Media outlets left out key information about the conservative author of new anti-Clinton book

Written by Nicole Casta

Published

In highlighting author Candice E. Jackson and her recent book attacking Bill and Hillary Clinton, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, The Washington Times and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review omitted two key facts: 1) according to the book jacket, Jackson wrote the book as “a wakeup call to stop Hillary Clinton from ever getting back into the White House”; and 2) Jackson is a former staffer of a conservative legal organization best known for its numerous lawsuits against the Clinton administration.

In profiling Jackson's Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine, published by conservative imprint World Ahead Publishing and praised by right-wing pundits David Horowitz and Lucianne Goldberg, the conservative news website CNSNews.com reported that “Jackson admits that one of her goals it [sic] to prevent Sen. Hillary Clinton [D-NY] from being elected president in 2008. ... 'We have let the Clintons go to the White House once and I think this is a serious enough abuse issue to prevent them from going there again,' Jackson said.”

Jackson worked for the California office of Judicial Watch, a conservative legal organization founded by Larry Klayman that “peppered the Clinton administration with no fewer than 18 lawsuits.” [The Washington Post, 5/30/1998]

Here's how reporting on the Jackson book from The Washington Times, the Tribune-Review, and Scarborough stacked up:

  • The Times failed to mention either Jackson's motivation for writing the book or her prior affiliation with Judicial Watch, even though it excerpted a CNSNews.com report that included both pieces of information. [6/1/05]
  • Scarborough did not identify Jackson as a former Judicial Watch staffer, nor did he mention her motivation, though his guest, Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century founder Dave Pollak, pointed out that "the flap of the book" says that “it's a wakeup call to stop Hillary Clinton from ever getting back into the White House.” [MSNBC's Scarborough Country, 5/16/05]
  • In recommending the book “to browse at the shore this summer” in the May 22 edition of its “Whispers” column, the Tribune-Review failed to mention Jackson's stated motivation to block a potential presidential bid by the former first lady. The Tribune-Review stated that “Jackson once worked for Judicial Watch,” but described it only as “a Washington-based public interest law firm.” Further, the article did not mention that Judicial Watch has received more than $7.7 million from foundations controlled by Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire right-wing financier who owns the Tribune-Review and who also paid for the controversial anti-Clinton Arkansas Project.[5/22/05]