Word: downplay
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...Another former student, Father Joseph Fessio, a conservative Jesuit theologian and U.S.-based publisher of Ratzinger's writings, will also be there. Fessio did his best to downplay the significance of the meeting. "This is not a gathering of experts on evolution and creation called in to advise the Holy Father," he told TIME shortly after his arrival in Rome. "This is just a former professor having an informal gathering with his old students. There has never been a subgroup that produced a document. We've never issued a statement...
...finals duel in Flushing, N.Y., could be the hard-court rubber match and fuel a high-profile clash that professional tennis craves. Although the two players downplay the rivalry, it was the fierce face-offs between John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, and McEnroe and nerveless Swede Bjorn Borg, that drove the sport to its heights. Since 1992, the year Jimmy and Mac finally hung up their racquets, the number of Americans playing tennis has fallen 36%, to 11 million, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Television ratings have trended downward...
...Bush Administration has tried to downplay the mounting danger posed by North Korea. That might be the understandable reaction of officials necessarily preoccupied with the ongoing campaign in Iraq. But it is not prudent or safe. Although the July 4 test of the Taepo Dong 2 missile?which is intended to carry nuclear warheads to U.S. territory?appears to have failed, North Korea conducted the test so its engineers could learn how to perfect the missile, and even a failed test provides critical data. More important is the test's symbolic significance: once again North Korea has crossed a line...
...fulfilling their constitutional responsibility for oversight. Many in the media saw the warning signs and heard cautionary tales before the invasion from wise observers like former Central Command chiefs Joe Hoar and Tony Zinni but gave insufficient weight to their views. These are the same news organizations that now downplay both the heroic and the constructive in Iraq...
...though mayors prefer to downplay the costs of fighting global warming, there seems to be truth to the Bush Administration's contention that meeting the Kyoto targets involves pain--not just gain. And in Seattle, where population growth is projected to push up regional greenhouse gases by 38% in the next 15 years, ratcheting down to 1990 levels would require slashing emissions by 683,000 tons--the equivalent of taking some 148,000 cars off the road. To do that may require such unpopular measures as highway tolls and increased parking taxes. But in the absence of federal controls, Nickels...