Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right (44 page)

110. www.top9.com/01_2001/organizations_government/think_tanks.html. Top9>Orga-nizations & Government January 2001

111. Paul Berman, “The Wrong Passions,”
New York Times,
July 9,2000, sec. 7, p. 6.

112. Paul Elie, “John Paul’s Jewish Dilemma,”
New York Times,
April 26,1998, sec. 6, p. 34.

113. Emily Eakin, “New Accusations of a Vatican Role in Anti-Semitism; Battle Lines Were Drawn After Beatification of Pope Pius IX,”
New York Times,
September 1,2001, p. B9.

114. Joe Sharkey, “Word for Word/The Case Against the Nazis; How Hitler’s Forces Planned to Destroy German Christianity,”
New York Times,
January 13,2002, sec. 4, p. 7.

115. John R. Lott, Jr., “The Missing Gun,” NYPOST.com, January 25,2002.

116. Results of a Google search of the web for “Appalachian Law School gun”: NYPOST.COM Post Opinion: www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/38115.htm; Media Ignore Fact That Gun Owners Stopped School Shooter: www.newsmax.com/ archives/articles/2002/l/25/153427.shtml; CNSNews.com, News This Hour: www.cnsnews. com/ThisHour.asp; Media reports sting Grundy residents: www.roanoke.com/roatimes/ news/story!24656.html; Legallinks: www.patriots4the2ndamendment.com/Legallinks.htm and www.net2one.com/annuaire/newsbox.asp; PsycPORT Handhelds: www.psycport.com/ stories/csmonitor_2002_01_18_eng-csmonitor_eng-csmonitor__080751_6143423279999214515. xml.html; 13 News Archives: wvec.com/news/archive.htm; and POE News Page—Archived Evil News: www.poenews.com/default.htm.

117. Paul Krugman, “A Fiscal Fantasy,”
New York Times,
January 22, 2002.

118. Paul Krugman, “The Ascent of E-Man; R.I.P.:
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,” Fortune,
May 24,1999, p. 42.

119. Paul Krugman, “Reckonings: Enron Goes Overboard,”
New York Times,
August 17, 2001, sec. A, p. 19.

120. David Barstow and Don Van Natta Jr., “Examining the Vote: How Bush Took Florida: Mining the Overseas Absentee Vote,”
New York Times,
July 15,2001. Admittedly, the
Washington Post
did give the missile defense test major front-page coverage. Vernon Loeb, “Interceptor Scores a Direct Hit on Missile; Successful Test a Boost to Bush’s Shield Plan,”
Washington Post,
July 15,2001.

121. James Dao, “Pentagon Officials Report Hit in Latest Missile Defense Test,”
New York Times,
July 15,2001, Sec. 1, p. 12.

NOTES,
pp. 116-120

122. Editorial, “Nude Dancing and Free Expression,”
New York Times,
March 30, 2000.

123. Editorial, “The Mayor as Art Censor,”
New York Times,
September 24,1999, p. A26.

124. Editorial, “Censoring Cyberspace,”
New York Times,
November 26, 1998, p. A38.

125. Stephen Labaton, “Click Here for Democracy,”
New York Times,
May 13,2001.

126. Brent Bozell and Brent Baker,
And That’s the Way It Isn’t,
Washington, D.C.: Media Research Center, 1990, p. 213.

127. Ibid., p. 74-75.

128. John Noble Wilford, “Ages-Old Icecap at North Pole Is Now Liquid, Scientists Find,”
New York Times,
August 19, 2000.

129. Keith J. Kelly, “No President, but Election Books Are Coming,”
New York Post,
December 5, 2000.

130. Dan Keating and Dan Balz, “Florida Recounts Would Have Favored Bush; But Study Finds Gore Might Have Won Statewide Tally of All Uncounted Ballots,”
Washington Post,
November 12, 2001. (“The study showed that if the two limited recounts had not been short-circuited—the first by Florida county and state election officials and the second by the U.S. Supreme Court—Bush would have held his lead over Gore, with margins ranging from 225 to 493 votes, depending on the standard.”)
USA Today
led another group of newspapers, which also found that Bush won.

131. Bill Schneider, CNN’s
Inside Politics,
August 16,2001.

132. FreeRepublic.com, “Why We Should Celebrate Paying Taxes,” (Cass R. Sunstein,
republic.com,
Princeton University Press, 2001). Posted on 4/08/2001 by Benoit Baldwin.

133. Richard Zoglin, “The News Wars,”
Time,
October 21, 1996.
Time’s
explanation for why Americans are becoming “inattentive” to the mainstream media: “The news is less interesting today.”

134. Transcript of the First Lady’s Press Briefing on Millennium Project Part 5 of 5, U.S. Newswire, February 11, 1998.

135. In 1996, Abrams defended an ABC program on the grounds that it was not “substantially false” and “they thought was true.” Noreen Marcus, “Attacking ‘20/20’ Vision,”
Palm Beach Daily Business Review,
November 11,1996.

136. Abrams defended NBC for making false statements about singer Wayne Newton in three separate broadcasts, on the grounds that the stories were not the product of “ill will.” Henry Weinstein, “Court Urged to Overturn Libel Award to Singer,”
Los Angeles Times,
April 14,1990.

137. Abrams defended the right of
Fortune
magazine to publish vicious attacks on public figures, “so long as the materials published were not knowingly false.” “Court Throws Out $550,000 Libel Verdict,” Associated Press, August 6, 1992.

138. Abrams defended a Consumer Reports advisory on the grounds that is was not “deliberately false.” Denise Gellene, “Suzuki Sues Magazine for Critical Samurai Review,”
Los Angeles Times,
April 12, 1996.

139. Abrams defended a politician’s false statements about an opponent, saying candidates “frequently make statements which are true on a rather broad level but are arguably false when viewed more narrowly.” Karl Vick, “Brock Cleared of Slandering Aron m Race; Jurors Blame Both Parties for Nasty Senate Contest,”
Washington Post,
March 13, 1996.

140. See, e.g.,
Hustler Magazine v. Jerry Falwell,
485 U.S. 46, February 24, 1988.

141. We have that on the authority not only of the courts, but of the
New York Times:
“the $1.8 million judgment won by Carol Burnett, the actress, in her suit against the
National Enquirer,
and a jury’s $26.5 million award ... in a suit by a former Miss Wyoming against
Penthouse
magazine,. . . has touched off worrying
among journalists
that it may be growing more hazardous to publish criticism of rich and powerful people.” Stuart Taylor Jr., “Post Libel Verdict Worries the Press,”
New York Times,
August 1,1982.

142. Tom Goldstein, “Journalist or Kangaroo?”
Columbia Journalism Review,
January 2001/February2001.

143. Janet Wiscombe, “What Hath the Web Wrought?”
Los Angeles Times,
August 16, 1998.

144. See, e.g., Anthony Lewis, “Abroad at Home: Bork on Free Speech,”
New York Times,
September 3, 1987. Lewis denounced Judge Robert Bork for saying speech that advocates the “forcible overthrow of the Government” or a “violation of law” was not necessarily protected by the First Amendment. Lewis pompously—and irrelevantly—quoted Powell’s no false idea point. Advocating law-breaking or the violent overthrow of the government, of course, is not a “false” idea, any more than the statement “your money or your life” is a “false” idea. Falsity is also not the reason such speech might be banned.

145.
Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.,
418 U.S. 323,339 (1974).

seven. the joy of arguing with liberals:
you’re stupid!

1. Bob Cohn, “Dirt Trail; The Press Coverage of the Clarence Thomas—Anita Hill Episode,”
New Republic,
January 6, 1992, p. 16.

2. Ruth Richman, “Where Are They Now? The Key Players Find Their Lives Will Never Be the Same,”
Chicago Tribune,
September 27,1992.

3. See, e.g., Ishmael Reed, “Feminists v. Thomas; The Anita Hill Crusaders’ Double Standard,”
Washington Post,
October 18,1992.

4. L. Brent Bozell III, “Turner’s ‘Century’ of Liberal Women,”
Washington Times,
June 19,1994, p. B3.

5. Gloria Borger, Ted Gest, and Jeannye Thornton, “The Untold Story,”
U.S. News & World Report,
October 12,1992.

6. Jacques Ellul,
Propaganda,
New York: Vintage Books, 1965, p. 25.

7. Kevin Merida, “Shades of Gray Matter; The Question Dogs George W. Bush: Is He Smart Enough? There’s No Simple Answer,”
Washington Post,
January 19,2000, p. Cl.

8. Jonathan Alter, “Spiro Agnew with Brains,”
Newsweek,
November 28,1994, p. 34.

9. Bill Maher, ABC,
Politically Incorrect,
February 6,2001.

10. Robert Wright, “Against Dumb,”
Slate Magazine,
November 3,2000.

11. Howell Raines,
Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis,
New York: Anchor, 1994.

12. Michael Kinsley, “Acquired Plumage,”
Time,
August 29,1988.

13. “Today’s Best,”
Calgary Herald,
July 16,1992, p. Cl.

14. Michael Finnegan, “Campaign 2000; Bush, Gore Sprint as the Race Comes Down to the Wire,”
Los Angeles Times,
November 6, 2000, p. 1; Katharine Q. Seelye and Kevin Sack, “The 2000 Campaign: The Vice President; Focus Is on Crucial States in Campaign’s Final Hours,”
New York Times,
November 6,2000, p. Al.

15. Cintra Wilson, “Cintra Wilson Feels Your Pain: Florida 2000: It’s Conspiracy Theory Time,”
San Francisco Examiner,
November 17,2000, p. C19.

16. James Gill, “A Long Way from Thomas Jefferson,”
Times-Picayune
(New Orleans), November 5,2000, p. 7.

17. Burt Constable, “Fear Not, Liberals; There’s a Method to Our Madness,”
Chicago Daily Herald,
November 7, 2000, p. 12.

18. John P. Sears, who twice managed Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaigns, quoted in Lynn Rosellini, “Former Reagan Insider Perceives Signs of Drift,”
New York Times,
October 26,1981.

19. Ronald Brownstein, “Replaying 1980?”
National Journal,
September 15,1984.

20. Ibid.

21. Editorial, “Weak, Dumb or Afraid?”
New York Times,
October 23,1984.

22. Lloyd Grove, “Politicking for Mom & Pop; The Candidates’ Sons & Daughters Take to the Trail,”
Washington Post,
October 31,1984, p. Cl.

23. Ann L. Trebbe, “Personalities,”
Washington Post,
May 19,1982.

24. Andrew Ferguson, “Voice of America: Reagan on the Radio,”
Weekly Standard,
February 5, 2001.

NOTES,
pp. 128-132

25. Mike Royko,
Chicago Sun-Times,
July 22,1982.

26. Pete Hamill,
Village Voice,
April 29, 1986, cited in John Sieler, “Ten Years of Sound and Fury,”
Policy Review,
Summer 1987. (“Qaddafi has founded terrorism beyond his own borders, perhaps planned it, possibly ordered specific acts, all in the name of a fuzzyheaded political ideology. But so has Reagan. . . . Muammar reduces most political thinking to dumb slogans; Reagan grins and says, ‘I’m a contra too.’ “)

27. Laurence Chollet, “Pulling No Punches,”
Bergen County Record,
November 22,

1985, p. A22.

28. Richard Cohen, “The Knee-jerk Conservative,”
Washington Post,
February 15,1986, p. A27.

29. Michael Solot, “Reaganism’s Strange Logic,”
Manchester Guardian Weekly,
December 28,1986, p. 2.

30. Walt Harrington, “Revenge of the Dupes.”
Washington Post Magazine,
December 27, 1987, p. W17. (Attributed to “satirist Mort Sahl,” though AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland used it in an address to a union regional conference in March, 1994. U.P.I., March 13,1984, General News.)

31. Michael Kinsley, “The Real Dirt Is Yet to Be Slung,”
Los Angeles Times,
October 10, 1987,pt. 2, p. 8.

32. Welton Jones, “Theater Review: Trudeau’s Darts Blunted by His Own Reagan Character,”
San Diego Union-Tribune,
September 28, 1985. (“But something went wrong between the drawing board and the Rep stage. In this show, Ronald Reagan seems almost lovable!”)

33. “Texas Congressman Says Reagan May Be Senile,” U.P.I., December 9, 1983. Overwhelmed with the force of his own argument, Gonzalez prattled on, saying, “One of the aspects of senility is they get hard-headed and unable to modify their opinions and decisions.”

34. David Espo, “Civil Rights Bill Dominates Presidential Politics,” Associated Press, March 22,1988.

35. “Giving Railroads Away,”
Bergen County Record,
December 19,1986, p. A34.

36. Clyde Haberman, “Mayor Calls Reagan’s Plan to Cut Transit Aid ‘Dumb,’ “
New York Times,
February 24,1981.

37. Mike Royko, “High Employment Is in the Stars,”
Chicago Tribune,
November 3,

1986, p. 3.

38. Hobart Rowen, “Downright Dumb,”
Washington Post,
December 13,1984.

39. James Reston, “Washington: A Week to Remember,”
New York Times,
May 30,1984, p. A23.

40. Maureen Dowd, “Liberties; Mexico Likes Us!”
New York Times,
May 6,2001, p. 15.

41. Lou Cannon with David S. Broder and Cristine Russell, “Age Emerges as New Issue in Campaign,”
Washington Post,
October 10,1984, p. Al.

42. Linda Greenhouse, “Taking the Supreme Court’s Pulse,”
New York Times,
January 28,1984, p. 8.

43. George W. Ball, “A President at 74 (77) Is a Considerable Risk,”
New York Times,
June 24,1984, p. 23.

44. Editorial, “On Being 73,”
Washington Post,
October 24,1984, p. A17.

45. Matt Clark, “The Doctors Examine Age,”
Newsweek,
October 22, 1984; Evan Thomas, “Questions of Age and Competence; The President Seems Fit—But Is He Too Detached?”
Time,
October 22, 1984; Emma Elliot, “My Name Is Mrs. Simon,”
Ladies Home Journal,
August 1984. (“ ‘Senile old people can hurt themselves with those false teeth,’ a nurse’s aide explained.”); “Today’s Senior Citizens: ‘Pioneers of New Golden Era,’ Interview with Dr. Robert Butler, Geriatric Specialist,”
U.S. News & World Report,
July 2,1984.