Hunting of Conservative Thinkers No "Phantom Persecution"

By Michael Fumento

Townhall, February 9, 2006
Copyright 2006 Townhall

"Nobody here but us spooks!"

Well, start believing in spooks.

At least two "phantoms" are quite corporeal indeed. But "witch hunters" is a better term for them. One is Sharon Waxman at the New York Times, the other Eamon Javers at Business Week.

Waxman called me in late December about the alleged "pay-for-play" column that was attached to my name on the Enemies List. I flatly denied having received pay for that or any other column. She admitted she had no evidence, but pressed for an hour seeking some chink in my story or any other names I might provide.

Later Waxman called freelance writer Cathy Seipp, whom she's been told had taken $1,000 to write an op-ed. Seipp said she turned it down. End of story, right? Wrong. Waxman again pushed for more witch names to pursue. When Seipp audaciously wrote about this exchange, Waxman responded with "threats and bullying" for blowing her cover, Seipp said.

Waxman then called the head of small PR firm in Los Angeles and threatened and bullied him. As Seipp wrote in a Los Angeles Times column and I confirmed by telephone, Waxman threatened to publicize all his clients if he didn't "cooperate." "I was so scared," he told me. So he provided what she desperately sought, a confession of a pay-for-play deal.

He instantly regretted this, but had the foresight to write to Waxman's editors not once but twice. They know the nasty game she's playing.

Scripps Howard has now bravely fired me twice. First from the Rocky Mountain News in 1991 the day my AIDS book came out, and now a second time. On both occasions the axe fell without notice.

Huh?

I had told him I'd solicited a grant in 1999 from Monsanto for a biotechnology policy book while at a think tank. Grant solicitation is standard procedure for writers of policy books that usually pay notoriously poorly and it's standard procedure for think tank scholars.

Monsanto, which knew I had already been writing pro-biotech pieces for six years, then donated $60,000 to my employer – not me. Unincorporated individuals can't accept grants. I was then paid the same salary and benefits as the year before.

There was no story. So Javers invented one. He let readers think there's a policy for disclosing book grants in op-eds or columns; but there isn't. He then applied his new policy retroactive to 1999.

My Scripps column didn't even begin until four years later, with the one used to torpedo me appearing in 2006 – seven years after the book grant. When Javers called them, Scripps didn't see a conflict of interest; just negative PR. They killed my column without even consulting me.

Since then, Javers has dropped countless hooks in the water desperately trying to catch somebody doing something he could twist into looking bad. He did snare a few writers doing true pay-for-play, but oddly enough no liberals. This is interesting since I gave him everything he needed to zap the powerful leftwing PR firm Fenton Communications for taking trial lawyers' money to run an anti-breast implant front group called Command Trust Network.

Writes columnist Bruce Bartlett of the witch hunt: "This is all part of an effort to demonize perfectly reasonable, standard fund-raising to inhibit conservative think tanks' ability to compete in the realm of ideas with liberal newspapers, television networks, universities and foundations." Indeed, at least four of the targets have been whole organizations rather than individuals.

The "phantoms" are all too real. We dare not let them silence all who would challenge them.

Read Michael Fumento's other work on the media. Michael Fumento is the author of numerous books.