Posted on 10/23/2001 8:57:10 PM PDT by Luis Gonzalez
My time has been limited recently, for reasons you understand, so I have not read all of the posts on this topic, but I will. Now, as you wish, let me tell the the reader that billhilly was what I chose as my screen name when I finally signed up with FR in 2000. I had followed the site since soon after its inception. My real name is David Ward Henderson, and I am the Dave Henderson referred to in Byron York's Atlantic Monthly article. Billhilly was often mistaken, as I intended it to be, for hillbilly. After all, it was the first names of two of our most prominent hillbillies, Bill and Hillary Clinton. OK, I apologize to all of my true hillbilly friends. My Kentucky upbringing gives me liscense.
As I spend more and more time on FreeRepublic, I realize that I'm beginning to use it as a primary source of news information, not just a place for reading others' opinions or just shooting the breeze with like-minded people. Everything that TAS used to provide me is here, a thousandfold.
Well, looks like the cat's let himself out of the bag!
There are some real feelings of loss for TAS on this thread, there was a lot of good, hard work by R. Emmett, yourself, and the rest involved over the years.
You know, I'm a guajiro myself--hillbilly to the monolingual amongst us--from WAAAAAAAAAAY down South.
The book is great, do you have a release date on it yet?
Luis
You just never, never cease to amaze me. The only thing more amazing than this post are those photos of you on the cruise! Freeper Babes Rule!!!! Lord, Why are all the good ones Married?
Regards,
TS
An enlightening perspective.
Regards,
TS
When Byron called a few months ago and told me he was writing this story I was in the middle of one of several eye surgeries for torn retinas that I endured this summer. In fact, one each in June, July, August and September. Therefore, to be fully cooperative, I offered him my complete manuscript and he accepted. I didn't feel at the time that I could effectively spend the hours that would have been required responding to all of his questions. He quoted from my manuscript where it served his purpose, but ignored the bulk of it.
For starters, it seems interesting to me that Byron chose not to inform the readers that I had served for twelve years on the Board of Directors of TAS. He did mention the seemingly heroic efforts of Terry Eastland, successor to Ron Burr as publisher, in poring over American Express records in an internal probe of how money had been spent in our efforts. What he failed to mention was that they were my American Express Records, and without them to validate a lot of vital information we could have been subject to more than a little embarrasment. The truth is, I used my own documents to guide Terry Eastland's efforts. I might add that I also successfully used them during a federal investigation lasting more than a year that caused me to appear twice before a federal grand jury in Fort Smith Arkansas. Byron did note that Bob Tyrrell and others at the magazine were spared that honor out of a supposed respect for the first ammendment. Finally, Byron follows the Salon Magazine formula used in reporting that same story endlessly. He makes mention of James Ring Adams, a fine writer for TAS at the time, who wrote most of the magazines Whitewater stories. He failed to mention, however, that Jim Adams had credited my work and that of Steve Boynton in his efforts at finding and understanding those stories.
Lastly, David Brock was a determining factor in what was published in TAS during much of the period covered by the "Arkansas Project." He held sway over both Burr and Wlady, publisher and editor respectively. In 1994 Brock had an article published in Forbes Media Critic in which he declaired certain reporting about the Clintons to be off limits. That included a lot of the reporting that went unwritten at TAS. In effect, Brock was criticising his own employer on the pages of another magazine. We all know what subsequently happened to Brock.
Looks like I was wrong. Although it does look like you are in an unusually good position to empathize with Billy Dale.
Good point. One example: my favorite feature in the Spectator was the back page, where readers would send in examples of liberal stupidity. That was great 10 years ago, but nowadays, when Michael Moore says something stupid, we've already posted it, analyzed it, mocked it, etc. within 24 hours of him saying it. Why wait months for a magazine to do the same thing?
I remember when this story came out I did a little research on the timeline. I am pretty sure that Hale was making his allegations against Clinton before the Arkansas project began. That would make any allegations of bribery and witness tampering extremely suspect. Why risk legal problems when the person you are allegedly bribing is already saying what you want them to say?
They threw away ELLIOTT BANFIELDS work? There must be some law against that!! And if there's any justice, it would call for corporal punishment.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.