Dan Quayle’s Stand on Abortion
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To have ambushed Dan Quayle with the question about his teen-age daughter was a revolting display of news media bad manners--and a demonstration of why so much of the public loathes the press even while it relies on it.
Quayle was offered a choice of betraying his principles or acting heartlessly to his young daughter. To his credit, he put first precisely those family values for which he’s being derided. But in fact, what Quayle really said is that he would stand by his child, even if she broke the law or the moral code, although he hoped she’d do neither.
Is there something wrong with that?
The issue that needs to be examined is not Quayle’s response, but Larry King’s question and the malicious joy with which the press pounced on it.
SAUL DAVID
Van Nuys
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