GINGRICHISM OF THE WEEK 1

Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, justifies his claim that the editorial boards of most American newspapers harbour "socialists":

They live in their isolated ivory tower fantasy land, and every day these editorial writers are misinforming the people. I just think that business leaders who create jobs, worry about the world market, and worry about survival in a competitive economic system have some right to sit down with the publisher and say, `Why can't we get accurate coverage of how the free market works and what actually happens?' And I don't see why that shouldn't get into print. You can't be as powerful as the news media are and not expect to have some standard where other people get to look at you too ... I'd be glad to get you a collection of editorials that only make sense if people believe that government's good and the free market's bad.