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The Best Notable Quotables of 1997:
The Tenth Annual Awards for the
Year’s Worst Reporting
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Media Hero Award |
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First
Place
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"[I]n person, [Anita] Hill bears only passing resemblance to her rather stern image
from newspapers and television. At 41, she is slender to the point of willowy. Her features are
elegant, and while she is intense while discussing her political baptism-by-fire, she can also muster a
warm smile and a hearty laugh -- qualities that had little occasion to surface in the nine hours
that changed Hill's world. So, she was asked, does she sometimes feel like the Joan of Arc of
sexual harassment? Sure, Hill replied, and here came the mirth the Senate never saw: 'I refuse to
die, though.'"
-- Los Angeles Times reporter Elizabeth Mehren, October 1. [75 points] |
Runners-up: |
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"[Mario] Cuomo was a rare combination: an intellectual and a spellbinding orator. I would
have bet that he could have won the Democratic nomination and been elected to the presidency.
He had electrified the 1984 Democratic convention with his keynote speech, and I never saw him
fail to excite those who shared his liberal vision of America's future. Despite the pollsters and
political operators' contrary opinions, I remain convinced that the public was ready for a leader who
could restore that vision after the selfish eighties. I don't believe the public has rejected liberalism;
it simply has not heard a candidate persuasively advocate its humane and deeply
democratic principles."
-- Walter Cronkite in his book A Reporter's Life. [60]
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"Justice William Brennan led the Supreme Court on a quiet revolution that expanded
individual rights and press freedoms to an extent found nowhere else in the world...Brennan saw
his influence wane as justices appointed by Presidents Reagan and Bush cut back the court's role
as active protector of individual rights."
-- USA Today reporters Tony Mauro and Mimi Hall, July25. [50]
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If The Bias Fits We Won't Admit Award
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First
Place |
"I don't think voting for Clinton makes you a liberal. I mean, Bill Clinton isn't even a
liberal, and second, if you're liberal, does that mean you can't be fair? What hypocrisy that we sit
around and talk about the press like it's some sort of 'they.' It's us. Are we too liberal? N-o....The bias
is in favor of bad news and you go after whoever is in power, and the name of the game is kill
the king, which is why Bill Clinton does not get a free ride."
-- Newsweek's Eleanor Clift on The McLaughlin Group, July 5. [79 points] |
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Runners-up: |
"Although the experience and independence of Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Dan Rather,
and Ted Koppel would give their opinions a lot more weight than those of any politician, they
still observe the disciplines of their craft. Their on-air analyses plumb the views and prejudices
of others without parading their own."
-- Former New York Times Executive Editor Max Frankel
deploring ABC's hiring of George Stephanopoulos, January 19 New York Times
Magazine. [65] |
"Scholar after scholar has disputed, in studying the actual content of the press, what you've justblithely handed out that it's this left-wing media. That's a charge from the '50s. That's not thecurrent press. Tom Patterson -- no, the bias is a bias against politicians of all kinds, not a bias forone side or other."
-- Ellen Hume, Director of the PBS Democracy Project, reacting to
Bob Novak's assertion the mainstream media are "tilted to the left." July 27
CNN Reliable Sources. [60]
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Which Way Is It?
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First
Place |
Nuns Tell of Panic About Fund-Raiser
Documents Destroyed or Altered to Conceal Temple's Role With DNC
-- Washington Post, September 5
vs.
Nuns Say Temple Event With Gore Was Not A Fund-Raiser
-- New York Times, same day [99 points]
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Runners-up:
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CIA Agent Says He Gave Huang Classified Data
-- Los Angeles Times, July 17
vs.
C.I.A. Officer Says His Briefings For Huang Were Simply Routine
-- New York Times, same day [97]
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Dem tells of 'contribution swap' scheme
-- USA Today, October 10
vs.
DNC Ex-Aide Denies Teamster 'Swap' Plan
-- Washington Post, same day [67] |
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