Word: downplay
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...White House refused to answer other questions on the subject. Who was the dermatologist? Why had there been no advance announcement of the operation, however minor? Why was no test for cancer performed on the removed skin? Apparently, after airing details of his colon-cancer operation, Reagan wished to downplay additional medical discussion. But by sealing their lips, White House aides aroused more curiosity than they desired and probably more than the minor procedure deserved. FOREIGN POLICY Bludgeoned with an Umbrella...
Though British officials had gone to considerable lengths to downplay the significance of the event, the summit agreement reverberated across Britain and Ireland like a distant explosion. The straightforward language of the accord raised as many fears as it did hopes. Said Professor John A. Murphy, a history teacher at University College, Cork: "There is no grand solution. You can only make incremental moves. This seems to be a courageous one. It's the first time a role for the south has been formally recognized [in Northern Ireland] since 1925. This has to be a dramatic development...
...Reporters Sans Frontières, the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo recently set up Task Force Newsmen, a special group under Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes, to look into the killings. But Reyes, the hard-bitten former Chief of Staff of the Philippine Armed Forces, seems determined to downplay the problem. "There is no climate of fear here," he insists. "These [journalists] who were involved in nefarious activities-if they were killed or threatened because of those activities, and not because they were crusading journalists, then I don't think that is a crime against freedom of expression...
That’s not to downplay the importance of a Beanpot title, or the cachet associated with it. But at this stage in the ECAC schedule, with Harvard tied with Colgate and just three points behind Cornell in the standings and jockeying for playoff positioning, a loss to, say, Rensselaer would be far more meaningful in the long...
...Expect nothing from those Arab leaders. But what about the Europeans? They too were surprised by Iraqis' celebrating on election day. Their first instinct, like Kerry's, is to downplay. Hence the questioning of the legitimacy of the election on the grounds of inadequate Sunni participation. That concern for full participation in an Arab election is as touching as it is novel. Europeans have never had trouble recognizing the legitimacy of regimes in Cairo, Riyadh and Damascus, where there is no participation by anyone. Indeed, many Europeans championed the inviolability of Saddam Hussein's regime, under which election participation...