Bill Clinton is accusing the editors of the WSJ (around 2004) of some pretty nasty stuff in this report of his supposed comments at a recent Hamptons fundraiser:
“With regard to media consolidation, the rules were relaxed too much,” Clinton said during his Million Dollar Hamptons fundraising marathon this last weekend.
“Anti-trust law should apply. I think we shouldn’t have abandoned the fairness law; if a media outlet were pushing a particular political point of view…then you had a right to demand the opposite point of view. The airwaves belong to the public, not to anybody, particularly not to Fox News.
“But having said all that, the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal is even more right wing and irrational than most of the commentators on Fox News.
“And completely predictable…it’s like Pavlov’s dogs.
“The WSJ editorial board began attacking a major American corporation in the US every day in the editorial page.
“The representative of the corporation set up a meeting with the editorial board.
“And he said, ‘I have brought my books here…I have never done this for anybody…I am going to show you why what you are saying is wrong.’
“He got about two minutes into his presentation and the whole editorial board said, ‘wait a minute…we don’t care…we attacked you because you are supporting Bill Clinton. We don’t believe that a big American corporation should support Bill Clinton.’
“He said, ‘if I stop supporting him, will you quit attacking me?’
“Absolutely,” they replied.
“The guy called me and…I said…send a check to Bob Dole!
“He sent a check to Bob Dole, and announced it in the newspapers, and the WSJ never said one bad word about his company again.
“This is the pre-Murdoch Wall Street Journal.