August 24, 2001
The Stink
In Florida:
Saving Jeb By Smearing Columba;
A Dead Republican Intern
By Jack McCarthy
Even
the most die-hard media critic "centrist" must concede
one thing: the vaunted Republican Party "attack machine,"
is no myth.
Through intimidation and just
plain aggression--as opposed to the passive aggressive liberal
democrats--the Republicans set the media agenda in this country.
Two recent examples come to
mind.
First is the recent dust up
in Florida surrounding allegations of an affair between Jeb Bush
and former Playboy bunny and agency czarina, Cynthia Henderson.
Bush's handling of "the
rumor" was news management par excellence. This story
began with republican insider, "journalist" Bob Novak
writing that Jeb most likely would not be running for re-election
due to "family problems."
It ended with an article in
the July issue of Vanity Fair with Bush spinners portraying Bush's
wife as Columba as a hot -tempered Latina woman green eyed and
jealous, a party pooper who made life miserable for family man
Jeb. And finally a declaration by Jeb that he would indeed run
for re-election.
Jeb quashed this troublesome
story with not a little help from some of his media friends,
who witting or most likely unwittingly, played a role in spiking
"the rumor."
When word got around that Vanity
Fair magazine was asking questions about the rumors sweeping
the capitol, Jeb Bush's media strategist nimbly managed to get
out in front of this explosive story. They did so by arranging
selective interviews with approved reporters, the Orlando's Mark
Silva and the St.Pete Times' Lucy Morgan. (Despite a deserved
reputation as a great reporter, Ms. Lucy loves Jeb like that
other Lucy loved Ricky Ricardo. After his defeat at the hands
of Lawton "He Coon" Chiles in 1992, Morgan wrote a
sappy paean to Jeb and lambasted the Florida press for being
unfair--which happened not to be true by a long shot.)
Both reporters were proceeded
by a heads-up column by pro-Jeb columnist/reporter Bill Cotterell
of the Tallahassee Democrat(in fairness, Cotterell has written
critically of the Bush administration at times)who wrote a column
about "the rumor" and the upcoming Vanity Fair story.
Soon after Cotterell's column,
which created quite a buzz around the capitol, and which Bush
people initially didn't appreciate, Silva quoted Vanity Fair
editor(name?)as saying he doubted the magazines profile of Jeb
would deal with the issue at all.
And soon after that NY Daily
News' Cindy Adams wrote that
the story on Jeb was put on hold.
Alas the profile of Jeb did
finally appear as rumored in the July issue. But Silva and Adams
to the contrary, VF writer David Margolis did indeed write about
"the rumor."
According to Margolis, the
rumor was spread mainly by Republicans, not Democrats as alleged
by Morgan in one of her columns. The piece went on to quote
sources close to Bush, and who portrayed Bush's wife Columba
as pathologically jealous, a step away from the loony bin.
Margolis was duly informed
by Jeb spinners that Columba had even verbally attacked another
rumored Jeb squeeze, Secretary of State Katherine Harris.
The Bush spinners adeptly put
Jeb in a better light by coloring Columba as crazed and jealous.
One had to wonder: where was
Christopher Hitchens and other chivalrous fellows who objected
so strenuously to the Clintons' use of the same tactics on women
rumored to be bedmates of Bill?
When all is said the following
one easily comes to the following conclusions:
Before Jeb made a final decision
to run, he had to knock down "the rumor." Unsure of
what would be reported in Vanity Fair, the Bush media machine
leaked all over the place in hopes of fleshing out who knew
what. Interesting--is it not--that no one known press critic
of Jeb ever wrote a word about the "rumor?"
Finally comfortable in the
knowledge that no smoking gun existed, the Bush people neutralized
Columba by whispering nasty things about her to Vanity Fair.
Jeb, feeling safe now, declared that crazy wife and all, he
would run for re-election.
A more striking example of
republicans superior news management is the strange case of
the dead intern found in the office of Florida republican congressman
Joe Scarborough.
As noted in a "special
report" in "http://www.Americanpolitics.com",
despite the near orgiastic press frenzy surrounding the disappearance
of Democrat Gary Condit gal pal Chandra Levy, barely a feather
has been ruffled on behalf of the real corpse found on the (Fort
Walton)district office floor of Joe Scarborough on July 20th.
Despite initial reports from
the controversial coroner in the case, Dr. Michael Berkland,(Berkland's
medical examiner license was revoked in Missouri for reporting
false information) that Klausutis suffered seizures as a result
of an auto accident years ago, the deceased woman's family
denies this according to APJ writers Denis Wright and Chris
George.
Discrepancies between initial
reports and the autopsy have raised suspicions (e.g. Originally
Berkland reported no head trauma. The autopsy revealed a bruise
on Klausutis' head), and can best be appreciated by reading
the APJ piece in its entirety.
But what truly should hit any
conscious media/political observer over the head is the discrepancy
between media reaction to the Levy case versus the Scarborough
affair.
Imagine that Scarborough, who
shocked supporters recently by announcing his retirement from
congress, and more shock by divorcing his wife, was a democrat.
Is their any doubt that the Republican attack machine would
have generated a feeding frenzy.
Any doubt that dreadful teams
of blond prosecutors, Olson, Alkasne and the hideous Mary Grace
of Court TV, would be summoning Scarborough to explain the pretty
young corpse on the floor?
Rest assured. The Republican
attack machine would be up, running and Joe Scarborough would
by now be a household name.
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