Notable Quotables - 06/16/2008
Published: 6/16/2008 1:00 AM ET
| Liberal Media's "Magic Moment" |
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- MSNBC's Chris Matthews talking about Barack Obama clinching the Democratic nomination, June 4 Hardball.
"Barack Obama and his wife Michelle
walked into history's arms last night....Just like JFK's journey as the first
Catholic President, America crossed a milestone....One of America's oldest and
ugliest color lines has been broken, and there's a new bridge for a new
generation." |
| Objective But "Excited" |
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CNN's Howard Kurtz: "You obviously are paid to be an
objective journalist, but some part of you must be excited that Barack Obama won
this nomination." CBS's Byron Pitts: "Well, certainly. I mean, as an African-American man, this is significant. I mean, look, for my entire life I've been able to, as a man, dream of doing great things. But a dream I could never have was being President of the United States. Now, for instance, my sons, my nephew, they can have that dream. And I think those kinds of images are important." - Exchange on CNN's Reliable Sources, June 8. |
| Grueling Interview |
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"I'm curious about your feelings last night. It was an historic
moment. Has it sunk in yet?...When everybody clears out, the staff is gone,
you're in the hotel room at night, and you're alone, do you say to yourself,
'Son of a gun, I've done this'?" - ABC's Charles Gibson to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on World News, June 4. |
| A Ticket George Dreams About |
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"And this is still on the table, the dream ticket. I mean,
and I think one of the things they're going to be talking about today is how
hard does she [Hillary Clinton] push with her 17 million votes for that
place on the ticket?...I think it's the best ticket for the Democrats. I
think if Barack Obama picks her, they have the best chance of winning." - ABC's George Stephanopoulos, a top official in Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign and first administration, on Good Morning America, June 3. |
| Saying "What We All Believe" |
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CBS anchor Katie Couric: "I think it's one of the most embarrassing chapters in American journalism. And I think there was a sense of pressure from corporations who own where we work and from the government itself to really squash any kinds of dissent or any kind of questioning of it. I think it was extremely subtle but very, very effective. And I think Scott McClellan has a really good point." - CBS's The Early Show, May 28.
"[McClellan] claims that
President Bush used 'propaganda to sell the war.' Let's look at what he says in
the book: 'And his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level
of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public
support during a time of war.' He finally articulates what we all came to
believe." |
| No Doubting Their Agenda |
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"In the book you say the Bush administration made a decision to
turn away from candor and honesty, and you point to the war in Iraq as the prime
example....You seem to stop just short of saying that President Bush and his
administration flat out lied....However you word it, isn't it lying, Scott?
Isn't that what they were doing?" - NBC's Meredith Vieira interviewing former White House press secretary Scott McClellan on Today, May 29. "Do you feel any sense of guilt that
the Iraq war, which you helped sell to the American people, has resulted in the
loss of life for thousands of American soldiers?" |
| McClellan's Original Book Idea |
|
"I will directly address myths that have been associated with
him, some deliberately perpetuated by activist liberals and some created by the
media....I will look at what is behind the media hostility toward the President
and his administration, and how much of it is rooted in a liberal bias." |
| McCain's "Fealty" to Right... |
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"Despite his record, Mr. McCain has been obliged to deal with
the burden that falls on any Republican candidate to deal with the party's
conservative wing, which demands commitment to its goal of tilting the
courts rightward....Mr. McCain has chosen to do everything in his power to
demonstrate his fealty to their cause....Like Mr. McCain, neither Mr. Reagan
nor Mr. Bush was a lawyer and, adopting the same rhetoric as Mr. McCain is
now using, they became enthusiastic instruments of those conservative
lawyers who were diligent in choosing conservative judicial nominees." - New York Times reporter Neil Lewis in a May 28 story. Lewis applied a total of 18 "conservative" labels in his 1400-word article. |
| ...vs. Not Ideological Obama |
|
"Mr. Obama, on the other hand, is a lawyer and has had a long and
deep interest in the courts and the law....From his remarks in the Senate
opposing the nominations of Judges Roberts and Alito, among others, Mr. Obama
made clear that he would look to name judges with an expansive, progressive view
of the Constitution....Prof. Charles J. Ogletree Jr. of Harvard Law School, who
taught both Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, sought to dispel the idea that Mr.
Obama's nominees would be especially ideological. 'It seems likely to me that he
won't have an agenda of trying to pack the courts to necessarily move it in a
different direction,' Professor Ogletree said in an interview." - Lewis later in the same article. The piece did not include a single "liberal" label. |
| Hillary Died for Our Sins? |
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- ABC's Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, June 4, quoting a 17th century discourse about Jesus Christ.
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| So Much for "No Blood for Oil" |
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"Desperate times call for desperate measures. Some people are
doing anything they can to save on gas, while others are trying to avoid buying
gas altogether....Then there's Jessica Busby, using her bike to get to a blood
donation center two times a week. She pumps out her own blood, making $40 a pop
so she has enough money to pump gas." - CBS reporter Jeff Glor on The Early Show, May 28. |
| Bush's Economy Is Killing Us |
|
"Something is happening right now that demands attention: People
struggling to pay for the basic necessities - food, gas, housing - seeing
savings depleted, plans for kids and future threatened. Now that's a heavy
burden, and over time that pressure can cause your body to start breaking
down....The seminal example is the Great Depression, when the suicide rate
jumped 14 to 17 for every 100,000 Americans. And today, with the threat of
recession looming large, the price we pay physically may skyrocket as well." - ABC's Chris Cuomo on Good Morning America, June 10. |
| Dissent Within MSNBC |
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"Every Tuesday night Keith is up there as the face of NBC News.
That's a problem....[Tim] Russert has spent 20 years building credibility. All
of a sudden he's taking questions from Keith Olbermann, the Daily Kos
blogger?...What's it going to be like in the general election now that everyone
knows we're the in-house network of Barack Obama?" - A "high level source inside MSNBC," as quoted in a June 3 posting by Steve Krakauer to the TVNewser blog. |
