Quote of the day - Debbie Schlussel

Tonight, on the 10th anniversary of Drudge breaking the Monica Lewinsky story, Hillary Rodham Cankles Clinton goes on "Entertainment Tonight," to play "poor little me" to get the sympathy of America's female Democratic primary voters. The promos running on TV show her saying that it's the worst thing that ever happened to her, being cheated on by her hubby.

Will it work? Well, that depends on who the "Entertainment Tonight" viewers are. Are they merely stupid, vapid, celeb-obsessed women, or are they stupid, vapid, celeb-obsessed women who vote?

Debbie Schlussel - January 17, 2008

The Monica Lewinsky 10 year anniversary; Drudge Report makes history.

What were you doing when the world changed forever ten years ago today? We all remember what we were doing when we heard the first reports of 9-11. Those of us who are old enough remember where we were when JFK's murder was announced. The signature event in the destruction of the MSM/DNC news monopoly that had dominated the United States (and beyond) for decades was no less momentous.

Ten years ago today, Matt Drudge posted a report that Newsweek was sitting on a story that the President had perjured himself in a civil trial to cover up acts of sexual misconduct in the White House.

The story remained on the Drudge Report for days before the MSM/DNC reluctantly began covering the story. Drudge had a decent following even before the Lewinsky story broke, and the unrebutted allegations on his website threatened to make the MSM/DNC appear complicit in a cover up if it did not appear to begin reporting the story. I first heard about this story in an early morning ABC News report around the 20th or 21st of January.

I had never heard of Drudge at that time. It would be weeks before I would learn of Drudge's involvement. It would be even longer before I fully understood the significance of Drudge's ability to circumvent the gatekeepers and break this (or any other) story.

The full story is included in Drudge's book:



Regardless of the effect on the Clinton administration, the world changed forever with the posting of that story. Never again would the gatekeepers have full power to decide what information we receive. Drudge has increased in readership dramatically ever since. The king has lost its ability to compel a lie.

This type of media revolution was foreseen by Hillary Clinton in the mid-1990's, whose administration tried desperately to thwart it during the rest of its time in office. [Just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you.]

The blogs that stopped Dan Rather during Rathergate stood on the shoulders of Drudge, as links from Drudge to Powerline and Little Green Footballs helped alert the country about Rather's and CBS' attempts to influence an election with forged documents.

We must celebrate this and every new media anniversary, or the MSM/DNC gatekeepers will reinterpret events, downplay the important parts and misrepresent history. The revolution continues, but we must never lose the ground that we have already conquered.

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update -

Very few bloggers have mentioned the anniversary. It appears that even the conservatives have missed the point. Most of them think of this incident as just another Clinton scandal. They fail to realize that this scandal was about more than Bill Clinton and an intern. This scandal was about a media revolution in progress. Just as Rathergate transcends Dan Rather and George Bush, the Lewinsky scandal transcends Bill and Monica.

There is a reason that so few true pioneers exist. Only a few individuals recognize the long range possibilities resulting from any innovation. The rest of us follow in the wake of these pioneers and, if we are lucky, make the most of the opportunities that the pioneers have provided.

I re-read some of the pages from the Drudge Manifesto this evening and was, once again, fascinated by the unfolding story - not of the sex, perjury and obstruction - but of Drudge's first post and the immediate aftermath. Pages 55-67 of the Manifesto bear witness to a part of history that has been hidden in plain site.

Drudge talks about his discovery of the story and how it developed during the hours leading up to the fateful post. He discusses his thoughts at the moment he hit "enter" on the fateful story. What follows is a narrative of two days of silence, in which MSM/DNC said nothing, while a tempest erupted below the surface. Drudge remained barricaded in his apartment for most of that time. After nearly 30 hours of silence, Freepers were suggesting that Drudge had been set up for a lawsuit by Newsweek.

Meanwhile, the Clinton White House frantically followed the story in silence. ". . . and White House staffers are reloading and refreshing the DRUDGE REPORT as fast as the circuits allow. Over 6,000 visits from the eop.gov domain in the last 39 hrs. [as of Monday afternoon - 1-19-98 - ed]"

Similar backstage stories exist for each of the MSM/DNCscandals of recent years, but the participants haven't committed those stories to writing. How many of us have felt a small "rush" as we hit "enter" on our latest bombshell post, imagining the unseen effects around the world or around the corner?

The events of January 17, 1998 (and the hours that followed) provide not only a window into history, but incentive for us to continue our own efforts in the new media revolution.

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update - Michelle Malkin has a bumper sticker.

Grafton Minot Biddle; Laurie A. Steinman; Colorado Judge and Colorado prosecutor fired, disciplined for adulterous affair in courthouse

From the Rocky Mountain News (via Drudge):

A Douglas County judge and a female prosecutor admitted having sex in his chambers, and on more than one occasion he slipped into the women's showers at the courthouse for a tryst.
Those are some of the details included in a complaint filed Friday with the Attorney Regulation Council, which is looking into allegations that could result in their disbarment.

Grafton Minot Biddle, 57, resigned Dec. 18 after his fourth wife sent a letter to the chief judge saying he was having an affair with Laurie A. Steinman, 29.

Carol Chambers, district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, fired Steinman on Dec. 22, the day she admitted to the affair, the complaint said.

The adulterous affair occurred even though the DA tried cases in the Judge's courtroom and resulted in the Judge's attempts to cover it up:

As rumors of their romance became fodder for courthouse gossip, the complaint said, Biddle encouraged Steinman to permanently delete messages they exchanged using their e-mail accounts at work.

"If people read this stuff, we're dead," Biddle told Steinman, according to the complaint.

The pair is accused of other ethical lapses, including Steinman prosecuting two cases in Biddle's court without disclosing their relationship. Biddle gave Steinman feedback following one of the trials, which ended in an acquittal, the complaint said.

The pending disciplinary Complaint states that the pair "degraded the sanctity of the courtroom."

It is too bad for the Judge and the Assisant DA that they didn't do this in the 1990's when this sort of behavior was encouraged among government officials. It is also too bad that they didn't commit actual perjury, in which case they could have held on to their jobs.

The affair was initially reported to the Court by the Judge's wife, who says she is "disgusted" by the whole thing.

It is too bad for the Judge that he didn't marry a doormat like Hillary, who would have defended him and claimed to be the victim of a right wing conspiracy.
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update
It is also too bad for the Judge that he didn't simply pay a gay male prostitute for sex and allow him to use his apartment for a prostitution ring. He would have been guaranteed lifetime tenure in that situation.

Rathergate Anniversary - 10 days and counting - a new media chronology

Click here for previous editions of the Rathergate anniversary countdown.

As we begin the final ten days before the Rathergate anniversary celebration, a little reflection is in order as to how we got to the point where the new media became the force that it is today. With the MSM/DNC still hoping that blogs will go away, we cannot rely on traditional sources for information about new media history. With that in mind, here is my brief chronology of the new media, its roots and its growth. These dates include the political forces that propelled the new media revolution instead of the technological breakthroughs:

1) November 4, 1980 - Ronald Reagan is elected President in a landslide while the Republicans capture the U.S. Senate for the first time in more than 25 years. This election begins talk of a "conservative shift" in American politics. [In fact, the trend had existed for years prior to that election, but the MSM/DNC never discussed it (or even was aware of it).] Conservatism was respectable again. This election was the first concrete sign that conservatism would "sell" on a national scale. Reagan's reelection in 1984 reinforced this impression.

2) July 4, 1988 - Rush Limbaugh debuts nationally on his syndicated radio program. Rush took the Reagan election a step further and literally made conservatism marketable to a commercial audience. Rush proved that at which Reagan's election only hinted. Conservatism sells. Not merely politically, but commercially. Without Reagan's election in 1980, I believe that Rush Limbaugh would never have been given the opportunity to turn conservatism into nationwide commercial success.

3) November 8, 1994 - Republicans capture the U.S. House [for the first time in 40 years] and recapture the U.S. Senate [all while Bill Clinton masquerades as a centrist]. The messages of 1980 and 1988 are reinforced. Opposition and reaction to the Clinton administration would grow throughout the 1990's, as conservatives would continue to find each other [through the internet and talk radio] in their efforts to speak out against the President.

4) January 17, 1998 - Matt Drudge exposes the Lewinsky scandal. Regardless of the fact that Bill Clinton survived impeachment, this story and the manner of its exposure provided the first instance of an internet source matching the power of the MSM/DNC. News reporting would never be the same after this event.

5) September 8, 2004. Rathergate. While the Rathergate story was broken by bloggers, the previous breakthroughs made this story possible. Drudge linked to the bloggers' early posts in the hours after CBS aired the phony documents. By 2004, Drudge had grown to the point where a mere link from Drudge was sufficient to send an otherwise worthy story into orbit. While bloggers existed prior to Rathergate, Rathergate put blogging on the map.

We are actually experiencing a 25 year revolution. I have ignored many of the events of the past year, each of which has been tremendously significant - Easongate, Koran/toiletgate, etc. I have also ignored the influence of events such as 9-11 and the two elections of George W. Bush. These events have tended to focus conservatives and bloggers, as we discuss the issues of war, peace and related politics. The same MSM/DNC mismanagement of our country that gave us Bill Clinton, a phony Florida election dispute and 9-11 also made blogging and the new media necessary. But it was the initiative of a few conservatives who dared to defy the MSM/DNC media monopoly that made the new media possible.

There are more breakthroughs to come. Those who take the new media to new heights in the future will stand on the shoulders of giants such as Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge.