Did Drudge get caught with his "pants down?" Did Media Play us as Fools?

[KoKo]

Here's what's confusing me. I didn't hit on Drudge since yesterday when the Kerry "stuff" hit. Then I read alot of the rumpus posts here on DU.

I was out most of today and most of tonight. Come back to DU and it's "quiet." Kerry story is "old news," he says there's "no story."

So, curiosity gets me and I "hold my nose" and click over to his site. And, he has a pix of Kerry looking "pensive?" and some articles...but this one caught my eye. Did he do this to play to the Internet, or did he do this and the Media didn't bite because they want Kerry to be the nominee and don't want to stop him now until the rest of the candidates are out of the way....then they will pounce again with another "female story" about Kerry that has more legs? OR! has the "Whore Media" decided that they are sick of Drudge and that he's lost his credibility?

Drudge did have the "blue dress" story, though. He KNEW! I didn't even believe there really was a "blue dress" but he was correct on that one.

So, what are we supposed to think about this? We who support other candidates and think we might be being "played" here and Kerry Supporters who might wonder if this means this is a test of "more to come."

Not looking for flames here about what I say. I'm Dean/Kucinich but will resign myself to Kerry if it comes to that.....but I don't want it all to come down to Kerry and a more credible "female indiscretion" comes to light. And, Edwards is not a candidate I can deal with if all the others drop out at this point because I'm NC and don't like the guy. I just want to know why the hell Drudge ran with this story and the scenarios above are all I can come up with. :shrug:

This up on Smudge's web site is what's got me worrying......I think it's one of Murdoch's papers but it mentions the "internet abuzz."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/13/wus13.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/02/13/ixportaltop.html


Kerry faces big test in internet storm about mystery woman
By Alec Russell and David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 13/02/2004)

The campaign of Senator John Kerry, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, faced its first media storm last night after a Right-wing website alleged that he had asked a woman to leave the country for personal reasons.

Mr Kerry's campaign did not respond to the allegation on the Drudge Report, a news tipster, most famous for disclosing that Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern. When contacted, the Kerry campaign had no immediate comment.

Waiting in the wings: Democratic hopeful, John Kerry

But Democratic sources blamed the allegation on Republican "dirty tricks". They said it marked the long-expected start of a campaign from the Right to smear the frontrunner and damage his chances of fighting a strong campaign against President George W Bush.

The report caused anguish among grassroots party activists just a day after it seemed that Mr Kerry, a decorated Vietnam war veteran, had been virtually crowned as the nominee after a remarkably swift and benign campaign.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. this is my working theory

they got all hot and puffy, and probably, I cannot prove it... got a lot of hate mail from people who are just too tired of the RW tactics.

At least I hope this is what is going on.

It caught on for 24 hours and then died, as in it did not catch fire... so there is more to this (and not for Kerry) than meets the eye. I hope it is a signal that the American people are too tired of the right wing slime machine... maybe enough Muricans have read Blidned by the Right?

[NV1962]

2. please let that last sentence sink in

The report caused anguish among grassroots party activists just a day after it seemed that Mr Kerry, a decorated Vietnam war veteran, had been virtually crowned as the nominee after a remarkably swift and benign campaign.

'Nuff said: they're looking over our shoulders to see... how their BS fall flat on its face, because they overlooked the fact that it is common knowledge that the same Drudge publicly launched "Monicagate" - another "intern affair."

Bring-it-on!

[blujig]

5. It was a Democrat folks!

Now that it is out there of course the repugs are going to play it up. This came from our own party. We will not win the election in November with this kind of crap going on. I guess the mindset is if our candidate doesn't win then we will see to it that no Democrat wins. This is a very selfish attitude in such deparate times. America cannot stand another four years of Bush.

[NV1962]

6. Do tell who the source is

You're asserting that this BS story "came from our own party" - I'd like to see where and who. Alternatively, where you got that impression from.

[blujig]

9. I dont' Know CNN just told me it came from a Democrat!

I sent an email to Aaron Brown to compain about his show. I got a email back saying it was a Democrat who smeared Kerry. They didn't give me a name but I thought all along it was a Democrat and probably one of the other candidates that is still in the race.

[NV1962]

13. Interesting - so, a candidate who's *still* in the race? - n/t

[blujig]

20. Yea, I think so!

I think it was one of the other candidates. I know one of the other candidates was upset with Kerry because Torrecelli ran some negative ad about them. It could be that camp or it could be Lehane also.

[OKNancy]

38. As I posted before- Cui bono ?- who profits?

It's really too early for a Republican to profit from the smear. If it stuck, it's still early enough to dump Kerry.
The person to profit would be a Democrat.

I don't like to think that, but it is just logical (or else I read too many true-crime books and lawyer books)

[feistydem]

16. Chris Lahane started the rumor...

He is a whiney little brat who was fired from the Kerry campaign and then went over to the Clark campaign. He's not a Democrat, he's a mercenary out to sell himself any way he can. He also used to work for Al Gore's campaign as a press secretary. Wtach him show up working for Bush in a few weeks.

He has to be the Dem to whom News Night refers.

[NV1962]

18. I hope it's him, he needs to go anyway - n/t

[feistydem]

24. Bush's Gal...

I've posted this elsewhere on DU, but it's worth getting out there as much as possible, in light of the GOP smear via Drudge. Why isn't Drudge looking for this woman?

[Adelante]

28. A Rival Dem Campaign, Not Clark's, Not Lehane

"A source close to Lehane vehemently denied to me that Lehane had peddled any rumors about Kerry -- and turned attention back toward the White House as Drudge's likely source. "My assessment is that this is not merely a serendipitous event," he said.

"The Drudge item blaming Lehane quoted Craig Crawford, a former Democratic operative who now works as a consultant and columnist for MSNBC. Within 10 minutes after Drudge posted the Kerry intern item, Crawford sent a memo to his superiors that said the story was "something Chris Lehane (clark press secy) has shopped around for a long time." According to Crawford, someone at MSNBC promptly leaked his memo to Drudge. But when Lehane called Crawford with a loudly indignant denial, the MSNBC columnist quickly issued a public retraction. He said:

"The comments attributed to me are from a private email to television news associates based on conversations with Democratic campaign operatives. I did not consider any of it confirmed enough to report or publish. I can only verify that Chris Lehane's rivals in other Democratic campaigns made these claims and I have found no independent source to confirm it. Which is why we did not go with the story. But then someone sent my email to others, which is the only reason it got into the public domain." In other words, there is no proof that Lehane circulated the rumor, let alone that the rumor has any basis in reality."

Source: Joe Conason, Salon, 2/13/04

[feistydem]

Then could it be the Dean camp?

Howard Dean has certainly been going after Kerry. Is this an act of desperation to stay in the game? Geez, I hope not. That would be lower than low.

[KoKo]

19. Who would do this though? The first reports said Chris Lehane who had

worked a little for Kerry and then switched to Clark. Then Craig Crawford of "Hotline" said that Clark mentioned it in a Press Conference.

Clark's the only name I've seen mentioned and then he goes and endorses Kerry? Would Kucinich, Dean or Edwards do this? Why? If it fell back on them, what good would it do?

Unless, Dem Party Bosses thought Kerry might be vulnerable to "female indiscretion" stories because of his divorce and so they though since Clark was going to bow out, he might release this to the press to cause a stir and thereby counteract any RW charges later in the campaign by bringing his out early? But, wouldn't that be kind of cruel to trash that AP reporter by using her name? I would think it could be a clever move by our Dem Powers that Be, except that to involve an innocent AP reporter and her friend seem kind of "dirty tricks" to me. :shrug:
Dean is having big troubles and this kind of thing wouldn't help him, and Kucinich just isn't the kind of candidate that this sex stuff would help. Edwards......I don't know....maybe...but that's just because I don't like him, so ignore my comment about that. I just don't see this working for any of the other candidates, try as I might.

[blujig]

23. Maybe

I don't think if was anyone higher up in the party. Keey had prostate cancer and surgery last year. When was all of this supposed to have happened anyway?

[KoKo]

25. I've seen reports it was two years ago. "Recent" was the Smudge report.

His divorce was much longer ago. He married Teresa in 93....although I saw a post that said 95. So, if it was two years ago, it was before his prostate, but we don't even know what kind of "sex" it was. Or, even IF it was sex! Given what we learned from Monica.....there's lot's of ways to have sex, unfortunately and I hope we don't ever have to get into the 50 ways to have sex again!!!

[blujig]

26. I agree!

I am upset because I want to get rid of Bush. When I think of those 530 dead and 3,000 injured I get sick to my stomach. The toll is going to get greater. They are squandering our young people and destoying our economy.

[Adelante]

35. I would never consider

Kucinich.

[mountainvue]

14. Thank you.

[saracat]

32. Last Sentence/Kerry Glamour

Grass roots activists? Interesting, but I have a different take. I think this benefits Kerry. Kerry has been painted as staid and a bit boring. This gives him an allure he didn't previously have. I think this rumor did a hell of a lot more for his image than riding the Harley.Voters may not admit it . especially women, but they like a little bit of a rouge in their candidates. Remember , as long as it is just an implication, it lends an aura of glamour. We can imagine it but we don't want it proven!
Can anyone even imagine Dean with a movie star or attractive intern? It boggles the mind. We wouldn't have imagined it with Kerry either, but they painted a picture for us.This is just the shot in the arm JK needed .Go John!

[papau]

3. no public source - just drudge - so it dies - and blue dress story stolen

from Newsweek - who had been asked by Starr to hold one more week - during which Starrs office - I assume - leaked to Drudge - so as to get a nice unbalanced start.

In any case - he is not a reporter - he is a reprint service - or a gossip post for stuff that even the NY post page 6 will not touch but which needs a "everyone's talking about it" intro to get it on Fox

[KoKo]

10. Your "blue dress" info is interesting. I know Newsweek feeds into Drudge

and that Starr fed into Drudge. I was glued to Salon and Joe Conason/Murray Waas's articles along with some input from Jean Lyons during the whole Clinton "Hunting of the President." I still didn't believe the "blue dress" existed. But, that was when I learned that Drudge is the "pipeline" for what the Repugs and some of the more scurrilous RW News Folks want to feed as the latest scandal.

Unfortunately Drudge has become "mainstream enough" that just last week Brian Lamb (C-Span) when asked a question about why he reported something on Drudge's website told the caller that Drudge "after all is an Internet "news source." That threw me....so reading the Kerry thing did make all of us wonder....."how credible is this?" Do they have the person, did Newsweek's Fineman and Issikoff give Drudge the goods.

Why would Drudge stake credibility on this story if there isn't something to it? Wouldn't he have had to have something to do a job on Kerry who was in polls showing he could throw out the Chimp?

I'm worried he has more and he's just "teasing now." Letting it die down a little so he can report the next little feed of info from his "sources."

I don't want to think this...but would he really be caught with his "pants down" or are there "operatives in the background" which another poster here might be alluding to....working against Kerry but having just enough info to cast a doubt on him.

[tobius]

34. drudge gets tips from people in the newsroom, who see what's in the works

some are in the know about tidbits the senior editors are squeamish about.




“How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?” — Steven Wright

[Gman]

4. There's a big role for Buzzflash to play in November

if they want to play games like this.

[KoKo]

15. Buzz seemed to stay out of it. As was probably wise. n/t

[hlthe2b]

7. I think DU is being targeted and here is why....

I've noticed multiple posts on old issues that people have dredged up that we'd basically fully vetted and discarded. These stories were in deep archives on National Enquirer and other related websites. The reason I bring this up is I think we have visitors trying to plant "Bush Scandal" posts to set us up. While I think there were plenty of DU regulars who'd not seen them, and the Shoedinger article was posted quite innocently I'm sure by someone who hadn't been aware of it previously. However, I couldn't help but notice that the same individual (who it appears has an identical screen name at FR land) kept egging it on when several of us tried to discount the story. They all but accused those of us who were discounting the story as being PRO-BUSH infiltrators... (smile)

So the reason I bring this up is I think we have to be careful about "biting" the "incredible" latest posted story right now. It does appear that (like the fake Kerry/Fonda picture) mischief is about!

Here are the two posts that particularly caught my eye. It think that they were posted multiple times but dupes locked and these were eventually locked as well:

(the Sept., 2000 story of the stripper)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=362049


The Margie Shoedinger rape accusation and later suicide story from a year ago (the one Will Pitt looked into and validated the mental illness issues)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=320604


Let me know if you think this is merely coincidence or whether you agree that this suggests a need for caution.

[Old and In the Way]

11. I totally agree.

Thought Gillespie's bringing up the Bush abortion was interesting yesterday....I wonder if that's to get it out now or just have us chase another dead end?

Better to stick with AWOL/Harken/Baseball stadiums, I think.

[KoKo]

12. Agree, hlthe2b, and it's really hard to tell the innocent from the

mischief maker. I thought the repost of the Shoedinger story could be either someone wanting to do a favor and turn the discussion back onto Bush or someone wanting to point out that DU was dragging out stories which have little credibility to counteract the Kerry one.

It's really hard to know these days. :shrug: Being a mod on DU right now must be a nightmare!

[KFC]

17. Many of the enthusiastic "Kerry scandal" promoters are freepers

But that is to be expected.

The RW propoganda machine is warming up.

They are easy to spot and ignore.

[KoKo]

27. Someone just posted the Drudge/Blumenthal Smear Story.....so, he's not

perfect in his "hatchet jobs." I had forgotten that one....

[madrchsod]

8. i was sleeping on and off

today cause of a bad headache,so silly me i`d check du every once in awhile and there would be these posts and threads about kerry and all that crap. i gave up trying to figure out what the hell was going on here..made my head hurt worse...then i thought -what the fuck -kerry isn`t even nominated yet. if he`s got a lock on it now ,i guess i don`t need to vote in my primary for anyone..can`t figure out why anyone would believe sludge and the sun....

[KoKo]

22. Well, you're lucky to sleep. It was a real rumpus here yesterday and you

were better off waiting until it all died down. But, now that it "appears" to have died down, I think we need to ask these questions because it threw everyone into such a turmoil, just when we were feeling good about Bush's problems getting an airing.

I just don't know that this is a "dead story," yet though. We've seen to much about how "THEY" work. That's why I want to be prepared. My nerves can't take much more of this.....but I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess.....

[quaker bill]

21. I actually don't think that this is over by any means.

I would give it a few days before i came to that conclusion.

[KoKo]

29. Kick.

:kick:

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[WilliamPitt]

31. Yes. Yes.

[KoKo]

39. rofl. yes...yes.......well, I think I thank you for this.....questions...

and good that you see that, also. :toast:

[WiseMen]

33. No. No. Tens of MILLIONS are being spent on COVERT CAMPAIGN. Drudge will

do very well for what he is doing. The "Media" is not doing this.
Don't do the mass media blame game. This is direct from the
RW campaign into heart of Dem internicine wars. Dems are being used
or fronted in this smear of Kerry.

This is standard operating procedure now. Look how they used Dean: planted "funny" special interest analysis in the press, got Dean to repeat it across all the 27/7 Channels, then release their
own pointed hit piece. There are no accidents here.

[Nicholas_J]

36. I think so:

And I think he has gotten assistance from Ruport Murdoch. Virtuall all of the papers that have been shoring up the Drudge allegations are Murdoch ownd papers. The papers that reported the name of the girl, as well as the interview with her father and mother, also Murdoch owned.

A small list of Murdoch's holdings can be found at:

http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/bulletin/EdDesk.nsf/All/3C3C614207F01E27CA256CC40006C88A

Sleazeball hit on my daughter
By PHILLIP COOREY in New York
15feb04

DEMOCRATIC presidential frontrunner John Kerry was last night fighting for his political life over allegations he had an affair with a young woman who has since fled the country.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,8681911%255E663,00.html


Now who owns it:

Herald Sun
(Redirected from Herald-Sun)



The old Herald and Weekly Times building in Flinders St., Melbourne (larger image)The Herald Sun is a newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that is published by The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

The Herald Sun was formed in 1990 from a merger of the morning tabloid paper The Sun News-Pictorial with its afternoon broadsheet sister paper The Herald. It was first published on October 8, 1990 as the Herald-Sun. The hyphen in its title was later quietly dropped; the last hyphenated masthead appeared on May 1, 1993

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herald-Sun

All of the papers that have coverd the story quoteing Alex Poliers's parents are owned by Murdochs News Corporation direclt, oir are papers run by companies in whihc Murdoch owns majority shares. Murdoch Pretty much has Australia sewn up, owning most of the papers in that country. He owns a significand portion of the British Press. The London Sun, one of his othe tabloids, also was one of the first to take up Drudge's allegation, and lo, who owns it:

1969: By selling off parts of News of the World company, launches London Sun, spends <156>1.2m in advertising.

http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/bulletin/EdDesk.nsf/0/3C3C614207F01E27CA256CC40006C88A?OpenDocument

Owns a number of American Papers as well, mot well Known is the New York Post.

A list of some of Murdochs vast holding appears here:

http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/bulletin/EdDesk.nsf/0/3C3C614207F01E27CA256CC40006C88A?OpenDocument

A few other papers are not listed, but a few of the other papers in which reports of Drudges allegations are posted, are papers which are parts of the media groups owned by Murdoch. Who would think a paper called "The Hindustan Times" would be owned by Murdoch. But this is a British tabloid written for the large Indian and Pakistani population of England.

Murdoch owns 175 major media outlets or holding companies. EAch of which owns numerous other media outlets.

Murdoch owns several of Londons Newspaper, the Lodon Sun, and the Times of London are the two largest papers he owns in that World Capital.

Another good source that has links to the major hjoldings of Murdoch's "News Corporation"

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/News-Corporation


But so far, a list of the newpspaers owned directly by Murdochs "New Corporations" are:





United States
New York Post

United Kingdom

News International

News of the World

The Sun

The Sunday Times

The Times

Australia

Daily Telegraph

Fiji Times

Gold Coast Bulletin

Herald Sun

Newsphotos

Newspix

Newstext

NT News

Post-Courier

Sunday Herald Sun

Sunday Mail

Sunday Tasmanian

Sunday Territorian

Sunday Times

The Advertiser

The Australian

The Courier-Mail

The Mercury

The Sunday Telegraph

Weekly Times



All of these papers are basically the political support style papers common in Europe ,Great Britain, and Australia, and tout Murdochs extreme conservative political leaning, and are well known for smearing all non-conservative politics nad politicians.

Beware of any claims made in a Murdoch run paper.

[KoKo]

37. WOW! Many links......thanks for all the work on this.....

Will take some time to go through all these....but as a "Media Maven," it's important for us who care so strongly about this election to read what we can in our individual Time Frames.....

[Nicholas_J]

43. Whenever you see a Democratic Candidate smear article

Just check first to see if it is in one of the Autralian or British papers listed here. If not listed, try to see who owns the company, and if it is owned by "The News Corporation" then you got a Murdoch Rag. If it doesnt say its owned by Murdoch's corporation directly, see who it is ownd by, and ten check who owns that. 9 times out of ten if it is British or Australian and it is smearing a U.S. Democratic candidate, that company is either a company in which Murdoch is a major shareholder, or it is a subsidiary of the News Corporation, or part of another holding company which owns dozens of differerent media corporations for Murdoch. Directly Murdoch owns 175 different media outlets. but the total number he owns through various holding companies is staggering.

In British and Autralian tabloids, and other papers with political agendas, it is not uncommon for these papers to simply outright lie about a candidate or create non existant affair and such. If Dean was in the lead right now, and his candidacy were really scaring Bush, you can be sure that you would see a cropped picture of Dean with his arm around a willowy young blond, which would have come from a larger picture of Dean on the stage with one of his many supporters, with his arm innocently around one of them, but the headline would read, "Dean seen with a young woman while he wife was at home" or something like that. It is very common in th British media, especially during election cycles. But it is even worse in Australia, where Murdoch was weaned on political slander in the papers he inherited from his father. They get away with stuff in those countries that simply would not be tolerated by the American Media, American law, and most certainly by the American Public. Fox News is tame by comparison, and so are Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.

Which is why the Kerry stuff was printed in those Australian and British Tabloids that have Murdoch links, but you didnt see anything on Fox, or in the New York Post. Murdoch knows that you can't get away with idle specualtion, innuendo, or outright lies in the American Media as directly as you can in Australia or Great Britain.

It is likely that you wont find the major media in the U.S. even naming the alleged young woman in a major media source, or in anything but right wing based web sites in the U.S.

Given the Murdoch source, I will bet that every element of the reports from the young womans father or mother are either taken totally out of context, or may not ever have even occured, given Murdoch medias penchant for creating events that have never even occurred.

All you need to do is keep your eye out for even a small Murdoch link when you see a candidate slur in order to try to back up something like Drudges Kerry allegations, and then you find the right wing slut campaign started to try to hammer a candidate that Republicans are getting worried about. When the major American Media didnt take the bait when Drudge started. Murdoch used his conservative media to try to give Drudge some credibility. Even that has not gotten the major media to bite.


Now check out this wording:

Mr Clark, meanwhile, yesterday endorsed Mr Kerry, something interpreted by some Washington observers as an effort to try and repair any damage his off-the-record comments had done. Reports yesterday identified the young woman as Alex Polier, 24, and said that she had fled to Kenya after being approached by a media organisation.

The Sun newspaper quoted Ms Polier's parents, Terry and Donna, from Malvern, Pennsylvania, as claiming Mr Kerry had pursued their daughter.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3549312&thesection=news&thesubsection=world

This article quotes the London Sun, which is a Murdoch paper, asserts that she fled to Kenya after being approached by a media organization.

If you do a little research you will find that the young woman mentioned wrote some articles for Associated Press between January of 2003 and Mid February of 2003 She has written several articles related to HIV-AIDS.


In fact, the most articles that Ms Polier had contributed to for AP seemed to have some HIV spin, except for on article that had something to do with between the age 18-34 taking the risk of going without health insurance even when it is availble to them through work due to the growing expense of the insurance.

Well regardless of the topic, it seems that the articles that she wrote or contributed to had to do with HIV-AIDS, and were critical of the pharmceutcal industry not doing enough to make these drugs available to the poorer nations of Africa. As well as being critical of the Bush Administratiom HIV Policy In Africa.

Given the HIV realted articles that the AP writer has contributed to last year, the idea of an AP writer going off at Africa, after being approached by a media organization, could have a totally different, and non sinister spin to it entirely. GIven Murdochs reputation for fiddling with context, adding non-existant elements to events, and then adding just the right amount of lies to what happened, it is small wonder that the responsible, major media, has not tounched these claims.

[yellowcanine]

40. It's likely as his pants are down most of the time

Not too hard to catch him that way

[KoKo]

41. lol's.....truly......Drudge is a "piece of work."

:D

[kodi]

42. its only when andy sullivan is around that drudge has his pants down

drudge is a paid sponsor for the far right wing.

larry flynt is more honest.