The paper was late today. So I had to look at yesterday's for items I hadn't read. Naturally, Novak's column was among the unread, since I enjoy reading it about as much as I enjoy sticking needles in my eyes.
So in this particular piece of fiction, he's defending Tomlinson of the CPB (you know, the guy who paid someone to watch Bill Moyers' show and prove it was liberal). You'd think he might be a little more cautious about the particular smears he employs, given recent events. But nooooooooo....
sorry about the link, I couldn't find it anywhere else
Excerpts below.
Novak is saying that Tomlinson was set up by a staffer at a recent subcommittee hearing on Public television. Why? Well, she's married to a lobbyist who works with Public Television!!! Oh my! That must make everything that came out of the hearing suspect, no?
"The hearing's purpose was to grill Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) board chairman, about hiring two consultants in his campaign against liberal bias on the airwaves. Not only Specter's questions but the hearing itself was orchestrated by subcommittee staff director Bettilou Taylor, whose husband, Domenic Ruscio, is a longtime consultant hired by the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS).
"There's no conflict here," an angry Taylor told this column, contending "everyone" knows she is married to Ruscio. "Everyone" means the principals in public television, but it is news to the outside world. The constricted world of public television includes surprising relationships exposed by Tomlinson's unwelcome effort to add some conservative programming to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
...
"One-time payments to Darling and Mann were minimal compared with public broadcasting's permanent payments to big-time lobbyists. Respected Republican lobbyist Charlie Black's firm has represented PBS for four years, now receiving $180,000 a year. The account had been handled by Karen Nussle, wife of Republican Rep. Jim Nussle, the House Budget Committee chairman. (Mrs. Nussle left the firm earlier this year as her husband began his campaign for governor of Iowa.)
Of course, we know Novak is always scrupulous about identifying his own conflicts of interests. You know, like when he didn't tell his television audiences that his son's Regnery published the Swift Boat lies?
So for fun I started googleing Novak's relatives. Didn't find much, but this was kind of fun from a loooooong Vanity Fair article profiling Novak:
"Johnson aides saw a lot of Novak--who moved to The Wall Street Journal three years before Johnson became vice president--partly because Novak was then courting one of Johnson's secretaries, Geraldine Williams. When the couple married, in November 1962, L.B.J. threw a reception for them. "Novak was a very intrepid, dogged, mainstream reporter, not this sinister, egomaniacal figure he is now," recalls Bill Moyers, a former Johnson staffer. I ask Moyers what occurs to him upon juxtaposing the two incarnations of Novak, then and now. "Every monster begins as a baby in a crib," he replies."
It struck me as serendipitous to run accross this particular paragraph, given the topic at hand.
Anyway, has anyone else seen Novak try to smear through family (particularly spousal)connections?