Topic: Newsmax
A June 5 item in NewsMax's e-mail-only "Insider Report" not only forwards misleading information about Ed Klein, author of a new book called "The Truth About Hillary," an excerpt from Klein's book is factually inaccurate as well.
The "Insider Report" cites NewsMax's John LeBoutillier as saying that compared to other Hillary-related tomes, "none of the dozens of biographies of Hillary Clinton have ever been as well-researched as this one," adding: "Nor have any of them been written by a professional journalist with such impeccable credentials."
And what are those credentials paraded by author Ed Klein? LeBoutillier says that Klein "comes from the bastion of the liberal, so-called 'mainstream media.' Klein has worked for the most liberal publications in the United States."
NewsMax and LeBoutillier fail to note, as Media Matters does, that Klein left one of those "liberal publications" -- the New York Times Magazine, where he was editor in chief for several years in the 1980s -- under an ethical cloud in the wake of inaccurate reporting that occurred under Klein's watch. Additionally, Klein's books on the Kennedy family -- described by NewsMax as "well-researched books based on interviews with people who knew the principals involved" -- rely heavily on anonymous sources and questionable armchair psychoanalysis.
The NewsMax item also includes a preview of the book, an anecdote claiming that when Hillary announced her candidacy for the New York Senate seat of Daniel Patrick Moynihan at Moynihan's farm, he "never uttered Hillary's name -- not even once -- during this event."
That's wrong, too. Moynihan said her name several times, as Media Matters also notes.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:59 PM EDT
Updated: Monday, June 6, 2005 6:46 PM EDT