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 He was Author of Lies Says he was Blinded by the Right-- is No Longer Conservative David Brock Smeared Anita Hill, Supported Clarence Thomas |
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By Jack Nichols
Washington, D.C.-David Brock, a former Republican zealot who admitted in 1998 that his writings had allowed exaggerations about Bill Clinton's behavior in Arkansas has authored a new book titled Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative.
Mr. Brock, who is openly gay, now admits that he'd deliberately lied in order to defame Anita Hill while supporting the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. This occurred after Ms. Hill, the Justice's aide, had been summoned during Senate confirmation hearings to testify about incidents of sexual harassment others had revealed she'd possibly suffered as Thomas' assistant. Brock's 1993 book, The Real Anita Hill, characterized Ms. Hill as "a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty," a characterization he now calls an outright lie. Not confined to lying about Hill alone, the ex-Republican zealot admits: "I demonized Democratic senators, their staffs, and Hill's feminist supporters without ever interviewing any of them." His defense strategies to save the reputation of Justice Thomas included reportage that denied what Thomas' close acquaintances had already noted, namely the Justice's admitted fondness for X-rated films. Brock now says he had threatened-with divorce scandal information delivered to him-- "to blacken" the name of one such acquaintance, causing her to withdraw her honest account.
Margaret Carlson of Time magazine, however, opined that the truth would be easy to flesh out. It would only be necessary, she said, for the Congress to call the informants and would-be informants to testify under oath. Justice Thomas was one of the U.S. Supreme Court's "Gang of Five" responsible for appointing George W. Bush to the presidency, an electoral decision that 585 U.S. professors of law have jointly condemned. |
