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The Best Notable Quotables of 1989:
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Blame America First Award |
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First
Place
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"As rockets made in the U.S.A. keep falling here and flares to deflect those rockets keep burning small children, resentment towards the United States grows...For the Russians, Afghanistan may no longer be what Gorbachev called, 'a bleeding wound.' But for many here what is bleeding now is America's image."
-- Reporter Bob Faw on the May 1 CBS Evening News. |
Runners-up: |
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"Latins do not believe the Soviets want any more bases in this hemisphere: Cuba is enough, they say. Their hope, as it has been for a long time, is that the U.S. will disband the Contras once and for all, and then, maybe, just maybe, there will be a chance for peace."
-- Reporter Ed Rabel on NBC Nightly News, October 28.
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"The latest incident of alleged Contra violence in south central Nicaragua killed whatever chances there might have been for the 19-month-old ceasefire agreement to be extended....The Sandinistas argue that they've given the Contras ample opportunity to meet their obligations under terms of the regional peace plan. Now they say the time has come for the rebels and the Bush Administration to do their part if there is to be peace in Nicaragua."
-- Beginning and end of story on CNN PrimeNews by Ronnie Lovler, November 1.
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"Sandinista critics' direct predictions of totalitarianism have also failed to come true...Nicaragua today is neither a classless social democracy nor a communist dungeon. Opposition parties and media thrive, despite Sandinista harassment and their own incompetence....And a government socially committed to the needs of the poorest has seen its education and health projects plummet due to a lack of resources and the Contra war."
-- Christian Science Monitor reporter J.D. Gannon, July 18.
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Media Hero Award
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First
Place |
"A testament to courage: the courage of some unabashed trade unionists and civil rights workers, Leftists and yes, American Communists, who fought for principles that we now take for granted."
-- Endorsement of Carl Bernstein's book Loyalties, from Ted Koppel. |
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Runners-up: |
"Ralph Nader is a legend, perhaps the only universally recognized symbol of pure honesty and clean energy left in a culture that, after being shot through with greed, cynicism and weariness, is oddly proud of its hardened self. Two decades after he slew General Motors, Nader, the young dynamo who could not be bought, is a reminder of what we once hoped to be."
-- Washington Post Magazine writer Marc Fisher, July 23. |
"What does realistic mean with Mr. Gorbachev any more? We used to know what realism was in world affairs, but we have a Soviet leader as bold as we, I think, have ever seen, and a man who seems to be some kind of dreamer. He dreams new dreams. I think he's saying 'Match me in boldness and we'll create a new world.'"
-- "CBS News consultant" Stephen Cohen on the CBS Evening News, October 24. |
"He [George Mitchell] talks about the record of legislation the Senate Democrats are building, the substantive progress on issues from oil spills to rural development, which so often gets overlooked in the day-to-day political analysis of 'up or down, winner or loser.' His logic is crisp, unassailable, his manner far removed from the thrust and parry of contemporary politics. He is the soul of judiciousness, highminded in his concern for governance. But some in his party would like for a bit more of the street fighter."
-- Reporter Robin Toner in The New York Times, October 17. |
"For Gorbachev at the end of four years, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times. There was triumph at the Moscow summit, when cold warrior Ronald Reagan said the Evil Empire belonged to a time now past. Bittersweet triumph when the Soviet troops came home from Afghanistan. The Soviets did not win, but Gorbachev did. He had the courage to end Soviet involvement."
-- CBS reporter Barry Petersen on the March 11 Evening News. |
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Which Way Is It? Foreign Affairs
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First
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"These days Cuba doesn't count for nearly as much in the Soviet military scheme of things....Much of the equipment...is old and obsolete. Although with its militia the Cuban armed forces are the largest in Latin America, this Soviet weaponry is years behind the times."
-- ABC's Richard Threlkeld on World News Tonight, April 3.
versus...
"The Soviets have spent billions of dollars keeping Fidel Castro supplied....The equipment, the best the Soviet Union can supply....Fidel Castro still believes in the Mao adage that power comes from the barrel of a gun. And his island bristles with some of the most modern, such as these advanced MiG 23s."
-- Reporter Barry Petersen on the CBS Evening News, same night.
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Runners-up:
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"Supposedly neutral tribunal stacked to favor Sandinistas"
-- Washington Times, June 9
"Managua Forms Election Panel Containing Opposition Members"
-- Washington Post, same day
"U.S. officials in Moscow said today they have been unable to determine, after meetings with patients in Soviet mental hospitals, whether they are being held because of their political beliefs."
-- NBC Nightly News Anchor Connie Chung, March 11.
"U.S. PSYCHIATRISTS FAULT SOVIET UNITS: Team Finds Inmates Are Still Held for Political Reasons"
-- New York Times, next morning
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