Dick Morris has made himself toxic enough that few in political media want anything to do with him, but Newsmax has dutifully led Morris’ image rehab, to the point of publishing his new book. Now, that book must be promoted, and unsurprisingly, Newsmax is taking the lead there as well.
An Oct. 1 Newsmax article by Melissa Clyne touted Morris’ claim on a Newsmax TV show that “President Barack Obama has missed 58 percent of the national security intelligence briefings during each of his terms in office.”
Because Clyne is in promotion mode instead of journalism mode, she couldn’t be bothered to tell her readers that Morris’ claim is bogus. The Washington Post reported two years ago that Obama always reads the intelligence briefing and discusses it with advisers in a daily foreign-policy meeting. Thus, he does not need to attend a briefing for an oral report.
Nevertheless, Clyne parrots Morris’ conspiratorial assertion that “Obama does not really care about foreign policy because his ultimate goal is a one-party system.”
An Oct. 3 article finds Greg Richter similarly in stenographer moe, promoting Morris’ appearance on a Fox News show to again claim that “Obama is implementing an agenda to destroy two-party rule in America.”
Richter also uncritically repeats Morris’ unsupported assertion that Hillary Clinton, while working as a lawyer for the Watergate committee, “stole documents to try to prejudice Nixon’s case to make it impossible for Nixon to have a lawyer represent him in impeachment proceedings if they had been held.” That’s a claim that originates with another Watergate staffer, Jerry Zeifman; as we’ve documented, Zeifman has paraded himself as a Democrat who bashes Democrats, and he has made contradictory claims about firing Clinton from the committee.
None of what Morris is saying is trustworthy, but Newsmax won’t tell you that because it has books to sell.