Word: baseless
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What have these men done to deserve such treatment by the press, both large and small? Consider the original charges against Ed Meese, for instance (which have all proven baseless). Not withstanding the fact that no Civil Service or Ethics in Government Act regulations were violated by the offer of jobs to certain Meese business associates, he has still been accused of "unethical behavior." Consider the ramifications of this charge--any government appointee who had advantageous business relations with an administration official prior to assuming federal office could be publicly smeared and disqualified. Under this criteria most senior federal officials...
Certainly one of the greatest strengths of our national press is its ability to hold officials rightly accountable for their actions when laws have been broken or interests conflict. But single-minded, baseless smearing and ridiculing of public figures crodes the credibility and effectiveness of the very institution we trust to ferret out true wrong-doing...
...days preceding the debate had not been particularly good ones for Reagan. He had been testy when asked about the indictment of Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan (see following story). The President accused the press of a "lynch atmosphere" and insisted that the only "sleaze factor" was "baseless charges and accusations" against officials in his Administration. Reagan aides doubt that the Donovan indictment in itself will have any lasting political fallout, although they worry that it will add to the impression that Administration officials have more than their share of ethical lapses and legal problems...
...before a grand jury in The Bronx in New York City. The jurors had been looking into Schiavone's subway work at the request of Bronx District Attorney Mario Merola, a four-term Democrat. Donovan claimed that the jury was doing nothing more than "a rehash" of "the baseless allegations" that Silverman had investigated. It was all "a witch hunt," he said. The Labor Secretary said he had hired independent experts to give him lie-detector tests, and "needless to say, I passed with flying colors." Declared Donovan: "I will not be indicted...
...anxieties about Catholics until John F. Kennedy was elected President. There were anxieties about whether a divorced male could deal with the presidency, and Ronald Reagan has dispelled that. We always have anxieties until we do it the first time, and then we usually recognize that those anxieties are baseless. This is a first, and it's bound to create concerns; but we are going to put those concerns to rest quickly...