The Media Research Center chief complains how "For some, hatred of conservatives will trump truth every time" -- as his own hatred for President Clinton trumps the truth.
By Terry Krepel Posted 3/9/2001
Let's start with the end of L. Brent Bozell's Feb. 27 column: "For some, hatred of conservatives will trump truth every time."
That quote caps a screed in which Bozell proves beyond a doubt that for him, hatred of Clinton trumps truth every time.
The column ostensibly waxes indignant that it took the issue of questionable pardons issued on the way out the door for "the left" (which for Bozell is synonymous with the media) to criticize former President Clinton at a level Clinton-haters like Bozell find encouraging, if insufficient.
To make his point of how sleazy he considers the Clintons, Bozell throws in his laundry list of offenses he charges them with. Let's look at a few of them:
"Crooked land deals" -- The only 'crooked" person here was Jim McDougal, who swindled the Clintons out of thousands of dollars in the deal. No one in the "Whitewater investigation" was ever charged or convicted with anything directly linked to the Whitewater development itself.
" ... Bill Clinton most probably raped a woman" -- Ronald Reagan "most probably" raped a woman, too, but Bozell doesn't seem too bothered by that.
"They stripped the White House on their way out" -- Funny that there is no physical evidence of this or any witness to the alleged destruction who hasn't demanded anonymity. Heck, even George W. Bush said they didn't do it.
These are tossed in with other items that are at least borderline true -- "both Clintons lied under oath"? Nobody's denying they did, but nobody bothered to file perjury charges either -- and it plays into the standard conservative line.
Bozell also declares the "everybody does it" defense off limits. After all, he doesn't want to reminded of the fact that Reagan and George Bush lied under oath. And he certainly doesn't want to hear any more about the elder Bush's pardon record. In fact, Bozell calls comparisons of Clinton's pardons to Bush's pardon of Caspar Weinberger's Iran-contra charges a "preposterous argument of the loony left." Too bad he can't be bothered to tell us why it's "loony" to presume Bush pardoned Weinberger to save his own bacon regarding the aforementioned "lying under oath." And we won't even get into Armand Hammer.
Bozell gets in one last whine before the end of the column: "These journalists refuse to concede, unequivocally, that this man is a liar, a cheat and a thief not only because it will prove he conned them all, but also because it will give validation to the conservative movement, which has said this all along."
Which, of course, is the whole point of this. Bozell desperately wants to be validated, by name and in front of as large an audience as possible. The fact that he's such a demogogue that he will exaggerate and lie to make his point -- something he does regularly -- appears not to bother him one whit. The fact that he is so intellectually dishonest he turns a blind eye to Republican ethical lapses doesn't bother him either.
Brent Bozell is an embarassing spectacle. He is, however, an embarassing spectacle in charge of a multimillon-dollar political operation, so he's difficult to ignore. Fortunately, he's also easy to debunk.
My diagnosis: Rabid demogogery, the conservative disease. The prescription: The truth, since Bozell clearly has only a passing acquaintance with it.
