“Greed Was On Display…” in the Times Executive Suite?

“Greed was on display throughout 2005 as throngs of executives pocketed pay that was even greater than the previous year’s. To hear them talk, they deserved the amounts because -- are you sitting down? -- they enhanced shareholder value. Never mind that many of their companies’ stocks ended the year lower than where they began it.”
 – Economics reporter/columnist Gretchen Morgenson, January 1.

vs.

“A year ago -- on Jan. 3, 2005 -- Times stock closed at 47.2. On Jan. 3, 2006, the stock was trading at a day’s low of 26.16….the real surprise to staffers was, instead, the generous holiday handouts on the paper’s 14th floor. In addition to [Times chief executive Janet] Robinson’s 74,000 shares of free Class A stock, publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. received 30,000 shares, worth a bit less than $800,000, plus stock options worth about $4.1 million.”
-- From the January 16 edition of the New York Observer.

California’s “Austere” State Budget?

“Aided by a multibillion-dollar windfall in tax revenues, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a $125.6 billion election-year budget on Tuesday that would break from recent years of austerity and increase spending on education, health, prisons and public works without raising taxes.”
 – John Broder on California’s bloated, multi-billion dollar state budget, January 11.

Terror Incitement, Satirizing Muhammad -- Same Thing?

“But because its main weapon is ideology rather than explosives, Danish officials say, it is allowed to operate in Denmark under the same permissive rules that allowed the publication of the cartoons. Under Danish law, inciting someone to commit an act of terror is illegal, but spouting vitriol against the West or satirizing Muhammad is not.”
 – Dan Bilefsky, January 8.

How “Centrist” Could His Agenda Be, Then?

“Humbled Schwarzenegger Apologizes for ’04 Election, and Then Proposes a Centrist Agenda.” (Editor’s Note: The special election involving ballot initiatives was actually held in 2005.)

vs.

“The proposals were applauded by Democrats, who hold strong majorities in the Assembly and Senate. Conservative Republicans found little to like, accusing Mr. Schwarzenegger of lacking conviction.”
-- Headline and text from John Broder’s January 6 story from Sacramento on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest state budget.

Katrina Exposed Shame of “Racial Underclass”

“Then one night, Wolf Blitzer of CNN blurted out another revelation -- that many of the most hard-hit victims seemed to be ‘so poor, so black.’ It was true. But whether they reflected an American racial underclass, or, as President Bush said, ‘a regional’ problem of racial underprivilege, their faces evoked an era that resonated with shame.”
– Paul Vitello, writing for the paper’s special “The Year in Pictures” section, December 28.

Congressional Republicans in Trouble? We Can Dream

“Whether Republicans can hold their fragmenting membership together in the difficult months to come could determine whether they have an even narrower majority in 2007. Or a majority at all.”
 – Conclusion to a report by congressional reporter Carl Hulse, December 23.

Putting A Winter Chill on the Strong Economy

"THE NEWS The Federal Reserve Board raised the key federal funds rate by a quarter point, to 4.25 percent.

“BEHIND THE NEWS Investors had hoped the Fed would hint that its inflation fight was nearly over. Instead, it said that low unemployment, strong economic growth, high energy prices and big deficits made inflation a continuing threat. More rates rises could slow the economy, hurting Republicans, and Democrats have charged that the administration has done little to keep down energy prices."
 – From the December 18 Week in Review.

“The Suffering He Himself Had Caused” in Iraq?

“As he has in his previous speeches, Mr. Bush said he had made mistakes in Iraq and acknowledged in a more personal way than before the suffering he himself had caused."
 – White House reporter Elisabeth Bumiller on President Bush’s address to the nation, December 19.

“Far Right” Ariel Sharon

“….the policy balloons, like Gaza disengagement, that Mr. Sharon later adopted as he moved from the far right toward the center.”
 – Israel-based reporter Steven Erlanger, January 6.

A Pretend “Prison” for Palestinians

"Easier passage for people and goods, or just new wallpaper for the prison?"
 – Text box to Steven Erlanger’s story on a security barrier in Jerusalem, December 22.

See TimesWatch's Quotes of Note Archive

E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org