinking for that, but less
relevant than he once seemed."
- Senior Editor Jonathan Alter in Newsweek's April 8 cover
story on former President Bill Clinton.
SUVs' Win Is Environment's
Loss
"Gas-guzzling SUVs and light trucks were big winners on Capitol
Hill today, but there's concern tonight the environment could be the
big loser here. The Senate rejected a tough new proposal to force the
auto industry to make the popular vehicles more fuel efficient."
- MSNBC's Brian Williams on The News with Brian Williams,
March 13.
Good Thing We're So Unbiased
"We all have baggage, but one of the good things about
journalists is that they recognize bias and work hard to keep it out of
their coverage....You can have all sorts of people who voted for Bill
Clinton, but the media gave Clinton one hell of a time. Now we hear a
lot from people who complain that we don't give George Bush as hard a
time as we gave Bill Clinton."
- ABC anchor Peter Jennings as quoted by Miami Herald
reporter Glenn Garvin, March 17.
Publisher: L. Brent Bozell
Editors: Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes
Media Analysts: Geoffrey Dickens, Jessica Anderson, Brian Boyd, Brad
Wilmouth, Ken Shepherd, Patrick Gregory
Research Associate: Kristina Sewell
Communications Director: Liz Swasey
Director of Editorial Services: Tim Jones |
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