Britt Hume, last night:
GQ magazine agreed to kill a critical piece about fighting within the Hillary Clinton campaign team — in exchange for access to Bill Clinton for another story. FOX’s Carl Cameron has confirmed the publication struck a deal to spike the story — in order to secure Bill Clinton’s cooperation in a cover piece planned for December.
The Politico newspaper says GQ confirmed that the Clinton article had been killed, but would not say why. The Clinton team isn’t talking either.
Politico writes that a spokesman for Bill Clinton delivered the ultimatum to GQ editors. It says they succumbed to the threat — despite plenty of internal protests. The episode is said to be an illustration of the power of the Clinton celebrity factor — and the fact that the Clintons have the rare ability within the political word to actually affect magazine sales.
And so we refer to the words of Dan Rather:
“Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news,” he said on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”
But then, we look again, to the words of Dan Rather:
“Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. President. If we could be one-one-hundredth as great as you and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been together in the White House, we’d take it right now and walk away winners.”
And again, to the words of Dan Rather:
“Is it possible, and I’m asking for your candid opinion, that when this gets through, whether it passes or not, that we will have reached a point when a First Lady, any First Lady, can be judged on the quality of her work?”
And again, to the words of Dan Rather:
“The First Lady’s Health Care Proposal failed, handily defeated by Republican opposition in Congress. But her influence on her husband — and on millions of other Americans who admire her — remains great.”
And again, to the words of Dan Rather:
“God bless you. Thank you very much and tell Mrs. Clinton we respect her and we’re pulling for her.”
And of course, there’s the falsified documents used by Rather and CBS to attack President Bush in their attempt to steal the election for the Democrats.
Hmmm. And Rather’s biggest problem is influence in the newsroom of corporate interests?
Tags: WHAT biased press?
