Word: gorbachevized
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...startling news broke at 2 p.m. EST. From Moscow, CNN bureau chief Steve Hurst reported, in a live phone conversation from the Soviet capital, that Mikhail Gorbachev was "considering his resignation" as chief of the Communist Party. The report, attributed to an unnamed party source, sent the economic and political world into an immediate tizzy. On foreign currency markets the value of the dollar surged; on Wall Street the stock market took a quick plunge. White House officials pleaded ignorance, world leaders were puzzled, and in Moscow (where CNN is seen in many government offices) phones jangled all night...
...Gorbachev flatly denied the story next day, and no other news organization got even a shred of confirmation that resignation was imminent. But the furor demonstrated CNN's growing impact as the world's most widely circulated TV news network. It also raised questions about whether, given that global clout, CNN exercised due journalistic caution when dealing with a potential bombshell...
Hurst still stands by his report, pointing out that his source said only that Gorbachev was "considering" resignation: "I heard it from someone I believed, a long-standing source who has been right on every other occasion." But some editors and press monitors criticized CNN for going public with unconfirmed information. "It's a fundamental of journalism: one-source stories are bad," says Tom Goldstein, dean of the journalism school at the University of California, Berkeley. "Generally we will not go with a single source," says Timothy Russert, senior vice president of news at NBC. "Of course, every news organization...
...only one sentence, but the words from Mikhail Gorbachev last week suddenly gave fresh momentum to German unification. Asked about the possibility of the two Germanys becoming one, Gorbachev replied, "Basically, no one casts any doubt on it." Though the Soviet President cautioned that "it is essential to act responsibly and not seek the solution to this important issue in the streets," his reluctant blessing contrasted sharply with his government's previous pronouncements...
...sharply, in fact, that within three days the Kremlin began to hem and haw. Apparently concerned that Gorbachev's words might be interpreted as an explicit push for a single German state, Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze told Soviet reporters that "it is not the idea of German unity itself but the revival of sinister shadows of the past" that raises alarm. He proposed that some way be found for the citizens of the Soviet Union, Europe, the U.S. and Canada to express their opinions on unification...