From: mpye@netcom.com (Michael Pye)
Subject: Re: Vietnam Memorial (was Vietnam Moratorium)
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 07:29:53 GMT

thf2@ellis.uchicago.edu (Ted Frank) writes:

>Yes, the New Republic endorsed Clinton.  But they also printed pro-Perot
>articles by John Judis.

Irrelevant.  Kissing up to Perot in one article does not excuse printing
lies in the next.

>I read the interview with Andrew Sullivan that you seem to be talking about.
>He never said the magazine is printing lies.

No, Sullivan did not say "The New Republic is printing lies".  I guess
I have a different definition of lie than they do.  If TNR, or anyone 
else, simply repeated a story they heard about, but it was questionable
whether it was true, I consider it a lie by TNR.  

Here's an article that appeard in the Wall Street Journal that some
might find interesting:

Wall Street Journal
October 16, 1992  
p A14. 

WRITER FOR NEW REPUBLIC STANDS OUT AS CONSISTENT DEFENDER OF CLINTON
  
    In its Sept 21 issue, the New Republic magazine, under what it 
called its "Clinton Suck-Up Watch" attacked Time magazine's Walter 
Shapiro for gushing over the way Bill Clinton and Al Gore have formed 
"a comradeship of the road. 

    But the New Republic might have found a better candidate for the  
questionable award near the top of its own masthead.  In the 
magazine's Aug. 3 issue, senior editor Sidney Blumenthal had this to 
say about the Democratic ticket: "Al Gore and Bill Clinton are like a 
rare set of fraternal twins, from different genetic codes.  As one 
candidate they make complete sense."  He talked about Mr. Gore's 
"utter solidity" and Mr. Clinton's admirable "political risk-taking." 
 [barf]

    No journalist has more consistently defended Mr. Clinton or more 
aggressively attacked his opponents than the 43-year old Mr. 
Blumenthal.

    In February, he assailed the news media for "cavalierly" raising 
the question of Mr. Clinton's marital infidelity "without any proof." 
Then he went on to report the governor had told his most trusted 
aides "that he had committed adultery" and praised the authenticity 
of the candidate and his wife: "While George Bush -- all whiteness -- 
talks about 'family values,' the Clintons demonstrate them by 
confessing to adultery."

    ...Mr. Blumenthal says he works "for a journal of *opinion* in a 
tradition that dates back to the Spectator" and essayists Joseph 
Addison and Richard Steele in early 18th Century England. ...He makes 
no apologies.

    Nor, perhaps, need he offer any.  The New Republic's 
editor-in-chief and chairman, Martin Perez, sets the tone.  He has 
been travelling with his old friend, Mr. Gore, and editing some of 
his speeches. 

    Andrew Sullivan, the magazine's editor, says, "We've allowed 
people to be biased, if they want to be."

    ...Mr. Blumenthal has been given the full scope for his energies 
at The New Republic.  Over the past year, much of those energies have 
been directed at promoting Mr. Clinton.  Mr. Clinton can rarely do 
wrong, and if there's something that doesn't look quite right, 
there's usually an explanation for it.

    Mr. Clinton's Democratic challengers were a sorry lot, in Mr. 
Blumenthal's accounts.  Jerry Brown was "like the terminator-hunter 
in 'Terminator 2,' instantly changing shape from a metal weapon to a 
humanoid and back  again."  Paul Tsongas was "a zealot ... his 
unassuming demeanor and self-deprecating wit are the mask of 
puritanism."  Mario Cuomo, who contemplated entering the race and 
then drew back, was "parochial," a "villager" who terrifies people 
who work for him.

    But those Democrats are all paragons when next laid next to 
George Bush and Ross Perot.

    ..."Mr. Sullivan, the magazines editor, says, "It's up to the 
reader to determine which of these stories carries the weight," 
conceding that he's not sure Mr. Blumenthal's argument is "completely 
persuasive."

Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections,talk.politics.misc,tx.politics