Even as a child Morris loved sucking toes.....
Posted on 06/17/2003 9:26:51 AM PDT by kattracks
The New York Times wanted to see former President Clinton reelected so badly that in 1996 it allegedly promised to go into the tank on its scandal coverage - and even gave the president an advanced list of questions for an upcoming interview.
The scathing charge that the Times allowed itself to become the public relations tool of the White House comes from former senior White House advisor Dick Morris, who details the paper's efforts as a defacto member of the Clinton campaign in his new book, "Off with Their Heads: Traitors, Crooks and Obstructionists in American Politics, Media and Business."
In excerpts published Tuesday by the New York Post, Morris reveals that he got a call from the paper's then-managing editor, Joseph Lelyveld.
"I was surprised to be asked by Lelyveld and a Times reporter to help them get an exclusive interview with the president," Morris reports.
"We've tried for months and come up empty," the Lelyveld pleaded. "Can you help get it done?"
When Morris told him that Clinton was unlikely to grant the interview because he was unhappy with the paper's scandal coverage, Lelyveld hinted at a deal.
"A worried frown clouded the editor's formerly sunny face," writes Morris, who quotes the Times decision-maker as saying next, "You know, we don't think that the public cares about what happened back in Arkansas."
Morris says he was stunned.
"I wondered if I heard right. Did the top editor of The New York Times just imply that they'd pull their punches over Whitewater, Paula Jones, the Rose Law Firm, Hillary's billing records, the Web Hubbell hush money and the rest of the scandals that had emerged from Clinton's Arkansas Pandora's Box - all in return for an interview?
"I certainly got that impression," the top White House advisor recalls.
When Morris broached the quid-pro-quo arrangement with Clinton, the president was skeptical.
"They're B.S.-ing you," the president insisted.
"No," Morris shot back. "I wasn't fishing for the concession, they just threw it out."
Later, for reasons still unclear to Morris, the interview was granted.
The White House duo didn't have to wait long for their payback. Within days a Times reporter called to meet with Morris to discuss the Clinton sit-down.
"After some light chatter over drinks," says Morris, "he began, casually, to tell me the questions he was going to ask."
The Times scribe allegedly told Morris, "I'll ask him what are his proudest achievements, what he's most ashamed of, why he thought he lost the Congress [in the 1994 elections], what he proposed to do about Bosnia . . ."
"I couldn't believe my luck," the Clintion advisor said of unsolicited heads-up. The Times reporter seemed so willing to flack for Clinton that he decided to ask for more.
"Pushing my luck," Morris reveals, "I prompted him. 'Why don't you ask him about . . . '"
"Good idea," the reporter replied, taking notes while lapping up Morris' script.
Later, he recalls, "I fed the reporter's questions to Clinton, and we worked out answers. . . answers to hit the ball out of the park."
"What if he asks about Whitewater?" Clinton asked.
"He won't," Morris assured. "He's told me exactly what he's going to ask."
Sure enough, on May 19, 1996, The New York Times Magazine published a fawning cover story headlined, "Facets of Clinton."
The White House was delighted, Morris says, especially with descriptions of Clinton as "breathtakingly bright" and as "one of the biggest, most talented, articulate, intelligent, open, colorful characters ever to inhabit the Oval Office."
Clinton was also undoubtedly happy with the Times' observation that he "exudes physical attraction."
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Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Next best thing to an admission of wrongdoing...
This guy must feel safe from Clinton's goons. Apparently, he is no longer afraid of NYT either now that it has eggs on its face. He is ratting out another embarrassing episode only Clinton insiders could know. Because of his position in Clinton's White House, he must know a lot.
When I read that Morris ratted about Slick physically assaulting him, I wondered whether there are more such revelations to come in the future. It has come sooner than I expected.
Carl Limbacher today cited Dick Morris, who wrote in the NY Post about conversations he had with employees of the New York Times, it was reported on Newsmax.com.
The oddly constructed article reveals the fact that Morris wrote a perfectly fine piece that stood pretty well on its own. Media wags are left wondering why Carl Limbacher constantly takes other people’s articles and basically repeat the entire thing with obligatory “Morris said…” and “Morris related…” fluff around the actual article.
“Why not just tell people read the original article?” pondered Greg Packer, 38, of Huntington. “It doesn’t really seem like respectable journalism and flirts pretty close to plagiarism if you ask me, which for some reason people always do.”
I wonder what bombshells Morris is sitting on, waiting for Hillary! to make her move.
This guy must feel safe from Clinton's goons.
I mentioned this in another article about the "Morris Revelations". He must have something tucked away somewhere, that the clintons know about, for him not to have committed Arkincide by now.
I agree, but it's still nice to have a bonafide insider airing out some of the First Scumbag Family's dirty laundry and drawing blood from the Socialist "liberal" establishment that catered to the turpetude.
Even as a child Morris loved sucking toes.....
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