FLASHBACK: MEDIA GRILLED BUSH OVER 'ADULTERY' CLAIMS

drudge report ^ | Drudge

[tort_feasor]

As main press players blast the DRUDGE REPORT and foreign outlets for revealing details of a behind-the-scenes campaign drama surrounding candidate Kerry and the nature of his relationship with a mystery woman, just 12 years ago pre-Internet mainstream media assaulted President George W. Bush's father with questions surrounding an infidelity rumor.

In 1992 top reporters swiftly reacted to a footnote in a book by Susan Trento, wife of CNN reporter James Trento who was the source of the original rumor -- apparently from an interview with a long dead ambassador.

CNN rushed to get the rumor into the media stream as White House correspondent Mary Tillotson confronted President Bush as he hosted Israel Prime Minister Rabin in the Oval Office.

"There is an extensive series of reports in today's New York Post alleging that a former U.S. ambassador, a man now deceased, had told several persons that he arranged for a sexual tryst involving you and one of your female staffers in Geneva in 1984."

Asked NBC's Stone 'Stone' Phillips to the president's face at the height of the rumor mongering:

"Have you ever had an affair?"

CBS' Harry Smith then confronted Bush spokesperson Mary Matalin with the rumor over morning coffee:

"Let me ask you about something else. There's a book out, or a book that's just about out that in a footnote names that then-Vice President Bush had an affair with an assistant when he was on a mission in Geneva. Well, that footnote has turned into frontpage news (holding up N.Y.POST), at least in New York, in the N.Y. POST. Albeit a tabloid, it is usually a conservative newspaper. Are you ready to say that accusation is a flat out lie?"

Jonathan Alter, who never came to embrace the Lewinsky rumor -- even when it was proved to be true -- defended the aggressive adultery rumor line-of-questioning of the first President Bush:

"In this situation, the Oval Office isn't a temple. The President is a candidate and he has to be asked tough, often distasteful, but nonetheless important kinds of questions."

Alter's freedom of the press to sniff out sex rumors was seconded by UPI's Helen Thomas (another Lewinsky-era convert to bold privacy lines between press and president):

"Some people might have felt that it wasn't appropriate. But when you have the President there, I think it's very legitimate to ask him any question."

CUT TO 2004:

NEWSWEEK'S Alter blasted reportage of the Kerry infidelity probe last week on a New York City talkradio outlet -- calling the investigation 'sleazy'.

The media outrage over an erupting story of possible infidelity of a presidential candidate peaked with top Lewinsky rumor quasher Joe Conason's "thought piece" in SALON [There he goes again! Matt Drudge and the GOP smear machine are back in the Democrats' pants] in which he lamented aloud:

"But the kind of proof usually required by national news organizations isn't what Drudge needs in order to put innuendo into circulation. "

Yes, this is the same Joe Conason who in the Summer of 1992 wrote a Spy magazine cover story entitled "1,000 REASONS NOT TO VOTE FOR GEORGE BUSH".

Consaon's reason #1?

"He cheats on his wife."

The rumor of President Bush having an affair was never proved by the media that raised the question aloud in the first place, and now claims with a straight face that affair rumors are strictly forbidden.

At least against their candidates.

Developing...

[Beck_isright]

"I think it is a great piece of reporting on media hypocrisy."

Agreed.

[The G Man]

Media hypocrisy bump.

[StriperSniper]

the media that raised the question aloud in the first place, and now claims with a straight face that affair rumors are strictly forbidden.

I wonder why he changed it?

[StriperSniper]

I did a quick search and came up with nothing. Do you know anyplace to find that article online?

[Republican Red]

Good job Drudge. Media hypocrisy spelled out on one of the most popular sites on the web.

I especially appreciate that Jonathan Alter of Newsweek was singled out. What a slimeball.

[kennedy]

That was entirely different. Bush was a Republican. Kerry is a Democrat. If a Republican presidential candidate has had an affair (or there is any rumor that he has) it is news. If a Democratic presidential candidate has had an affair it is not news.

Now, if a Democrat presidential candidate has never had an affair, that would be news.

[Alissa]

This is really shining a light on the corruption of the media's ties to the RATS! I wish there was more of this. So far Drudge is a lone voice.

[cyncooper]

He's pointing out the breathtaking double standard.

Nothing to "watch out for", unless one is inclined to let the disgusting media run like the wind with baseless rumors about republicans, and turn around and treat the dems with kid gloves.

It is not acceptable and it will be confronted.

[Alissa]

Don't forget about what they did to Newt either!

[cyncooper]

His change seems to center on the President Bush 41 story being based totally on rumor, and his change has the Kerry story as possibly "not" ("may not" in italics on Drudge) joining the rumor pantheon, but MAY be fact.

At the very least there appears to be more evidence supporting Kerry questions than ever existed for President 41.

[cyncooper]

I found this reference to it:

Hillary Wanted Bush Grilled on Sex Life

Excerpt:

(Yes, it's Newsmax, but they quote Barbara Olson)

But Mrs. Clinton had a completely different attitude during her husband's 1992 presidential campaign, when she felt besieged by questions about his affair with Gennifer Flowers.

As noted by Barbara Olson in her landmark Hillary biography, "Hell to Pay," Mrs. Clinton complained to a Vanity Fair interviewer at the time, "I don't understand why nothing's ever been said about a George Bush girlfriend." Then she added for good measure, "I understand he has a Jennifer, too."

~snip~

[GoodGrief]

Two things I remember from 12 years ago:

Mary Tillotson was told in no uncertain terms to ask the question by her CNN bosses. She apparently had been reluctant, did it anyway, but found her career at CNN nonetheless on the wane afterward. Did she protest too much?

And second, it was Hillary herself who planted the idea in the heads of the media that she thought it unfair to accuse her husband without probing the Bush rumor. Barbara Bush herself said she was more or less sympathetic to Hillary's anguish during the '92 campaign til she was given the facts about who actually was pushing the rumor about President Bush.

[McGavin999]

Oh big surprise-the media and the dems (I know, I know they're the same thing) are a bunch of sleazy hypocrites. So what else is new! The thing is, I think the American people are beginning to figure this out.

[BluH2o]

Of course there's a double standard in the liberal mainstream media when it comes to imagined, or otherwise, peccadilloes by Conservative Republicans. If the Alex Polier story, or the equivalent, involved Bush somehow the networks would be breaking into regular programming to bring us breathless updates on the sordid details. The liberals have two standards, a very low one for those they identify with most closely, the democ"RATS" ... and a much higher one for Republicans whom they detest.

[mass55th]

I remember the Mary Tillotson incident. I was watching the Press Conference at the time and couldn't believe she had the audacity to ask such a question with Rabin standing right next to President Bush. I was glad when they bounced her back to the studio. After that fiasco, she didn't deserve to be a White House reporter. She did eventually lose her job didn't she? I don't watch CNN at all, so I'm not sure, other than Larry King, who they have working for them anymore.

[wildbill]

I think it's fair for Drudge to point out the volte-face of the left media on this subject because he's been highly criticized by the same media outlets for posting the story.

[rocksblues]

"I especially appreciate that Jonathan Alter of Newsweek was singled out. What a slimeball" In 1992:
NEWSWEEK's Jonathan Alter defended the aggressive adultery rumor line-of-questioning of the first President Bush on ABC's NIGHTLINE on August 12, 1992, on a broadcast titled: "The Media Charges George Bush With Adultery."
"In this situation, the Oval Office isn't a temple," Alter explained. "The President is a candidate and he has to be asked tough, often distasteful, but nonetheless important kinds of questions.

CUT TO 2004:
NEWSWEEK'S Alter blasted any and all coverage of the Kerry infidelity probe last week on a New York City talkradio outlet -- calling the investigation "sleazy."

Yeah Red: What a slimeball. In his world it's only good for the Goose not the Gander.

[NYCVirago]

Thanks for the link. I was pretty sure it was the Spy magazine article, not a Vanity Fair one, where Hillary made her remark. At any rate, Spy is now defunct, so I'm unable to easily access the original article. I did find a Salon story from 1998, where Murray Waas said Hillary and Sidney Blumenthal shopped the story to Joe Conason in Spy.

[NYCVirago]

I did a quick search and came up with nothing. Do you know anyplace to find that article online?

Spy magazine is out of business. I guess the only other place to find it would be a local library's archives.

[an amused spectator]

But posting this in his section about the Kerry intern thing makes it look like he is just trying to defend himself for printing the story.

I see a number of replies to this statement of yours.

Cat got your keyboard? ;-)