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XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN FEB 15, 2004 23:00:32 ET XXXXX
FLASHBACK: MEDIA GRILLED BUSH OVER 'ADULTERY' CLAIMS
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 the same players peppered former President George Bush with questions surrounding an infidelity rumor!
In 1992 top reporters swiftly reacted to a footnote in a book quoting 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 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 over on-air 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?"
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."
UPI's Helen Thomas also defended the Bush affair reportage:
"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 any and all coverage 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 -- 2004 -- peaked with Joe Conason's cover story in SALON late last week ["There he goes again! Matt Drudge and the GOP smear machine are back in the Democrats' pants"]
Conason lamented:
"But the kind of proof usually required by national news organizations isn't what Drudge needs in order to put innuendo into circulation."
But is this really the same Joe Conason who in the Summer of 1992 wrote a 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.
The developing Kerry drama may or may not join it on the shelf.
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But there is no Liberal biased media. That’s a myth of the right, right?
You know guys the first step to solving a problem is to admit that you have a problem. Ironically while the British press is all aflutter with Kerry sex scandal pieces, almost nothing has been said in the US mainstream press.
Now I don't know if Kerry did or didn't, but its no more a story then President Bush's service record which has shown quite clearly he was where he was suppose to be.