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HOW I GOT IT WRONG!

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Following in the steps of Steven Brill, and in contrast to the practices of the Mainstream Media these days, when I discover I have made a mistake, I will admit the mistake and correct it. Those who read these pages are urged to look for errors in fact or in interpretation and are welcome to "out" me in one or more of the threads in Table Talk. (Just let me know about it so I can correct the mistake if there was one.)

The First Two Errors

In proof-reading the latest version of the pages BLIP News and DRIP News, I realized that I had made two careless errors in my deathless prose. One of these errors any careful reader with a sense of time would have picked up. The other error I could have carried to my grave, but because I am the purest of the pure, I decided to confess my sins to one and all.

Both of the errors are anachronisms.

Anachronism #1

 The first error had to do with my discovery of the beginning of the great "Whitewater Smear Campaign" in late 1993 and early 1994, when I wrote about new information or disinformation coming from the Starr Chamber. In early 1994, Ken Starr was still warming up in the wings working for Big Tobacco and for the various groups trying to destroy public education in America. There was, in fact, no Starr Chamber at that time, and Robert Fiske, the moderate Republican, was attempting to run the Whitewater investigation as it should have been run -- fairly and objectively. Fiske, who was removed as the Whitewater OIC by Judge Sentelle and other judges at the urging of Senator Helms and Faircloth of North Carolina, was replaced by Starr in August 1994. (See the excerpt from the Bossie biography below.)

As far as I can determine, in 1993 and 1994, the Mainstream Media was getting most of its disinformation on Whitewater from Citizens United, a radical right wing Republican organization headed by Floyd Brown of "Willie Horton" fame and David Bossie. Bossie, who was interviewed by NBC on September 15, 1998 for his expert opinion on the House Judiciary Committee hearings leading to a possible impeachment of President Clinton is on familiar territory and working with old friends. His last dealings with NBC, at least the last we know about, was in January 1994 when Bossie and NBC Network producer Ira Silverman were observed chasing Clinton's former Securities Commissioner, Beverly Bassett Schaffer, around the streets of Fayetteville, Arkansas for an interview on the terrible WHITEWATER SCANDAL. (Chicago Tribune, 3/27/94; Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 1/20/94, The Fayetteville Morning News, 1/15/94). Floyd Brown was probably back at home in Virginia arranging newspaper and TV interviews for David Hale, who later became Ken Starr's favorite (and favored) witness. Funny thing, the Mainstream Media never admitted those interviews had been arranged by Citizens United.

According to a short biography on Bossie written when he was working for Senator Faircloth and before he began working for Congressman Burton, Bossie had been involved in possible impeachment proceedings against Clinton as early as August 1994. The following is quoted from that biography:

On August 10, 1994 David Bossie -- who was identified as "Director of Government Relations and Communications for Citizens United" along with Howard Phillips chairman of the Conservative Caucus held a press conference addressing the "Latest Whitewater Developments, Impeachment Possibility." Citizens United press release, 8/10/94

At the press conference, Bossie said he would present Jack Brooks, the House Judiciary Committee chairman with petitions with 10,000 signatures calling for impeachment hearings. Phillips said he would present Brooks with 26,000 petitions calling for Clinton's impeachment. Bossie was also highly critical of Robert Fiske at this press conference. Gannett News, 8/10/94

In May 1994, Trudy Lieberman, a senior editor at Consumer Reports wrote: "Bossie, the twenty-eight-year-old political director for Citizens United, a conservative Republican operation, runs an information factory whose Whitewater production lines turn out a steady stream of tips, tidbits, documents, factoids, suspicions, and story ideas for the nation's press and for Republicans on Capitol Hill. Journalists and Hill Republicans have recycled much of the information provided by Citizens United into stories that have cast a shadow on the Clinton presidency." Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 1994

The article also described him as a "source par excellence to journalists dredging the Whitewater swamp" who claims to get eighteen calls an hour. Columbia Journalism Review, May/June1994

It is possible to be a conservative and to be a Republican and to hold particular political beliefs that are respected by all, including opponents. Bossie, Brown, and a number of other Republicans in the House and Senate are not conservative Republican, they are radical right-wing Republicans intent on controlling this country. The Mainstream Media cannot seem to distinguish between responsible Republicanism and the extreme policies of radical Republicanism.

The Mainstream Media has never admitted much of its information and disinformation on Whitewater in 1993 and 1994 came from the "information factory" of the ultra-right-wing Republican activists Floyd Brown and David Bossie. Having studied Soviet disinformation and deception practices during the Cold War, I would characterize the Brown-Bossie "information factory" described by Trudy Lieberman as actually a "disinformation factory," a DISFACT operation, one might say. Perhaps one of these days we might learn how the radical right-wing Republican DISFACT operation actually works.

Anachronism #2 -

(NOTE: When I downloaded the Bossie biography, , I violated one of my own rules in identifying the source of the material at that time so I could cite it. If anyone recognizes who compiled the biography, please let me know, and I will re-write the page.)

Error 3

Error 5

Error 6 (to be continued) . . . .