David Brock

David Brock was a prominent conservative journalist of the 1990s who in 1998 became a liberal and now works to dismantle the conservative media "machine" of which he was once a part. He tells his personal story in his memoir Blinded by the Right and describes how it operates in The Republican Noise Machine. His work on the latter book led him to found Media Matters for America, a non-profit organization that describes itself as a "progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media."http://mediamatters.org/etc/about.html

Conservative

Brock began leaning to the right as a reporter and editor for a student newspaper at the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating from college, in 1985 Brock was an intern at the Wall Street Journal, then in 1986 he joined the staff of the weekly conservative news magazine Insight, a sister publication of the Washington Times. After a stint as a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, in March 1992 Brock authored a sharply critical story about Clarence Thomas' accuser, Anita Hill, in The American Spectator magazine, in which he said Hill might be "a bit nutty and a bit slutty." A little over a year later, in April 1993 Brock published a book titled The Real Anita Hill which expanded on his allegations while casting them in a more neutral light. The book became a best-seller.

Related Topics:
University of California, Berkeley - 1985 - Wall Street Journal - 1986 - Washington Times - Heritage Foundation - 1992 - Clarence Thomas - Anita Hill - The American Spectator - 1993 - The Real Anita Hill

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In the January 1994 issue of The American Spectator, Brock, by then on staff at the magazine, published a story about Bill Clinton's time as governor of Arkansas that made accusations that bred Troopergate. Among other things, the story contained the first printed reference to Paula Jones, referring to a woman named "Paula" who state troopers said offered to be Clinton's girlfriend. Jones called Brock's account of her encounter with Clinton "totally wrong," and she later sued Clinton for sexual harassment, a case which became entangled in the Independent Counsel's investigation of Whitewater scandal and eventually led to impeachment charges against the president. The story received an award later that year from the Western Journalism Center, and was partially responsible for a meteoric rise in the 25-year-old magazine's circulation, from around 70,000 to over 300,000 in a very short period.

Related Topics:
1994 - Bill Clinton - Arkansas - Troopergate - Paula Jones - Sexual harassment - Whitewater scandal

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