Dan Quayle

Access Journalism was to the 1980s what the New Journalism was to the 1960s and '70s: the way for an ambitious reporter to make his or her name. Access Journalism is the reportorial mode made possible by access to senior governmental officials and by the bull market for opinion journalism. Officials provide journalists with information and trends on Executive Branch politicking; journalists convey these impressions to the public in a simplified form that doesn't offend the source.

Wristwatches were rather dull before Stephen Hill and Rick Ongstad came along. True, there was a choice of sweep hand or digital, square or round, plain or Mickey, but none resembled anything like what these two former stockbrokers from Simi Valley have recently been marketing. Take their Dan Quayle watch. Please. There's Dan, hands in pants pockets, smiling his vice presidential smile, the two parts of his tie acting as the big and little hand. But the numbers are not in the traditional spots.

Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) came under some of the harshest criticism of the GOP presidential campaign Thursday as rival Lamar Alexander accused him of having failed as a conservative leader even as Dole sought to bolster his conservative support by making an ally out of former Vice President Dan Quayle, a hero to many on the right.

Vice President Dan Quayle, in an odd way one of the best friends "Murphy Brown" ever had, predictably turned the sitcom's season debut into a smash-hit national event in the ratings as the CBS series slammed back at his criticism of its values. According to the A. C.

It is absolutely true that Hollywood is well-populated with liberal-minded TV producers, some of them almost as high-profile as their stars: Steven Bochco, Norman Lear, Barney Rosenzweig, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and the woman of the moment, Diane English.

It's the second morning of our summer-long quest to explore the state of the American family, and I'm having doubts. In an hour we're set to interview former Vice President Dan Quayle, the man who put the term "family values" into political play with his "Murphy Brown" speech in 1992.

Dan Qayle's "Standing Firm" is a fine memoir: briskly written, closely argued, nuanced and persuasive. But reactions from the Beltway have been harsh. The politicos have damned Quayle for underscoring former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp's grandstanding and occasional public breaks from the Reagan Administration; and for hammering former Secretary of State James Baker for his handling of both Quayle's selection in 1988 and the entire Bush campaign.

The Greeting Card Assn. says the trend is to traditional cards--red and green, nostalgic, country, Victorian and religious--and there certainly are more cards available in this spirit than any others. But if you're asking what's really new, it's a sour note adding dissonance to the Christmas-card carol. This year, politics, obscenity, meanness and general tastelessness are stronger than ever.

When Dan Quayle attacked TV's "Murphy Brown" in 1992 because the lead character was having a baby out of wedlock, Hollywood's reaction was one of mockery and anger. Quayle, then the vice president, was even roasted on the Emmy Awards show in an open display of hostility. When Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole attacked sex and violence in TV, movies and music last week, there was another strong reaction of anger, and a touch of mockery, from many in the show business world.