Posted by
CRB on Tuesday, October 10, 2006 10:34:28 AM
On October 6, 2006, Dr. James Dobson made his statement about the Mark Foley sexually-explicit messages. Here's the key paragraph:
We condemn the Foley affair categorically, and we also believe that what Mr. Clinton did was one of the most embarrassing and wicked things ever done by a president in power. Let me remind you, sir, that it was not just James Dobson who found the Lewinsky affair reprehensible. More than 140 newspapers called for Clinton's resignation. But the president didn't do what Mr. Foley has done in leaving. He stayed in office, and he lied to the grand jury to obscure the facts. As it turns out, Mr. Foley has had illicit sex with no one that we know of, and the whole thing turned out to be what some people are now saying was a -- sort of a joke by the boy and some of the other pages.
This is what Media Matters did to the statement:
On Focus on the Family, Dobson was responding to a New York Times column by Paul Krugman, in which Krugman wondered how Dobson would respond to the Foley scandal given Dobson's earlier criticism of former President Bill Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky. From Krugman's column (subscription required):
It will be interesting, by the way, to see how Dr. Dobson, who declared of Bill Clinton that "no man has ever done more to debase the presidency," responds to the Foley scandal. Does the failure of Republican leaders to do anything about a sexual predator in their midst outrage him as much as a Democratic president's consensual affair?
In response, Dobson again criticized Clinton and then suggested that the sexually explicit instant messages allegedly sent by Foley to underage male pages were the result of "sort of a joke":
DOBSON: We condemn the Foley affair categorically, and we also believe that what Mr. Clinton did was one of the most embarrassing and wicked things ever done by a president in power. Let me remind you, sir, that it was not just James Dobson who found the Lewinsky affair reprehensible. More than 140 newspapers called for Clinton's resignation. But the president didn't do what Mr. Foley has done in leaving. He stayed in office, and he lied to the grand jury to obscure the facts. As it turns out, Mr. Foley has had illicit sex with no one that we know of, and the whole thing turned out to be what some people are now saying was a -- sort of a joke by the boy and some of the other pages. [color emphasis mine]
Do you see what Media Matters did? Pretty simple, really. They used the old Leftie theme that the only thing conservatives have in their arsenal is to criticize the Clinton presidency. But, if you listen to Dr. Dobson's statement, he was directly addressing the question raised. So Media Matters, once again, proves itself biased and thus untrustworthy by their editorializing.
This is what Ed Schultz did to Dr. Dobson's statement:
Can you believe that? "Some people", "a joke", "a prank". I mean, this guy this is supposedly a man of high moral character, this is supposedly man of the cloth, if I may.... a many who preaches ... I can't believe that he's in denial of these facts. He's buyin' the Drudge line that put it out there last week on their web page. On Drudge about "How, O, this is nothing but a big prank, here we go. " Folks, there are multiples here.
There's now an admission from a former page who says he had sex with Foley. And I just can't let this go, this isn't going to get any push-back at all, or nobody's going to combat what Dobson is saying. But play it again, this is an outright lie. Either this guy is living underneath a rock or he just flat-out doesn't care about the facts and doesn't care whether he's right or wrong or not. This is a guy who wants his followers, and that's what they are, his followers to believe this and this is what this is. [color emphasis mine]
The thing is, Ed, the page's admission came 2 days after Dobson's broadcast. These reports came out on 10/8/2006. That means, for Dr. Dobson to have been intentionally lying, he would have had to travel ahead in time, read the reports, and then go back and lie.
Ok, Ed. I like much about your show. So ...
If you can show me that there were earlier verifiable reports of Foley having sex with pages,
I'll retract and apologize right here.
If not, you should give Dr. Dobson a formal on-air apology.
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