Newsweek's Harassment Hypocrisy
"But [attorney Bob] Bennett
says he has 'people coming out of the woodwork' to discredit
Jones and her story. He need look no further than Jones'
brother-in-law, Mark Brown...'She went with one man and when she
got there, she spotted another one. She goes right up to him,
puts her leg between the legs of the other man and rubs herself
up and down on him...Promiscuity? Good gosh. Her mother is
fixing to get the shock of her life when Paula's life comes
out...She went out and had herself a good time. I've seen her at
the Red Lobster pinch men on the ass.'"
- Newsweek Washington reporter Mark Hosenball,
May 16.
"Yes, the case is being
fomented by right-wing nuts, and yes, she is not a very credible
witness, and it's really not a law case at all...some sleazy
woman with big hair coming out of the trailer parks...I think
she's a dubious witness, I really do."
- Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Evan Thomas
on Inside Washington, May 7.
"The days of Simpson Chic
are over. Now he is more often compared to Red-baiter Joseph
McCarthy. The image of Simpson flinging open his jacket and
declaring he had lots of `stuff' against Anita Hill - while
revealing nothing - was the lowest of many low points in the
Clarence Thomas hearings. Any senator with a sense of history
should have said, as attorney Joseph Welch eventually did to
McCarthy, `Senator, have you no shame?'"
- Newsweek's Eleanor Clift, October 28, 1991
issue.
"Little in Hill's life
suggested she would one day discuss sexual matters before an
audience of millions. Quiet and intensely private, Hill
apparently has always been a straight arrow. Neighbors say the
law professor - still known back home by her middle name, Faye,
was an unusually bright and determined child.. [Law school
colleagues] say it is inconceivable that the never- married
professor would fabricate the allegations against Thomas."
- Newsweek Senior Writer Eloise Salholz,
October 21, 1991 issue.
Margaret Carlson's Plain Old Washington-Variety Harassment
"I think at least the
American people are more likely to believe the President than
they are to believe, you know, someone without a job, from
Arkansas, whose lawyer says she's not in it for money, but
clearly she's in it for something - fame, celebrity, money,
something. And she's aligned with right-wing groups, which also
draws it into question...[Anita Hill] brought her charges to the
Senate Judiciary Committee after being asked to, and very
quietly. There wasn't, she wasn't going before a left-wing group
in a press conference."
- Time columnist Margaret Carlson on CNN's Capital
Gang, May 7.
"Senator Alan Simpson, who
usually manages to hide his meanness behind an Andy Rooney
facade, warned Hill that she would be `injured and destroyed and
belittled and hounded and harassed' - real harassment,
different from the sexual kind, just plain old
Washington-variety harassment."
- Time then-Deputy Washington Bureau Chief
Margaret Carlson, October 21, 1991 issue.
Bryant Blames the Victim
"We've got an awful lot to
talk about this week, including the sexual harassment suit
against the President. Of course, in that one, it's a little
tough to figure out who's really being harassed."
- Today co-host Bryant Gumbel, May 10.
"The Clinton administration
enjoyed a short-lived triumph last week. After eking out a
victory against assault weapons, the White House had to endure
fallout on Haiti and a politically motivated sex suit out of
Arkansas....Charging `intentional affliction of emotional
distress,' something she clearly thought out on her own, to your
mind, does the suit have any merit or are we just looking at
politics of the worst kind here?"
- Gumbel to Democratic consultant Bob Squier, same show.
Is Clinton a Sexual Harasser? Irrelevant, or a Plus?
"Why didn't we put it on
earlier? It didn't seem, I think to most people, entirely
relevant to what was going on at the time. These are the kinds
of charges raised about the President before. They had been
played out in the Gennifer Flowers episode. The American public
had made a kind of decision about his personal conduct and
whether it had relevance in his personal life. And it seemed at
that time it didn't have the news weight."
- Tom Brokaw on the CNBC show Tim Russert, May
9.
"Are we in an era of
government by Geraldo? Have we created an atmosphere where no
one with any interesting aspects of their past is going to want
to get involved in politics? Are we going to look back on this
time 100 years from now the way we look back on Salem?...We're
going to wind up with government by goody- goodies, government
by people who have done nothing in their life expect walk the
straight and narrow, who have no creative thoughts. We're going
to look back on this 100 years from now and say we drove some of
our best people out of politics. In the 20th century, having an
interesting sexual history is a leading indicator of success in
the Presidency."
- Newsweek Senior Editor Joe Klein on Face
the Nation, May 8.
Anita Had No Motives
"I think Anita Hill was
more credible because she came out when a decision was being
made about someone, she came out reluctantly, and she didn't
have a financial motive or even a political motive as part of
her motivation."
- Newsweek reporter Eleanor Clift, May 7 McLaughlin
Group.
"Hill, who has picked her
public spots carefully since achieving headline status,
announced a deal with Doubleday late last year to write an
autobiography and a study of sexual harassment in historical and
contemporary contexts. She'll be paid about a mil."
- Washington Post reporter Lois Romano, May 5.
Clinton Believability
Most back Bill - poll
- New York Daily News, May 8
Most doubt Clinton on lawsuit
- Washington Times, same day on same poll
Frightening Conservatives
Host Brian Lamb:
"[Clarence] Thomas says he reads only the conservative Washington
Times and won't look at The Washington Post or The
New York Times, quote, this is from an interview, `They can
say absolutely anything they want about me, I will never read
them again and see it.'"...
Leslie Phillips, USA Today
reporter: "I find it very frightening that a Supreme Court
Justice is getting his news from The Washington Times,
and I think he also talks about the Rush Limbaugh show. I mean,
whether you believe The New York Times or The
Washington Post you know, you need to know what the
opposition is doing."
- Exchange on C-SPAN's Journalists Roundtable,
May 13.
Bryant's History Lesson
"Let's not debate his
presidency, but his passing. As opposed to a man like Reagan,
Nixon is, was highly regarded as a genuine statesman with a
first-class mind."
- Today co-host Bryant Gumbel, April 26.
In What Cave Does He Reside?
"Well I think obviously
there's some discontent with President Clinton from the left.
The difference, of course, is they don't have the influential
journalists. That's the point I was making, is that the left
doesn't set the agenda. I wish they did."
- Frank Mankiewicz, former President of National Public
Radio, May 6 Freedom Forum panel carried by C-SPAN.
Publisher:
L. Brent Bozell III
Editors: Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham
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