<<http://www.msnbc.com/news/752664.asp?cp1=1>>
GARBLING LINDA TRIPP
Damn! There�s that face on my AOL pop-up screen again. Oh to be
free of Linda Tripp and her lies. This CNN report is a complete bunch of
crap; a perfect example of how to spin a lazy reporter. The piece totally
swallows the garbage put out by Tripp�s attorneys part of a long-running
spin campaign that turned all coverage of her upside down. Tripp was
arrested on grand larceny charges as an adult, and in a court plea
bargain, she pled guilty to reduced charges, of loitering. The case
involved her alleged theft of wrist watch from a guy whom she spent time
with one night.
She subsequently applied for top security clearance for a job at
the Department of Defense. The security form demands that anyone who has
ever been arrested, regardless of the outcome of the case, must disclose
this to the government. Tripp lied on the form, saying she had never been
arrested. The form explicitly states that to lie about one�s arrest
record is potentially a felony offense. Tripp nonetheless lied, and
signed the form, swearing that everything she had said was true.
When her name surfaced in the news in connection with the Lewinsky
affair, reporter Jane Mayer was assigned a profile of her by the New
Yorker. I interviewed Mayer about her reporting and learned that during
the course of her investigation, she tracked down numerous friends and
family members of Tripp, without any help, she assures me, from the White
House or anyone else in the government.
Mayer found Tripp�s step-mother, who blurted out that Tripp had
been arrested. The step-mother, who has confirmed that she was the source
of this information, and gave Mayer sufficient detail to allow her to
file an FOIA request, and to track down Tripp�s arrest record from the
local police station where she was busted.
Armed with a facsimile of her arrest, Mayer then called the
Pentagon, to see whether the Defense Department had any record of her
arrest, and to see whether she had properly disclosed it, as is required
under the law. The press office at the Pentagon checked her record, and
reported back to Mayer that Tripp had no arrest record, as far as they
knew.
This was the ostensible infringement of Tripp�s privacy. The
government did not disclose her arrest record. The government attempted
to suggest she had no arrest record. It was her step-mother who blew the
whistle on her, not the government. And it was old-fashioned, factual
reporting that disclosed that Tripp lied to get a top security clearance.
But with the help of a huge network of right-wing lawyers and
press outlets, Tripp turned her potentially felonious lie, and her felony
arrest history into a cause celebre, shifting all blame for her own
miserable conduct onto the Pentagon, and claiming falsely yet again, that
somehow the government had released her arrest record and tarred her
name. She tarred her own name. The government (incorrectly) denied she
had an arrest record. Mayer wrote the story, straight.
The CNN story in question makes a zillion mistakes, every one of
them in Tripp�s favor. It says she was a minor, when arrested. She was an
adult. It says the government leaked information about her arrest. It did
not. It says the case involved drinking � it was a grand larceny charge,
which as George W. Bush, could tell you, is much more serious. They say
she was never charged. She was charged in an open court with Grand
Larceny, and then, in a plea agreement, she pled guilty to a reduced
charge of loitering. The case was adjudicated, not dropped.
And no one until this day has ever prosecuted her or disciplined
her for lying and covering up her arrest, in order to get an undeserved
top security clearance. Instead, the government is paying her $600,000
despite the fact that she clearly lied about her status.
The media has done a completely miserable job at holding its own
against her spin-meisters. The press seems to have been incapable of
getting the facts of her case right � over and over she�s portrayed
herself as a juvenile, and claimed she was never charged, when all you
have to do is go to look at The Smoking Gun.
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