NYPost - Dick Morris

IT WASN'T JUST DRUDGE

May 8, 2001 -- SPIN, counterattack, discrediting witnesses and outright lying were part of the Clinton administration's orchestrated attack on dissident journalists. Beneath these tactics lay chilling attempts to use the legal system to punish reporters who got too near the truth.

The most visible attempt at using libel suits to frighten the press was the $30 million lawsuit by former White House staffer Sydney Blumenthal against Internet journalist Matt Drudge.

Drudge corrected the story immediately after publication. In most jurisdictions, that is enough to preclude a libel suit. But Blumenthal, with the support of then-President Clinton, filed a lawsuit anyway.

Four years later, with Clinton out of office, Blumenthal has suddenly agreed to drop the suit, and even to pay $2,500 to the reporter's lawyers. This sudden willingness to walk away shows the full mendacity of the litigation. It was designed to hamper a persistent Clinton critic.

It worked. Drudge was dragged through the media mill, exposed to (by his count) 3,700 separate articles discussing the suit and speculating on the reporter's culpability. CNN mentioned the suit in 24 different stories; USA Today reported on it 10 times. The avalanche of negative publicity forced Drudge to play defense, to the detriment of his ability to report on Clinton.

I felt the hammer blows of legal intimidation personally when I received two threatening letters from lawyers for Clinton operatives as a result of my commentary critical of the administration on the Fox News Channel and in this newspaper.

The first came from a lawyer representing Jack Palladino, a private detective who was hired by the '92 Clinton campaign to dig up dirt on women who were likely to accuse Clinton of having sex with them. I called him a member of Clinton's secret police; his attorney demanded a retraction and apology. A few months later, I criticized Pentagon employee Ken Bacon for improperly releasing Linda Tripp's personnel file, an act U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lambreth later found to be a privacy violation. I got a letter, this time from Bacon's lawyer, demanding a retraction.

In both cases, the threats were dropped when my attorney provided full documentation for the statements I had made. Neither a retraction nor an apology was needed.

These suits and threats of suit hold reporters of modest means at bay. When public officials drop these suits after they have served their intimidating purpose, thus admitting their lack of merit, the public should note how the free press has been used and abused.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2001