Bill Archer: “I reclaim my time. The gentlewoman has a press report that she is holding up for the benefit of this House, and we all…”

“I reclaim my time. The gentlewoman has a press report that she is holding up for the benefit of this House, and we all know that you cannot rely on the accuracy of press reports. They pick up on certain items that are presented to them, and then they are rapidly put into print. It does not mean they are accurate. And in this case, the accuracy of the situation is as I stated, and I am not here to defend Rupert Murdoch. But I think the gentlewoman, the Senator from Illinois, who put this into the conference report certainly should be asked. I do not think she was trying to do any sort of a favor for Rupert Murdoch, and as she presented it, she was not trying to give a special favor to anybody, but simply to say that the binding-contract rule to prevent retroactivity should apply with a certainty to this particular transaction. If this had not been a binding contract, there is no question in my mind that it would never have been embraced in the Senate offer and would never have gotten into the conference report. But it is also very, very important to know that this has absolutely nothing to do with the tax bill and spending reduction bill that will be coming on the floor of this House this week. So I just wanted to be here to set the record straight on this issue.”