-Caveat Lector- January 16, 1999 JOURNAL/ By FRANK RICH Larry Flynt Stoned We didn't need Larry Flynt to tell us that Bob Barr is a hypocrite. The Georgia Congressman's sleazy marital history was already public back in '96 when he had the gall to champion an absurd bill called the Defense of Marriage Act -- which that other proud defender of marriage, Bill Clinton, then signed into law. But we may need Larry Flynt anyway -- not to expose any impeachment manager's sex life but simply because his very presence exposes the disingenuousness of everybody else, conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat, press and public, who inhabits the epic Bosch canvas that is Monicagate. In the land of the pious hypocrite, the honest pornographer is king. After a year in which the President repeatedly told us he didn't have sex with that woman, and his antagonists repeatedly told us that their case "is not about sex," and the media constantly lamented how horribly sad they were to be covering this sex-driven, albeit lucrative, story, Mr. Flynt's candor is downright refreshing. In interviews, he refers to himself as a "smut publisher" who wants "to sell [his] magazine," not a public-minded seeker of truth. He openly declares his partisanship ("I love Clinton. He's a great President.") and eagerly declares his hope to have "the effect of derailing the impeachment process." The Hustler editor who serves as Mr. Flynt's collaborator in tracking down Congressional trysts unabashedly describes their enterprise as "vandalism," not journalism. It is almost too delicious to watch Mr. Flynt throw his higher-minded colleagues in the news business into conniptions. Washington's bloviator-in- chief, David Broder, brooded on PBS about how "the mainstream press" is now having its agenda set by "the bottom-feeders in our business" -- and yet he works for the paper (The Washington Post) that first asked the adultery question to a Presidential candidate (Gary Hart) and is a regular on "Meet the Press," the first mainstream Sunday gabfest that made a panelist out of Matt Drudge, the Clinton-haters' answer to Flynt (though not as factually accurate). Mr. Flynt's antics have similarly prompted many mainstream TV news outlets -- CNBC, ABC's "20/ 20," CNN, "CBS This Morning" -- to demonstrate yet again that, for all their pious declarations to the contrary, the scandals they care most about are those with sex. The sexual allegations about Mr. Barr have received far more play than the revelations of the Congressman's involvement with a white supremacist organization -- much as TV pursued Monica rather than Clinton fund-raising and wag-the-dog scandals, and largely ignored Henry Hyde's S.&L. shenanigans and Dan Burton's campaign-finance chicanery to air their sexual histories instead. The viewing audience, which tells pollsters it's had enough sex, exercises its own hypocrisy by rewarding Mr. Flynt's appearance on "Rivera Live" with the show's highest rating since the O. J. civil verdict. The other hypocrites unmasked by Mr. Flynt's pranks could fill a cabinet department. It's hard to stop laughing when Dick Morris, who sucked prostitutes' toes while on the White House payroll, decries the publisher for "degrading American politics." Jerry Falwell, a past Flynt legal foe, now goes on TV to condemn his old adversary's tactics -- never mind that Mr. Falwell himself marketed a video accusing the President of murder. Conservative politicians and publications that happily feasted on a tabloid's purchase of Gennifer Flowers's revelations and the recent Drudge-spread hoax about an illegitimate Clinton son are now fuming about Mr. Flynt. Liberals and feminists who vehemently attacked a Hollywood film for ostensibly sanitizing the Hustler publisher's odious depiction of women are curiously silent about his pursuit of Barr & Co. As for the President, his spokesman, Joe Lockhart, says that his boss wants Mr. Flynt to "cease and desist." Oh, puh-leeze! Larry Flynt is a bull in the china shop of false pieties, empty pretensions and sexual sermonizing that have brought us to this low moment in American history. On Thursday, alas, he checked into a Los Angeles hospital with pneumonia. The networks that have been broadcasting soap operas rather than the Senate trial their anchors keep telling us is "historic" can only pray that Mr. Flynt, who has it in his power to make impeachment must-see TV again, gets well soon. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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