The Week in Quotes 6/28/10

At approximately 11:04 Eastern Standard Time, the American news media finally realized they kind of sucked.
—Jon Stewart on Michael Hastings' scoop of Stanley McChrystal.

And as a freelance reporter, Hastings would be considered a bigger risk to be given unfettered access, compared with a beat reporter, who would not risk burning bridges by publishing many of McChrystal’s remarks.
—Gordon Lubold and Carol E. Lee on Politico, admitting the American news media sucks.

Michael Hastings has never served his country the way McChrystal has.
—CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan, defensive that she's part of the American news media that sucks.

Was Rod Blagojevich unavailable as a character witness?
—Frank Rich on Hamid Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai's defense of McChrystal.

If you’re a reporter you’re supposed to be an unbiased bystander.
—FishbowlDC writers Matt Dornic and Betsy Rothstein on Dave Weigel's resignation from the Washington Post because of candid comments made on a journalist list–serv. They later changed this to "You're supposed to be objective".

Something that pops up every time old/new media tensions emerge is the view—which I find, frankly, bizarre—common in the newspaper world that pretending to not have opinions makes your work better.
—Matthew Yglesias

I did not try to start a fight. This meeting happened a month ago and we were talking in the context of his political problems.
—Sen. Jon Kyll (R, AZ), backpedaling from his original statement that Barack Obama told him that securing the border would destroy Republican support for immigration reform.

After 53 years of investigation, I’m convinced we’re dealing here with a cosmic Watergate.
—Nuclear Scientist Stanton Friedman on the supposed US government UFO cover-up, reminding us that the birthers and truthers are the new kids on the block of conspiracy theory.

This is no different than the training session that Mr. O’Keefe attended in New Jersey, and during his previous employment with the Census Bureau last year. In his video, Mr. O’Keefe, an admitted criminal, does not disclose that he previously worked for the Census Bureau for nearly two months in 2009 without incident, allegation or complaint.
—A US Census spokesman pwning James Okeefe over his pretty weak census exposé.

The ads are a lie with statistics. They're not doing anything like they're saying or promote through these ads.
—Tony Kennon, Orange Beach, AL's mayor on BP's PR campaign.

What was that robot thinking?
—Brian Kilmeade not thinking on Fox News (I know, I know!), regarding the robot that bumped the oil well venting system.

GOP: Don't let the lamestream media suck you into "they're defending BP over Gulf spill victims" bs…
—Sarah Palin, using her 140 tweet characters to not say why this isn't true.

You guys have a tough job. I don't know how you're going to make a story out of that.
—Anonymous comment made to an anonymous reporter on a Fox News live feed left on after Sarah Palin's speech at California State University, Stanislaus on Friday.

#8 Never anger a woman who shoots wolves from a helicopter.
—David Letterman, from Top 10 Things I've Learned in My 30 Years as a Talk Show Host.

As your U.S. Senator, I’m not in the business of creating jobs.
—Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle, to supporters in May 2010.

We have 14 percent unemployment. We’re tired of it. And it’s time to say Harry Reid, you’ve failed.
—Angle to Sean Hannity last week. What a difference a month makes.

She may have threatened her sister, but I don't think that constitutes Homeland Security triggers.
—American Santhosh Thomas, speculating on why his six year old daughter made the US Government's terrorist watch list.

Now, if everyone wants a wholesale purge of liberals from the mainstream press, I'm game. But I don't see that happening any time soon.
—Jonah Goldberg, exhuming McCarthy.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone.
—Rep. Alan Grayson (D, FL) this week reading from a speech given by Dwight D. Eisenhower 57 years ago.