I just heard an interview of Sherrod Brown on NPR, I think it was Steve Inskeep (they don't have the citation up on their website, yet) who conducted it, where, after talking about the Republican Tax bill, Inskeep insisted on bringing up the accusation against Al Franken and, when Brown, sensibly, said that there was going to be an investigation, the asshole from NPR started on the minor flurry of bull shit from opinion journalists about "reopening" the accusations against Bill Clinton.
There was the longest, most expensive* and most ethically questionable congressional, and special prosecutor series of investigations cum inquisitions brought against Bill Clinton, there were articles of impeachment and a Senate trial of him which didn't result in anyone ever proving or even proving credible criminal accusations against him. At this point "reopening" the accusations against Bill Clinton in any public way wouldn't constitute double jeopardy, they'd constitute at least septuple jeopardy. The journalists who are calling for this make the red-scare media of the 1950s look like they were practicing high ethics by comparison. And it's for the most transparent of reasons, the corporate media created and installed a sex predator, possible rapist in the presidency and the Republican-fascist hopes of retaining the Senate depend on a pedophile predator as a candidate. As mentioned in the comments last night into this morning, some of what the media peddles as "liberals" especially the type of those who get into the op-eds of the New York Times, are joining in this stinking, burning manure pile smoke screen.
Well, if that's what they want to do, why not go after George H. W. Bush for the accusations against him. He was never investigated the way that Bill Clinton was, there was no special prosecutor who dealt with such accusations, there was never a Senate trial of him. Why stop there? How about the rape accusation against Ronald Reagan? How about possible sexual harassment by him in Hollywood? Why not that?
The American media, especially the pseudo-liberal parts of it such as the New York Times and the allegedly liberal NPR are willing partners in the billionaire oligarchic propagandizing of the United States. The New York Times did a lot of the early effort in the vilification and inquisitorial "investigations" of both of the Clintons that has gone on for a quarter of a century, they'd do it again against a Democrat if it was to the advantage of the owners of the rag and the staff - and if there's one thing that is certain, few if any journalists ever suffered for carrying water for the corporate fascist, Republicans. The journalistic and "public interest" elites are full of such phonies, both individual careerist "reformers" and whole institutions, such as the ACLU and, as mentioned, others like Common Cause. I once called that kind of "liberalism" "process liberalism" and still think it's a good name for it, lots of such process liberals are career climbers at places like NPR and the New York Times. They're tools.
Considering the problem they had at NPR, having it revealed that their chief editor was accused of sexual misconduct more serious than Al Franken is accused of, they might want to consider what their participation in this latest call for new Clinton wars could bring up among them. Maybe even the guys who conduct interviews like the one that inspired this.
* As I recall, a couple of decades ago the, then, cost of those were over 40 million dollars, I'd imagine it's probably at least double that by now, probably ten or more times that when you include the efforts that weren't paid for by billionaires and millionaires and those they could sucker to give them money. Jerry Falwell made a lot of money out of that kind of stuff.
Update: The accusations, made by more than one woman against NPR's Michael Oreskes were certainly far more obviously sexual assault, in a context that didn't involve rehearsal of a stage kiss in a skit Leann Tweeden consented to participate in.
In separate complaints, the women said Oreskes — at the time, the Washington bureau chief of the New York Times — abruptly kissed them while they were speaking with him about working at the newspaper. Both of them told similar stories: After meeting Oreskes and discussing their job prospects, they said he unexpectedly kissed them on the lips and stuck his tongue in their mouths.
The same can be said about the accusations against George H. W. Bush who wasn't doing a USO skit with a willing participant at the times of the incidents.
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