Killing the Messenger

September 21, 2015
The "vast right-wing conspiracy" to destroy Hillary Clinton is back, according to this trenchant jâaccuse by an apostate who used to belong to it. Brock gained fame as a conservative journalist with the book The Real Anita Hill, a hatchet job (which he disowns) on the woman who accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment; heâs now head of the liberal watchdog outfit Media Mattersâparts of the book read like a fund-raising prospectus for the groupâand a fervent Clinton-for-president booster. His unabashed mission is to defend Clinton from right-wing detractors such as Rush Limbaugh, the Koch brothers, Fox News, and even some liberal outlets such as the New York Times, which he tars with a longtime anti-Clinton bias. With a media insiderâs expert eye, Brock details how talking points and innuendos originating from GOP strategists filter down through conservative websites, books, and talk shows and into the mainstream media. He presents lucid, entertaining debunkings of anti-Clinton memes, arguing that she did nothing wrong during the Benghazi attack, broke no e-mail rules as secretary of state, and is neither an out-of-touch elitist nor the man-hating "feminazi" of sexist jibes. Brockâs rhetorical venom and naked partisanship will alienate some readers, but his sharp-eyed reporting makes for a spirited challenge to business-as-usual political discourse.

October 1, 2015
That "vast right-wing conspiracy" Hillary Clinton warned about all those years ago? It's real. And then some. So writes Brock (The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy, 2004, etc.), who was notoriously part of it, the author of the "bit nutty and a bit slutty" slur campaign against Anita Hill. Since then, as he recounted in his 2002 memoir Blinded by the Right, he had a road-to-Damascus (or D.C.) moment and founded the Democratic PAC American Bridge, which has a favorite daughter in Clinton. In his role as activist and media critic and watchdog]he also founded Media Matters]Brock here charts the evolution of a well-funded (courtesy of the Koch brothers and their ilk) right-wing information/misinformation/disinformation machine that saw its first real coup in the swift boating of John Kerry. He argues that the Dems did it all wrong by refusing to dignify that whisper-and-shout campaign with a response; just so, without naming too many names, he wishes that they'd smack some of the Benghazi/Hillary hater crowd down with a few well-pointed barbs: "Hillary's email practices didn't break any rules]but Jeb Bush's did." Granted that Brock's is a thoroughly partisan approach, a student of the modern media could do worse than read along with him and wonder whether the New York Times really doesn't have it in for Clinton, who, as first lady, senator, secretary of state, and now presidential candidate, can't seem to catch a break with the Gray Lady. Blame some of it on Howell Raines and some on Bill Safire]though it has to be said that the Clintons have a habit of drawing negative attention in any event, a matter that Brock shrugs off. Closing with suitable fire and brimstone, the author hints that he's got something really juicy in the wings to shake up the race, so stay tuned. There's not much hard news in Brock's account of "the last battle of the Clinton Wars," but it's a useful casebook on how big-money politics and political operators work.

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