The MRC@25: The Worst Media Bias of 1992

Each morning, NewsBusters is showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala on September 27. (Click here for ticket information)

Already this week, we’ve published the worst quotes of 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991. Today, the worst bias of 1992. Highlights include Eleanor “Cougar” Clift ogling the new Democratic ticket of Clinton and Gore (“I was struck by the expanse of their chests. They may have to put out their stats”), and onetime NBC Nightly News anchor John Chancellor opining that it was "embarrassing" that the U.S. had so few casualties in the first Gulf War. [Quotes and video below the jump.]

“Do you think the American people are not ready for someone who is as accomplished and career-oriented as Hillary Clinton?”
— Today co-host Katie Couric interviewing Hillary Clinton, August 24, 1992.

“I must say I was struck by the expanse of their chests. They may have to put out their stats.”
— Newsweek reporter Eleanor Clift on Clinton and Gore, CNN’s Inside Politics, July 10, 1992.


 

“Greenpeace, the public interest organization, believes that the Iraqi death toll, civilian and military, before and after the war, may be as high as 198,000. Allied military dead are counted in the low hundreds. The disparity is huge and somewhat embarrassing. And that’s commentary for this evening, Tom.”
— NBC commentator John Chancellor, March 12, 1992 Nightly News.

“[Christopher Columbus] sailed just as Jews and Muslims were being expelled from Spain, the persecution of those peoples and the riches robbed from them paying for his small armada of ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, to set sail for new plunder. For Native Americans, the people who hardly felt discovered, Columbus’ landing commenced a Holocaust. There’s really no other word for the death delivered by settlers, as they scattered, enslaved, and obliterated Indian nations on their own sacred lands.”
— NBC weekend Today co-host Scott Simon, October 11, 1992.

Check back each morning for more classic bias quotes, or visit our “25th Anniversary” section for the entire collection.