Posted on 07/12/2002 8:55:28 AM PDT by Carl/NewsMax
In the two weeks since President Bush's 1990 sale of Harken Energy stock became the focus of a media maelstrom, the prestige press has given the so-called scandal 50 times the coverage it gave to the Clintons' Whitewater land deal during a comparable period.
In the 14 days after the New York Times broke the Whitewater story on March 8, 1992, the entire mainstream press corps gave the scandal just 14 mentions, a Lexis-Nexis search reveals.
But in the two weeks since the Harken story has re-emerged, the focus of the Washington press corps has been far, far more intense.
From June 28 to July 12, 2002, the media has devoted no fewer than 711 reports to the Bush stock sale, more than 50 times the coverage it gave Whitewater at a similar point in that story.
In fact, throughout the entire 1992 presidential campaign (from March 8 through Election Day), when the media's interest in a potential candidate's skeleton closet should have been most intense, the press reported on Whitewater a grand total of 27 times.
Contrast that with the 2000 campaign, when Harken Energy first appeared on the national media's radar screen. With precious little to indicate that then-candidate George Bush had done anything whatsoever wrong, the press still managed to squeeze out 87 reports during the same March through Election Day period - more than three times the coverage Whitewater received.
A look at the broader picture reveals that Bill and Hillary Clinton received a complete media pass on Whitewater until December 1993, when the White House admitted documents possibly related to the scandal had been removed from the office of deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster five months before, just hours after he was found shot to death in a Virginia park.
The reports of evidence removal prompted the appointment less than a month later of Whitewater special prosecutor Robert Fiske, who was later succeeded by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.
In fact, until the mad scramble by Clinton aides to remove damaging documents from Foster's office, the media considered Whitewater a virtual non-story - a point the Bush White House and its defenders have thus far inexplicably failed to make about Harken.
[/sarcasm]
I would say not even a small chance. Fred Barnes has a nice piece in the WSJ today that details why. Basically, an insider of a company who plans to sell a large block of stock must file a form with the SEC. This notifies the market that an insider will be "dumping" and that maybe something is up. Bush filed this form perfectly. Afterwards, there is another form which notifies the SEC that the sale actually went through. Harken (for unknown reasons) did not file that form for 8 months. That form is a formality and serves no useful purpose in protecting the public from malfeasance.
Also, as frequently noted in this forum, had Bush held the stock for a year it would have doubled in value.
When the Liberal press report this story they only talk about 1 piece of paper that wasn't filed. They don't talk about the very important piece of paper that WAS filed. Nor do they talk about the fact that Bush basically lost money on the deal.
There truly is nothing here.
I practise securities law. Late Form 4 filings happen all the time. The timing of W's sale was based on a need for funds related to his investment in the Rangers. Had he held beyond a dip in the market which followed his sale, he would have made more money. W complied with SEC Rule 144. These is NO evidence that he made his sale in reliance on material insider information. The sale was investigated by a senior staff member of the Enforcement Division of the SEC who was and is a prominent Democrat. The "no exoneration" language in the SEC letter clearing W is a part of EVERY letter in which Enforcement decides not to proceed.
If the media had a shred if integrity, one call to someone like me would bury Harken forever.
Why not?
-PJ
HRC can...
I'm here for the same reasons that you're here. Check out my posting past if you wish.
-PJ
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.