Okay, okay. So CNN's Christiane Amanpour got a big scoop with her world- exclusive interview of Iranian president Mohammad Khatami (see Edward G. Shirley's article on page 20 of this issue). But has it really become de rigueur in such situanons in the name of buttering up the interviewee to commit howlers like this? Quoth Amanpour: "Let me ask you first about the hostage crisis, which is emblazoned in every American's mind. As you know, in all revolutions -- the Communist revolution in Russia, the French revolution, perhaps even the American revolution the early years contain many excesses."
Yes, we all remember those bloody days on the Jeffersonian barricades, when the last Federalist was strangled with the entrails of.