Dan Rather Trapped Onscreen by Bill O'Reilly

By Joel Skousen

Here is a snip from an interview between journalist Bill O’Reilly and CBS news anchor Dan Rather, aired on Fox TV. The entire transcript can be found at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,24898,00.html. It is a fascinating read as O’Reilly time and again corners Rather into making excuses for his left-wing bias at CBS--all the time denying that there is bias. Finally, O’Reilly throws out this last question to demonstrate Rather’s total subservience to a defense of the Clinton era (emphasis added):

O'REILLY:. And I want to ask you flat out. Do you think President Clinton's an honest man?
RATHER: Yes, I think he's an honest man.
O'REILLY: Do you really?
RATHER: I think -- I do. I think he's an honest man.
O'REILLY: Even when he lied to Jim Lehrer's face about the (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
RATHER: Listen, who among us have not lied about something?
O'REILLY: Well, I didn't lie to anybody's face on national television. I don't think you have. Have you?
RATHER: I don't think I ever have. I hope I never have. But look, it's one thing...
O'REILLY: How can you say he's an honest guy, then?
RATHER: Well, because I think he is. I think at core, he's an honest person. I know that you have a different view. I know that you consider it sort of astonishing anybody would say so. But I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things.
O'REILLY: Really?
RATHER: Yes, I do

O’Reilly should have followed up with, "As lying obviously doesn’t conflict with your definition of honesty, how would you define an honest man?" Of course, the whole interview was a study in Rather’s obscuration of the truth, so his answer would, undoubtedly, be less than honest too.

Background: Italy has a reputation for chronic political instability and corruption. Ever since Mussolini introduced his version of Fascist socialism during the Second World War, Italy has been wracked with one corrupt socialist government after another--a total of 58 coalitions governments (all from the left) that inevitably collapsed within months after being installed, each faction fighting one another over how to redistribute the country’s diminishing productive wealth and thereby purchase the allegiance of the voters. Eventually, every socialist regime succumbs to this kind of widespread bribery and corruption as free markets are driven into black markets or gray markets and bureaucrats and politicians weasel in on the action.

Italy’s long series of left-dominated governments came to a crashing halt in 1994 with the "Mani Pulite" (Clean Hands) revelations that stunned all of Europe. Milan’s state prosecutor Di Pietro had begun a vigorous investigation in 1992 into allegations that organized crime had penetrated the political process and was controlling the ruling Christian Democratic party. Di Pietro found more than that as subsequent investigations unfolded. As more and more informants came forth with damaging testimony against the biggest names in Italian politics, it became apparent to his inquiry that not only the Christian Democrats, but virtually every major political party which had any part in coalition government was being paid huge financial kick-backs--not only from the Mafia but from every big corporation that wanted to do business with the government. This was, of course, no secret to those who do business in Italy, but it was a carefully kept secret from the public--and now that secret was out and the public was calling for justice. Di Pietro survived numerous attempts by Italy’s powerful establishment to remove him and became a sort of national hero as he appeared to single-handedly take on Italy’s corrupt and powerful establishment.

The scandal was so widespread that in the elections of 1995 all the big names in Italian politics went down to defeat. In fact, the evidence was so convincing that every politician had to jump on the bandwagon and say his mea culpas (I’m guilty) in order to survive. For the first time in history, a completely corrupt "democratic" government, filled with conspiracy and collusion was overthrown and discredited. Too good to be true? Perhaps.

In its place emerged "il cavaliere" (the white knight) Silvio Berlusconi, a well-spoken, wealthy media magnate who had the money and the image to promise a completely new beginning. In the previous year, as he saw the establishment left crumbling into disgrace and defeat, Berlusconi quickly mobilized his massive media forces to launch a new political movement called Forze Italia. This catchy title (meaning "Go Italy") linked the new movement to a popular cheer in Italian soccer that inspired masses of Italians to support the new movement. In the meantime, Berlusconi joined forces in a hastily-made coalition with Umberto Bosi, the flamboyant separatist leader of La Lega Norte (Northern League), and Gianfranco Fini of the National Alliance.

However, Berlusconi’s new coalition was only to last 7 months before it fell victim to the instant unpopularity of the inevitable austerity measures necessary to reign in the excessive government spending inherent to socialist regimes. Once a majority of voters becomes corrupted by socialist welfare benefits, they never relinquish those voluntarily. The former Powers That Be also hastened Berlusconi’s defeat by mounting a powerful investigation of its own into Berlusconi’s widespread business dealings in hopes of finding some form of corruption. The opposition forces were able to summon several tax inspectors who claimed that Berlusconi, his brother and various family corporations paid bribes to resolve tax disputes. While Berlusconi has denied the charges for the past 7 years (and gotten away with it, so far), I suspect that the charges may well be true, considering how endemic the use of bribes is in Italian governmental affairs. Italy, like almost all of Europe, has high confiscatory taxation rates, and evasion is rampant. Paying off investigators has always been cheaper than paying the taxes directly and is considered a price of doing business for big corporations in Italy. So far, Berlusconi has been able to stave off his legal enemies, and his popularity among the people remains high, even after his fall from power. The left was jubilant at Berlusconi’s quick political defeat and quickly regrouped in order to regain power.

There is an interesting and tragic lesson to be learned here for Americans who suspect that a similar conspiracy of power and corruption controls both major parties in the USA. Less than a year after being totally discredited and thrown out of power in Italy, the major corrupt parties on the left simply changed their names, funded new faces to run for office and were back in power within a year--joining in with the chorus of condemnation against the old regimes (themselves) and promising to continue cleaning up the corruption. This, in fact, is the same thing that happened in Russia and Romania after the deceptive "fall of Communism" and is an ongoing fixture of politics in all countries who have succumbed to years of the socialist nightmare. Sadly, the common man is relatively incapable of discerning the deception in this form of revolving-door leadership. With the help of a colluding Italian press, who were obviously knowing conspirators in the former spread of corruption, the majority of Italians were led to believe that real change was taking place when there was none.

The only leftist political party in Italy that was able (with the help of the leftist press) to partially escape the firestorm of kick-back charges was the Communist Party, who claimed (falsely) to be above materialistic temptation. Witnesses have testified that even the Communists were part of the corruption, but the main focus continued to be the ruling Christian Democrats. Consequently Communists and disavowing "former" Communists were able to take over Italy’s government during the seven years between Berlusconi’s first brief attempt to gain power and his dramatic comeback this week.

The Communists have been steadily weakened by their failure to satisfy both their own extremist supporters and mainstream of Italian voters. Marxist Romano Prodi had the ignoble task of bringing Italy’s economy into compliance with the EU’s single currency movement to the Euro. For this he was looked upon as a Judas by his far-left supporters. In 1998, he lost a single no-confidence vote and was ousted. Incidentally, Prodi was recently rewarded by fellow leftist leaders in the EU by being voted in as the EU Commissioner. After Prodi, Communist leader Massimo D’Alema came to power and presided over the NATO bombing campaign against Serbia. He ended up pleasing no one except America’s global leaders (which earned D’Alema absolutely no points in Italy) and he was ousted from power in April of 2000. The remaining coalition of leftists was not able to maintain a stable replacement government after D’Alema’s resignation, so President Ciampi of Italy was forced to call for new elections, which finally brought Berlusconi back to power.

The far left all over Europe is treating Berlusconi’s election like the plaque. EU leaders are rattling their boycott sabers just as they did in response to Austria’s inclusion of the right-wing Freedom Party (FPO) in its government. The FPO’s former leader, the much maligned Jorg Haider, was the first to congratulate Berlusconi on his victory. In contrast, or perhaps in protest, Germany’s Marxist leader Gerhardt Shroeder refused to issue even a perfunctory congratulations. France’s leftist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin was equally hostile, but kept it semi-private. So what is behind the old-left’s hatred of Berlusconi? I suspect it has a lot to do with the growing split between the European and US factions vying for control of the NWO. The EU is clearly leading the way toward ushering in the NWO in Europe, and they want the NWO harnessed to their far-left agenda. The leftist faction in the EU has close links to Moscow and is, by my analysis, secretly trying to harness the EU for an eventual European-Russian economic and military alliance. I think the EU leaders view Berlusconi as a future ally of the Americans, given his big-business leanings. Given that Berlusconi is not a free-market libertarian (he’s a pragmatic businessman who will not attempt to overturn much of the socialist agenda in Italy--just make it less intrusive), he’s exactly the kind of man the US globalists would like to see in power.

WORLD AFFAIRS BRIEF (excerpt) April 27, 2001 Copyright Joel Skousen. Quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief. Website: http://www.joelskousen.com

(Ed. Note: We thank Joel Skousen for allowing his insights to be reprinted in part at Web Today. For access to his complete weekly columns, available by subscription, we refer you to his homepage http://www.joelskousen.com)

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