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Unlike Horowitz vs. Time, Blumenthal vs. Drudge revolved around a matter of fact, not opinion: Had Blumenthal beaten his wife, as certain nameless Republican creeps told Drudge, or had he not? When Drudge ascertained that there were no "court records" to uphold that terrible lie, he published a retraction, which didn't, however, necessarily protect him from a libel claim.

What Blumenthal and his family demanded was that Drudge reveal who had fed him this politically motivated slander. By exposing those liars, Drudge probably could have ended the lawsuit before it began. But the Internet gossip, who proclaimed his disdain for all journalistic constraints, pleaded that he couldn't "reveal his sources," even though they had misled him with a very bad story.

Joe Conason Joe Conason's column appears in Salon News every other Tuesday. + Biography + Archives

Honorable people surely may differ about whether Blumenthal vs. Drudge is an assault on the First Amendment or a vindication of journalistic standards. But it is hard to see how Horowitz can square his unstinting support for Drudge with his own threat to sue Time. He now wants to force Time to clear his name, but has mocked Blumenthal for seeking the same redress from Drudge.

Back then, in a letter to someone who had criticized him for supporting Drudge, Horowitz explained that he regarded the White House aide's lawsuit as an overreaction to the ordinary fortunes of political warfare. "Certainly no one in politics is immunized from name-calling, gross misrepresentation and unfounded accusation," he wrote to one of Blumenthal's furious friends. "That is deplorable but it is also the territory, and has been for a long time. In such an environment, all anyone can ask is to be able to respond to the slanders that are made and correct them."

That is precisely what Time instantly offered to Horowitz -- and the magazine already has linked its Web version of Jack White's column to Horowitz's response in Salon News. So perhaps he should heed his own advice to Blumenthal and desist from launching a lawsuit against Time.

Maybe he should also try a little rhetorical restraint next time before he threatens to sue anyone for calling him nasty names. Dish it out, David, by all means, but remember -- you have to take it, too.
salon.com | Sept. 7, 1999

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