NBC Goes For the Jugular, Misses
Here's the story so far. Arianna takes a few swipes at Tim Russert. NBC attacks Arianna, but instead of going after her on the facts, dregs up a 12 year old false claim by GOP'er Ed Rollins in his memoir, "Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms" that she hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on Russert's wife, Vanity Fair author Maureen Orth.
Richard Bradley, an editor of George Magazine in 1996, writes today about an article in the November, 1996 issue of the magazine written by John B. Roberts II, a former Reagan speech-writing assistant who did research for Rollins' book, in which Roberts said Rollins falsified information in his memoir.
The Fresno Bee ran this item on Roberts' article:( October 20, 1996)
Anyone who actually believed everything Rollins wrote will be dismayed. But even readers who took the Spinmeister's tales with a grain of salt will be surprised by the extent of his apparent deceptions.
Arianna always denied the charge. The LA Times quotes her on August 6, 1996:
This isn't a matter of opinion, this is objective truth. I'm saying I didn't and I can prove it; he's saying I did and he can't prove it," Arianna Huffington said. She called the book "pay for spew," and said her lawyers are preparing a suit against Rollins.
The Washington Post on the same date had this refutation:
Ariana Huffington said yesterday that "I never respond to personal attacks," but she vigorously disputed Rollins's specific contention that she had hired private investigators to prove that her husband's opponent, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D), had employed an illegal alien maid and to investigate Maureen Orth, a magazine writer who was preparing a profile on her.
"Both these things are completely false," she said in a telephone interview. "I have never in my life hired a private investigator."
Rollins insisted in a subsequent interview that he had overheard Ariana Huffington talking about "the detective's report on Maureen Orth." Asked to respond to statements from three campaign officials that the investigation of the Feinstein maid was conducted on their orders, not Ariana Huffington's, Rollins said, "If she wants to argue technicalities at this point, it's [expletive]."
If that's all that NBC could come up with, it's a pretty cheap shot.
[Graphic created exclusively for TalkLeft by CL.]
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