During the “Strategy Session” portion of the June 17 edition of CNN's Inside Politics, host John King led CNN contributors Robert D. Novak and Jack Valenti in a nearly six-minute-long discussion of Edward Klein's attack book on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), The Truth About Hillary What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President (Sentinel, June 2005) -- without mentioning any of the book's most controversial claims or its factual errors.

After news broke that the book contained an anonymously sourced allegation that Chelsea Clinton was conceived when Bill Clinton raped his wife, Klein's book was widely denounced, even drawing scorn from Michael Savage and Bill O'Reilly. But neither King nor his guests mentioned any of that.

In response to a question from King about whether the book is being taken seriously, Novak said:

NOVAK: I think it's being treated seriously. It's a reputable guy; he's a journalist, he's not just a -- and he's got a lot of new material in it, that the, the advance thing that everybody has seen ran in Vanity Fair, advance chapter, it proves something that I knew for a long time, I never wrote it, is that Liz Moynihan, late Senator [Daniel Patrick] Moynihan's widow, detested Hillary, and, and the Moynihans had a very bad relationship with her.

Neither Novak nor King mentioned that Moynihan's daughter has called the book's accounts of interactions between the Moynihans and Clinton "utterly and completely false."

When Valenti said “I've heard that it's mostly gossip, unconfirmed gossip,” neither King nor Novak took the opportunity to mention the widely denounced rape allegation or the gay-baiting sexual innuendo that has been debunked by the New York Post, as Media Matters for America has noted:

A gossip columnist for the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post, a tabloid not typically thought of as defenders of the Clintons, noted under the headline “Hillary Basher Is Error Prone” that Klein's book contains suggestions that Clinton had “lesbian relationships” with two college friends -- even though, according to the Post, Klein “never spoke to either woman.” Both women denounced Klein's book; one, “whose name is misspelled in Klein's book” told the Post, “No one deserves this kind of crap.” Her lawyer added, “These allegations are totally false and unsubstantiated. ... Klein has apparently done no investigating. This is scurrilous, despicable and politically motivated.”

Instead, Novak responded to Valenti by saying:

NOVAK: It looks to me like a well-attributed book; it doesn't look like gossip to me. ... I think the problem with Senator Clinton is, unlike her husband, she's not very likable.

Neither King nor Valenti challenged Novak about the book's content or his claim that Sen. Clinton is “not very likable.” In fact, a recent Gallup poll found that 55 percent of Americans view Sen. Clinton favorably, and that a majority would consider voting for her; only 39 percent view her unfavorably -- making her considerably more popular than, for example, the president of the United States.

Nor did King note that Novak isn't exactly a credible reviewer of right-wing attack books.