Last summer, articles by conseratives Robert Novak, John Fund, and Paul Weyrich accused Sen. Robert Dole’s chief of staff, Sheila Burke, of using her position to promote her own liberal ideas. But just how severe was the criticism-and how massive was the backlash against the criticism?
A computer search has turned up 7 conservative pieces totalling about 6,000 words criticizing Burke. And a total of 15 liberal pieces totalling 23,000 words defending her. Twice as many articles and almost four times as many words were written defending Burke against the attacks than were used to attack her in the first place.
And those numbers only consider printed pieces that clearly took sides, not the network news segments defending her. Liberal defenses included a $ IWashington Post Style section essay, a piece in Time, and, most recently, Jason DeParle’s stale rehash on the cover of the New York Times Magazine called “The Campaign to Demonize Sheila Burke: The Conservative Attack Machine Strikes Again, This Time At Bob Dole’s Chief of Staff.” The article itself reveals no “attack machine.” Instead, it shows that occasionally an issue arises on which a group of conservatives takes one side and a larger group of liberals with greater media firepower takes the other. Sometimes conservatives are on the attack, sometimes liberals. Nothing particularly new about any of this.
DeParle is best known for writing one of the most savage hit pieces of recent years, his assault on Charles Murray in the Times Magazine. But now he is shocked, shocked to find that there are people writing critical articles about public figures. DeParle and his editors seem to think that when they order a hit job, it is just honest journalism, but when conservatives take after someone they are a horde of Mongols invading the land.
The only real loser this time is Burke herself. She allowed DeParlea week of full access so he could attack the ideological core of the Republican party. Last week, Dole indicated that Burke wouldn’t be chief of staff in a Dole White House.
