Word: downplay
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Though the President was scheduled to deliver a TV address to the nation on the economic situation this week, some in the White House were trying to downplay the issue. "Unemployed people don't vote," declared one adviser bluntly. For the employed majority, he claimed, the "fundamental concern is the sickness of the economy, which for most people means inflation and interest rates." Not everyone in Washington was convinced, even in the White House. Said one presidential aide: "I think unemployment is a very, very serious problem for us. Anyone who thinks...
...every good marriage, at times one talks about a divorce." After the transatlantic clash provoked by Washington's embargo on technology for the Soviet gas pipeline from Siberia to Western Europe, both the U.S. and its allies assessed the damage, found it considerable and decided to downplay the disagreement...
...threat: the encroachments of Ted Turner's round-the-clock Cable News Network and especially his most recent effort, CNN2, the headline-news service, which has been sold not only to cable systems but also to dozens of the networks' own affiliate stations. Most network executives publicly downplay creeping "Turneritis." CBS News President Van Gordon Sauter discreetly calls CNN "one of a number of factors in our thinking," but NBC's Frank confesses: "It was all Turner. That...
FEMA officials downplay the significance of the council's rejection. "The planning process will simply not take place in Cambridge." Clanahan says. He adds that only 11 of 3000 cities participating in preparations have opposed the planning. Forbes describes the Cambridge reaction as "a political move." Councilors, he adds, "are not going to sit around at ground zero or near ground zero and watch those things...
Nonetheless, burning wood has important drawbacks. It produces polluting gases, soot and ashes and has sharply increased the number of burn victims treated by hospitals. Such considerations lead planners to downplay wood's potential. Says a Department of Energy spokesman: "Wood fuel is important, but nuclear power is still the most viable alternative energy source available...