-Caveat Lector- >From SalonMagazine.CoM ______sleaze, smears and spleen: A __N O V A K __WAY OF KNOWING <Picture> HE'S JUST REPEATED A DISGRACEFUL LIE THAT I.F. STONE WAS A COMMUNIST SPY. SO WHY IS RABID ATTACK DOG ROBERT NOVAK STILL TREATED AS A RESPECTABLE COMMENTATOR? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - BY ERIC ALTERMAN | Robert Novak is one of the most respected and admired pundit-reporters in Washington. His column runs regularly in the Washington Post and he has his own round-table talk show on CNN and hosts another with his partner, Rowland Evans. He is also a much-beloved figure among the powers that be. When Wall Street Journal honcho Albert Hunt and PBS icon Judy Woodruff launched their first celebrity/journalist roast to raise money to combat spina bifida years ago, they chose Novak as the inaugural honoree. The whole journalistic establishment turned out in one of those sickening evenings of mock mockery. None of this would be worthy of comment were Robert Novak not also a deeply dishonest ideologue who exploits his media prominence to promote his cronies and lie about his enemies. He has done so, unapologetically, since the 1960s. That he continues to be treated as a serious commentator and responsible reporter speaks volumes about how degraded the mores of contemporary American politics have become. Novak has been misleading his readers for nearly 40 years now. In his early decades, he would do so rather subtly, by picking out favorite politicians and attaching favorable adjectives to their names, while doing the reverse to those with whom he disapproved. An extreme conservative, he almost always chose the most regressive politicians -- of either party -- for his favored love-bombs. In those days, in the Evans and Novak (nicknamed "Errors and No-Facts") column, we would often find references to the "hard-boiled centrist Robert Strauss"; "backroom Republican super-power Melvin Laird"; "canny, powerful Wilbur Mills," who was "the only poet in the political hurricane now besetting the Democratic party." That "poet" turned out to be a corrupt old drunk who took payoffs from big business and went swimming in Washington's Tidal Basin with strippers, but because he also spoke at Evans and Novak-organized CEO retreats, he remained in the columnists' good graces long after he became a national laughingstock. The flip side of these wet kisses was a neo-McCarthyite rampage that Novak undertook against liberals of all stripes. In 1972, readers were treated to Novak's description of SNCC as an organization "substantially infiltrated by beatniks, left-wing revolutionaries and -- worst of all -- by Communists." The New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, he wrote, "is studded with past and present Communist Party members." A McGovern rally was attended by "McGovern zealots with long hair, bizarre costumes and peace signs." In one of the most influential political columns of all time, Novak quoted a Democratic senate colleague of McGovern's labeling his politics those of "acid, amnesty and abortion." The label stuck and it helped sink McGovern. Richard Dougherty, a former McGovern aide, insists the quote was fabricated. McGovern told me he believed the same thing. The authors later conceded that McGovern's position on pot was "ambiguous" and admitted that he "opposed marijuana whenever asked." By way of explanation, Novak said, "We are not under any compunction to give a balanced report." Was Novak inventing this famous quote? There's no way to know for certain. Over the years, he has continued to send valentines to those he loves -- to Newt Gingrich, Iran-contra figure Elliot Abrams, Salvadoran mass murderer Roberto D'Aubisson -- while implying that liberals and Democrats are either stupid, disloyal, gay or all three. Alone among respectable columnists, for instance, Evans and Novak published unsubstantiated and untrue rumors that former Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley was gay. Unwilling to take responsibility for the smear, they attributed the lie to "Horace Busby, a much respected Democratic Party insider." I got to know Novak a bit while writing a book on Washington pundits during the late '80s and early '90s. He didn't like me, hated my politics, but was eager to use my book to attack his former friend John McLaughlin by passing along unsubstantiated (but probably true) rumors about the former Jesuit's strange off-camera antics. After my book was published, Novak and I appeared on "Crossfire" together. During the show, Novak insisted that my professional mentor in journalism, the late I.F. Stone, had been in the pay of the KGB. This story, which had surfaced months earlier, had been thoroughly examined by the reporter whose misunderstanding had caused it and laid to rest in the New York Review of Books. I had even had occasion to speak with the KGB agent whose garbled words had caused right-wing ideologues to try to spread this lie, and he told me there was nothing to it. Since Stone was dead by this time, however, Novak was free to make his McCarthyite accusation without fear of a libel suit. CNN did not respond when I wrote the network's president asking how he planned to correct Novak's patently false statement about Stone. Novak was at it again this week on C-Span. I had been slated to appear with him, but he canceled rather than face up to defending himself. When I was told that Novak would not appear with me, I canceled my own appearance, since it was no longer worth the trip to Washington. He therefore did appear, and when I called in to the show to give him the opportunity to explain his cowardly decision, Novak repeated the lie that Izzy Stone had been in the pay of the KGB, but offered no substantive evidence. The audience could not, of course, determine which one of us was telling the truth. Novak was on camera and could simply laugh it off. There is no penalty for a pundit lying on TV and no penalty in Washington to his reputation. Lying in an attempt to smear an honest man's reputation in the service of one's own ideological convictions is considered part of the game. And what an ugly game it is that has made a man such as Robert Novak one of its great success stories. SALON | Jan. 8, 1998 Eric Alterman is an MSNBC contributor and a columnist for the Nation. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ And to anyone who I've mislead (I did not and can not tell a lie), due my hasty and inadequate researching of my recollection about Larry Flynt's activities in the mid-70s (it was not "Wilbur Mills", it was "Wayne Hays + Elizabeth Ray", from http://site123225.primehost.com/PolitciansGuidetoLove.html Dick's Guide to Seduction and Lovemaking Tips From America's Politcians of the 1970's, 80's and 90's ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Return to Welcome to Dick's Guides or Dick's Guide's Free Service for Research Reports and Questions or Dick's Guides to Free and Inexpensive -- or at least discounted -- Student Products and Student Services or Dick's Guide Resource Library or Money Making Opportunities for Students or How Older American Politicians, Lawyers and Bureaucrats Screw Young People, all the time ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Washington has been populated by high testosterone, adulterous politicians for the past 25 years. In 1974, Rep. Wilbur Mills (D-Ark.) cheated on his wife, chased after and won the heart of a stripper named Anabell Battistella, who was also known as "Fanne Foxe, the Argentine Firecracker." Like so many of Bill Clinton's 1990 girl friends, she sacrificed herself for the good of Wilbur. When she and Will were high and speeding their car was stopped by the park police. She jumped into Washington DC's Tidal Basin while Mills was being questioned. Poor Mills. His problem occurred in 1074, before the womanizing of the worshipped Kennedy boys and the oral sex president, Bill Clinton. In 1974 voters did not care for promiscuous behavior. Americans had not learned to tolerate adulterous cheaters in the Whitehouse. Wilbur did not seek re-election. To learn more about this sexy adulterer, whose only crime was that he came to soon see this Excite search. But, by 1976 Americans were beginning to display affection towards Washington's womanizers, even those who used their power to get sex. Rep. Wayne L. Hays (D-Ohio) got caught in his sexual affair with Elizabeth Ray, a clerk in his office. But he went on to win a seat in the Ohio Legislature, proving that the people of Ohio helped to lead the crusade for a softer, kinder set of sexual ethics for the Boys in Washington. While the real male politicians were showering Washington with sperm, squeamish politicians took evasive action on July 20, 1983, censuring Reps. Gerry E. Studds (D-Mass.) and Daniel B. Crane (R-Ill.), who admitted sexual relations with House pages. Somebody had to take the fall. The squeamish politicians needed to pretend that THEY would never seduce a young page. On March 11, 1988, understanding the leeway given Washington Politicians, Gary Hart regretfully ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, simply because he was caught on camera with some his young lovers, like Donna Rice. At this time, the press was still hypocritical. It was OK for politicians to act like cats in heat, as long as they did not get caught on camera. Indeed, one of Wilbur Mills problems was that his stop for speeding had be caught on camera. The Washington press corp was generally very liberal and tolerant of adultery, unless there was a good picture available. A good picture sells papers and makes the evening news shows. But the voters could take just so much philandering. On May 8, 1990, Rep. Donald E. "Buzz" Lukens (R-Ohio) lost the GOP primary to John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) after being convicted for having sex with a 16-year-old girl. The Great Groper, Bill Clinton, has shown strong ethics by staying away from women less than 18 years old. It is only a rumor that he hit on some of his teen age daughter Chelsea's friends. On Sept. 28, 1995 straight laced Mid West voters got the upper hand and sent poor Illinois Democratic Representative. Mel Reynolds to five years in prison. His big crime? Having sex with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer and obstructing justice. Reynolds, a victim of an obvious right wing conspiracy, was later sentenced to six additional years in prison on other charges. Perhaps this lynching of Reynolds was a response to the emerging truth about the wife-cheating Kennedy brothers, Robert and John. The Washington press had kept John Kennedy's adulterous behavior secret for many years. As the truth of his, and his brothers, insatiable sexual appetites became known, there was a backlash among the holier-than-thou Christians. The Kennedy boys were long dead, and someone had to take the fall. Mel Reynolds with his addiction to teen age sex became the sacrificial lamb. On Oct. 1, 1995 Senator Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) resigned from the Senate following a three-year inquiry into allegations that he sexually harassed female members of his staff. Again, Bob was a sacrificial lamb. When it came to senatorial business he had always obeyed the dictates of woman's organizations, like N.O.W. He might have escaped any penalties for his normal Washington politicians behavior (i.e. harassing women, adulterous actions) but he made one mistake. He wrote down all of his sexual conquests in a diary. When his diary became public he had to go. Again, it was important for the other adulterous, sex harassers to take a stand against this behavior. On Aug. 29, 1996, Dick Morris quit the Clinton campaign following reports of his relationship with prostitute Sherry Rowlands. This resignation seems very strange, given that Clinton is the most obvious sexual deviant to ever sit in the White House. It may have been Dick Morris's choice to use traditional sexual behavior that caused him to lose Clinton's support. Clinton never uses prostitutes, preferring to either send uniformed officers to get women, or simply using his powerful office to attract women. Dick's decision to use a more traditional approach, paying prostitutes, might have gotten Bill upset. Bill brags that, "I never have to pay." On Dec. 11, 1997 Clinton's fornicating buddy and former housing secretary, Henry Cisneros, was indicted on 18 felony counts of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements to the FBI regarding payments to a former mistress. Unlike the quick thinking Clinton, Cisneros used some of his own funds to support his mistress. Clinton, of course, simply gets his sexual partners jobs in his government, or jobs with friends of his government. + + + + + + Don't miss the site @ http://site123225.primehost.com/DicksguideOlderAmericansScrewtheYoung.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~ A<>E<>R The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. 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