Special 4-Page "Monicagate" Edition of Notable Quotables:

Six Years of Clinton Adulation; Ten Days of Guilty Consternation

ALEXANDRIA, Va. --- For six years the national media have praised and defended Bill Clinton. In spite of the latest scandal to engulf the president, the media have remained true to form. The Media Research Center’s special four-page "Monicagate" edition of Notable Quotables is irrefutable evidence of the media’s role as an extension of the Clinton spin machine, even to the point of denouncing themselves for their "unfair" coverage of Clinton’s scandals.

PRAISING BILL CLINTON

"The group of people I’ll call The Press – by which I mean several dozen political journalists of my acquaintance, many of whom the Buchanan administration may someday round up on suspicion of having Democratic or even liberal sympathies – was of one mind as the season’s first primary campaign shuddered toward its finish. I asked each of them, one after another, this question: If you were a New Hampshire Democrat, whom would you vote for? The answer was always the same; and the answer was always Clinton. In this group, in my experience, such unanimity is unprecedented" – New Republic Senior Editor Hendrik Hertzberg, 3/9/1992 issue.

"They got more positive coverage on this bus tour than the Beatles got on their first tour of America. More reporters were oohing and aahing. It was almost embarrassing. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to do it until now" – Newsweek reporter Eleanor Clift, McLaughlin Group, 7/10/1992.

"You’ve also talked about your husband’s generosity and his warmth, and his, you know, his warmth with people even, you know, people he hardly knows" – Good Morning America co-host Lisa McRee to Hillary Clinton, ABC, 1/28/1998.

"She’s ecumenical but prefers Italian and Mexican. The President fixes her eggs with jalapeno peppers on the weekends. One Christmas she served black beans and chili as part of a buffet. She carries Tabasco sauce wherever she goes. …Valentine’s Day at the Red Sage restaurant. Even at a romantic outing, the President can be the date from hell, talking to everyone but the girl he brung. … Finally alone, they have ‘painted soup’ and the lamb baked in herbed bread. They exchange gifts and touch each other more in two hours than the Bushes did in four years" – Time’s Margaret Carlson, in a profile of Hillary Clinton, Vanity Fair, 6/1993 issue.

DEFENDING BILL CLINTON

"President Clinton is doing a good job and it’s unfortunate that he’ll be overshadowed by these events" – CBS News Senior Producer Reid Collins Jr., writing in the Daily Record of Morris County, New Jersey, 1/25/1998.

"Why didn’t we put it on earlier? It didn’t seem, I think to most people, entirely relevant to what was going on at the time" – NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw, explaining why NBC ignored Paula Jones, Tim Russert Show, CNBC, 5/9/1994.

"Clinton is also the best President we’ve had in a long time. That is the unspoken reason the sex charges haven’t received as much play as you might expect" – Contributing Editor Mickey Kaus on media reaction to Paula Jones’ lawsuit, The New Republic, 3/7/1994 issue.

"Yes, the case is being fomented by right-wing nuts, and yes, she is not a very credible witness, and it’s really not a law case at all … some sleazy woman with big hair coming out of the trailer parks" – Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Evan Thomas on Paula Jones, Inside Washington, 5/7/1994.

"Scott, as you and I both know, a popular move these days is to make a titillating charge and then have the media create the frenzy. Given Kenneth Starr’s track record, should we suspect that he’s trying to do with innuendo which he has been unable to do with evidence?" – Bryant Gumbel, to CBS News reporter Scott Pelley, Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel, CBS, 1/21/1998.

MEDIA COVERAGE BRINGS MEDIA SELF-DENUNCIATION

"We in the news, as you can see (video of TV broadcasts), are devoting major time and resources to these events, but have we been carried away, are we doing too much and are we not being fair?" – Peter Jennings, just two days after the Monica Lewinsky story broke, World News Tonight, ABC, 1/23/1998.

Media Interviews
To schedule an interview with Mr. Bozell, or another MRC spokesman, contact Bill Cimino or Keith Appell at (703)-683-5004.