Exclusively in the new print issue of CounterPunch

HOLLYWOOD AND THE CIA — Film historian Ed Rampell details Hollywood’s entangled relationship with the CIA and the Pentagon; HOUSES OF THE DEAD: Nancy Kurshan exposes the cruel human rights offenses taking place inside America’s vast gulag of Control Unit Prisons; BROTHERHOOD OF SUMMER: David Macaray charts the history of the most powerful union in the US: the Baseball Players Association; TAR SANDS COME TO AMERICA: Steve Horn explains how the Keystone Pipeline debates have diverted attention from Big Oil’s other plans to transport Alberta’s oil into the US. PLUS: Jeffrey St. Clair on CONSTITUTIONAL ENTROPY; Mike Whitney on HOW THE BANKS TARGETED BLACKS; Chris Floyd on THE RISE OF BRITAIN’S TEA PARTY; Kristin Kolb on THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE; Kim Nicolini on the FILMS OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN; and Lee Ballinger on POETS VS. THE ONE PERCENT.

November 24, 2004

Waiting for Him to Eat His Words...

Safire the Shameless

by JOHN L. HESS

William Safire has called for amending the constitution so that Arnold Schwarzenneger can run for president. Yes, Schwarzenegger the Nazi groper. Safire has announced his retirement as a commentaytor for the Times–and I’ve been waiting for him to shut up already, so I can record another of his sins, but he keeps frothing away, so here goes.

The Times hired Safire just after Watergate, in time for him to escape the criminal prosecutions that followed. But he remained loyal–kept sharing Nixon’s wisdom with readers, bragging about his long hours at the great man’s knee. How he wept at the funeral! Well, not long ago the tapes of a good-old-boys’ session between Nixon and Billy Graham were made public. They reeked with anti-semitism, with hostility toward Jews in Government and contempt for their toadies at the Times. I’ve been waiting ever since for Safire to eat his words. Not a sound.

Another war criminal who taped his own phone calls was Henry Kissinger. A couple of weeks ago a packet of them came to light–full of groveling, nauseating pandering by eminent members of the mediocracy–notably Ted Koppel and Marvin Kalb. He told them what to write, edited their copy on the phone. They couldn’t deny it–they just brazened it out. Did it hurt their careers? Not so you can notice it. Well, since they won’t say they’re sorry, I’m just mean enough to tell their listeners that they ought to be — again and again.

JOHN L. HESS is a former writer for the New York Times, a career he chronicles in his excellent new book My Times: a Memoir of Dissent. Hess is now a political commentator for WBAI. Hess’s blog can be read at: johnlhess.blogspot.com