Writer can't put story to bed (or: Joe Conason, Hypocritical Sheet Sniffer)

New York Daily News ^ | February 17, 2004 | Mickey Kaus/Lloyd Grove/Elisa Lipsky-Karasz

[L.N. Smithee]

Liberal pundit Joe Conason worked himself into quite a lather Friday over the rampant rumors concerning Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry.

"Is American politics suddenly returning to the bad old days, when Washington journalism became frenzied with sheet sniffing and keyhole peeping?" the Bill Clinton loyalist demanded indignantly on Salon.com.

Unfortunately for Conason, Internet commentator Mickey Kaus promptly discovered that, in 1992, Conason had engaged in just such "sheet sniffing and keyhole peeping" - a long, rumor-filled piece about Clinton's campaign opponent, the first President Bush, in Spy magazine.

"He Cheats on His Wife," blared the headline over the article, in which Conason enumerated various unsubstantiated personal scandals involving George H.W. Bush, including extramarital affairs and (as the Spy headline announced) "unpleasant details of Bush's all-around bachelor-party piggishness!"

But unlike cybergossip Matt Drudge - who, Conason charged in Salon, had "hyped to the maximum" the "vague and unsourced" Kerry rumors - Conason sometimes dropped the word "alleged" and published dirt as fact.

In a tone of supreme authority, he wrote about "Bush's adultery" and "the President's extramarital dalliances."

Yesterday, Conason explained: "That's the Spy style - it's a very assertive style. They just don't use a lot of 'alleged' ... But I stand by every word."

Conason also explained why, in his scorching of Drudge, he failed to mention his Spy piece: "I wasn't even thinking about it. It was 12 years ago."

In an E-mail, Conason argued that the subject of his Spy story was less Bush's supposed affairs than the media's reluctance to investigate them - in contrast to "nonstop press coverage of Clinton's alleged, rumored and gossiped infidelities ... Was the the President protected by a political double standard?"

Conason blamed Spy editors Kurt Andersen and Susan Morrison for the assertive headline.

"If you read the story, you'll see that the text isn't nearly as conclusive as the cover line. I argued with Kurt and Susan that saying "He cheats on his wife' on the cover went too far, because I didn't agree that we had proved it. That decision was theirs."

Kaus retorted: "He blames his editors. But should he now be lecturing people on 'journalistic standards'? ... The lesson of 1992 wasn't that sex shouldn't be dredged up. It's that voters need to know everything. Democrats ignored Clinton's 'alleged, rumored and gossiped infidelities' and wound up electing a President who wasted most of his second term on a sex scandal."

[L.N. Smithee]

Need visual proof? Click here. Geocities apparently won't allow us to show the image. Maybe someone here can save it and repost it.

[Darksheare]

GEocities says that it's 'currently unavalable'.
Hopefully someone nailed (saved) it before it was taken down.

[billorites]

Spy magazine was about as successful as George magazine.

Lefty chick rags.

[Darksheare]

GEocities says that it's 'currently unavalable'.
Hopefully someone nailed (saved) it before it was taken down.

[Petronski]

Is American politics suddenly returning to the bad old days, when Washington journalism became frenzied with sheet sniffing and keyhole peeping?

Conasen would no doubt rather relive his long years of Clinton buttswabbing...oh wait, those years never ended.

[Darksheare]

Can you remove my double post in this thread please?
Either #2 or #4, I don't mind which one.

[L.N. Smithee]

I don't get it. I am able to view the cover except when I linked it here.

Try entering this in your address line: http://www.geocities.com/prohibition_us/Spy.gif

[Darksheare]

That's weird, I can see it that way.
*scratches head*

[cwb]

The Democrats are the champions of sex-scandals. In 1988, while working for the Michael Dukakis campaign, Donna Brazile peddled a rumor to the media that then-Vice President George Bush was having an extramarital affair. Brazile called for Bush to "fess up" to it. Unlike the deliberate media blackout over the Kerry intern scandal, the Associated Press reported Brazile's unsubstantiated claim on October 20, 1988, when they quoted her:

"I think George Bush (41) owes it to the American people to fess up' about whether he has committed adultery, she told reporters. 'The American people have every right to know if Barbara Bush will share that bed with him in the White House.' Brazile continued: 'It's important. We're not just voting for a man. We're voting for a family. The First Family is very important."

[Republican Red]

[Republican Red]

Real strange. The preview section of FR posting even showed the photo. When I hit post it disappeared.

These dems are good, real good

[Darksheare]

Saved it to my page here:
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/BMK175/Gif/Spy.gif

[mabelkitty]

Current Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter was the editor (or something) of Spy at that time. Quite telling.

[Callahan]

I actually liked Spy Magazine. I remember they did a great expose on the Church of Scientology.

[watchin]

[L.N. Smithee]

Thanks a bunch!

[NYCVirago]

And Hillary helped Conason with that 1992 story, BTW.

[L.N. Smithee]

And Hillary helped Conason with that 1992 story, BTW.

Actually, I don't think she did. I think you are confusing Conason's Spy story with Hillary's pre-election interview in Vanity Fair by feminist writer Gail Sheehy, in which Sheehy wrote that Hillary said, "Why isn't anyone asking about George Bush's 'Jennifer'?" (Everyone was talking about Bill's original "bimbo eruption," Gennifer Flowers.) Hillary would later insist that she was speaking off the record, something Sheehy denied, but not strongly enough to condemn her for lying.

[Darksheare]

Welcome!