Did anyone catch the report on NPR that George Will stole President Jimmy Carter’s notes and turned them over to the Reagan camp? Is this ethical journalism? Shouldn’t he be forced to resign from his “holoier than thou” position?
Someone ought to tie that man up by his bowtie for a pubic (sic) stoning!
What a SOB! I hope he chokes on that giant silver spoon sticking out of his mouth! - Jinx
Is there a debate, here? Or was this supposed to be placed in the Pit?
Sanctimomious George’s little bit of dishonesty happened almost a quarter century ago and has been known, publicly, for years. (I hope that this was an item in a larger “election misdeeds” story on NPR and not a whole news item.)
I’m not sure what you want to do with this thread. (I suppose that if you don’t get a paper with Will’s column, you could print the thread and put it face up at the bottom of a bird cage.)
Can we get a cite for this? I remember there was a controversy about Will being a Reagan advisor and also a TV commentator on the debates when he declared Reagan the winner of the debate. I never heard about stealing notes.
Surely you meant for this to be in the Pit…
I don’t have a cite handy at the moment-sorry!-but it’s pretty well-known that someone stole one of Carter’s briefing books and passed it to the Reagan team.
Whether or not it was Will, I can’t say.
Whoa. There was a time when that sort of thing was controversial???
Well, I think the controversial part is that in analyzing the debate, he didn’t bother to note that he had been a debate advisor for Reagan.
It’s easy enough to find cites. Will didn’t steal the briefings; somebody else involved with Reagan’s campaign apparently did, though I don’t think anyone knows who that person is for certain. Will certainly used the notes to help plan for the debates. All involved knew the notes were stolen, and it was most definitely unethical. However, Carter is probably the only candidate in the last 100 years who would have, in his opponents’ shoes, done the ethical thing and returned such stolen intelligence himself. Will tried to downlplay his involvement in the affair, even after writing a column praising Reagan’s performance (gee, I wonder how he did so well, George…). When he got caught, Will was generally unapologetic, essentially saying had he known he was going to be raked over the coals for it, he wouldn’t have done it; but he expressed no other remorse for his actions. That’s pretty much all there was to the episode. Will’s a hypocritically sanctimonious, rhetorically disingenuous twat, but you hardly need to know about the Carter episode to figure that out.
Gee, we should have guessed all Republicans sleep in the same bed with such high-standing, ethical people like Richard Nixon. He’s the poster-child of fair play.
Yes, that is the most amazing thing about Jimmy Carter. He is a man of integrity.
Yeah, like I said…he deserves a public stoning!
BTW, Carter himself recebtly announced it was Will. I’m trying to find a cite for this. I was hoping this thread may bring others to my aid. - Jinx
A quarter of a century later, and the Teflon President lives on in as Mr. Righteous. I’m sorry, but this really burns me. And, not enough has been said about this openly. But, I’m sure, he’s got a million Patsies (ala Oliver North) to take the blame. Even posthumously, Reagan rides off in sunset blinding America’s eyes to the truth about this man in a suit of teflon armor. - Jinx :mad:
And people still refer to ABC as part of the “liberal media.”
And what the fuck is it about bow ties? George F. Will, Tucker Carlson, that Ichabod Crane looking guy who shows up on Lehrer every once in a while. Its like prissy little twits with stainless steel sphincters who crave to present the world with one entirely pointless expression of indiviual eccentricity, but one without any risk, that can offend no one, but yet makes one the teensiest bit odd.
I mean, love beads and pachouli oil I can understand. But bow ties and Old Spice…creepy.
Still waiting either for your cite that Will stole anything, or a retraction of that part of your OP. You being so concerened with the truth and all… 
I can’t offer a cite, but I heard the interview on NPR too, and Carter categorically stated that Will stole the notes and used them to rehearse Reagan for the debates. He may have misspoke, but that is what he said.
More likely, in my mind, is that Will obtained the notes from whoever did steal them – it is hard to see how Will could have been in a position to steal them personally – and used them.
He’s still a total asshole and a thief by association for using them. But we all know that.
Funny thing is that there is not one single cite in this whole thread.
I’ve googled every combo of “Will…Reagan…Carter…Debate…notes…stolen” that I can think of, and haven’t found anything.
No cite, no credibility. Sorry, guys.
Carter made the allegation on a recent episode of Fresh Air. They don’t have the transcripts on line, but if you want you can listen to it here. He mostly talks about a book he just wrote, but they get into other things later in the interview.
Just to be clear: “Carter said it in an interview” is not a cite.
Over in the ObL tape thread we have a Larry King interview of Walter Cronkite saying he thinks Karl Rove is a likely source of that tape.
Who has to say it, and in what context, in order for it to be a cite?
John Mace, are you disputing that it was Will who stole the book, or that the book was stolen in the first place?
I’m not an authority on what a “cite” is, but politicians often get their facts mixed up or exagerate. Speaking only for myself, I’d be happy with an article published in a major newspaper by a journalist that can be cross-referenced to an original source.
Mostly the former, but I’ve never heard about the latter, so I’d prefer both. Several people seem so certain, I don’t know why it would be hard to find a cite, if either is true. And like I said, I did quite a bit of googling and came up with absolutely nothing. I’m not saying that I know either claim to be false, but it does seem strange that thread could get his far without one actual cite. **Manduck **at least provided a link, although it’s an audio one and not what can objectively be called a cite.
If you’ve heard the audio, do you know if the interviewer pressed Carter at all on the issue, or is it just stated and left at that?
George Will has been cheerfully pointing out facts that serve his agenda for years, while at the same time ignoring facts that do not serve his agenda.
He’s a columnist, a pundit, an opinionator, and therefore outside the usual code of “objective journalism.” He can pretty much say what he likes, as long as he doesn’t actually lie. This includes twisting and misrepresenting the facts to reflect what he wants them to seem like.
Business as usual, really.