|
||||||||||||||||
RELATED LINKSInternal LinksGrants to:
Profiles:
Related stories:
External Links |
PERSON PROFILEWilliam J. BennettWilliam J. Bennett is one of the prime movers of the conservative movement. Bennett was Secretary of Education in the Reagan Administration, and later he served as national drug czar, and has written numerous pessimistic books about American culture, appearing frequently on television (he's a favorite of Tim Russert and NBC's Meet The Press), and speaking regularly at any number of right wing organizations, as well as serving on many of their boards of directors. He is a "Distinguished Fellow" at the Heritage Foundation, He also has very close ties to the Republican Party. Besides serving in the Reagan Administration, Bennett is quoted in a number of national magazines (1999) as editing or writing George W. Bush speeches, and he nearly became the chairman of the Republican National Committee a few years ago. Bennett was one of the creators of Empower America, an organization whose main function seems to be to give its co-directors, which include Vin Weber, Jeane Kirkpatrick and Jack Kemp, access to the nation's news media, talk shows and highest levels of government. From The Feeding Trough: I want to know who the men in the shadows are, I want to hear somebody asking them Why? -- Jackson Browne, from the song, "Blood on the Wire" On November 14, 1996, an article appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MJS) with the headline "Angry America: Target of Study." The article, based on an Associated Press dispatch, reported that former U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett and retiring U.S. Senator Sam Nunn had made an announcement. They were going to launch a study to find out why people in this country are "so cynical, so distressed, so angry, so ticked off about so many things." The study, to be conducted by the newly formed National Commission on Civic Renewal, would begin in 1997 and would be funded by a $950,000 grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts of Philadelphia. One of the Commission's 25 members is Michael Joyce, president of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. The Bradley Foundation is the Milwaukee-based group that funded the notoriously racist book "The Bell Curve," so Joyce's participation on the Commission caught our attention. The articule turned out to be an interesting introduction to the world of conservative foundations.... Commission founder William J. Bennett himself is one good reason why some people in this country are so "ticked off." As chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities and then U.S. Secretary of Eduation under President Ronald Reagan, Bennett was known for his crude defense of European-based college curricula nand his attacks on bilingual eduation, not to mention his call to dismantle the whole Department of Education itself. He has been an outspoken leader in national attacks on affirmative action. He has public attacked fellow Republican conservative Newt Gingrich for the House Speaker's overtures to the Rev. Jesse Jackson as well as to other Black Democrats. "Jesse Jackson has a history of being one of the worst racial polarizers in this country," Bennet said in an interview on CNN. (MJS 2/21/1997). Bennett is now (1998) the John M. Olin Distinguised Fellow in Cultural Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation. The John M. Olin Foundation is another conservative funding group that until 1985 was headed by Michael Joyce, now president of the Bradley Foundation. Bennett is pretty far to the right of the political spectrum, but he's not part of some fringe grouping. Not at all. On the contrary, he's a very visible national spokesperson for the same interests that ran the government during the Reagan and Bush administrations. Today Bennett is a founder and director of an organization called Empower America, which describes itself as "...a unique combination of public policy institute and political advocacy organization." Empower America claims a membership of thousands of grassroots activists, but one of its main functions is to give its co-directors access to the news media, talk shows and the highest levels of government. For example, for the past 20 years, orientation sessions for incoming members of Congress were run by the Kennedy School of Government in Boston. In 1994, the incoming members instead attended an orientation run by Empower America and the Heritage Foundation. One of the highlights of the orientation session was a talk by right-wing radio/TV talk show host Rush Limbaugh, whom Bennett called "a symbol of encouragment." Limbaugh was voted an honorary member of Congress.
Michael Kinsley I'm Right, You're WrongMichael Kinsley writes about his own inablity to comprehend his nearby colleagues' quixotic defense of the un-democratic action taken by the US Supreme Court: "...Bennett has, if no more, at least a commercial interest in his reputation for intellectual integrity." Bennett replies in a letter that, "Mr. Kinsley...should not cosmologize his own deficiencies." The Nation The 'Right' Books and Big IdeasConservative Foundations lavishly subsidize authors while the left loses outAlterman insightfully notes that we live in an odd time where opinion makers rely on book publishing to establish their creditibility, but also rely on the fact that no one actually reads the books. The Bradley Foundation has just created its own book publishing arm, called Encounter Books. Timothy Noah Bill Bennett and the Cultural-Decline DeclineWhat's a conservative Jeremiah to do? Violent crime is down, divorce is down, the welfare rolls are dwindling, fewer women are having abortions, and SAT scores and charitable giving are on the rise. This is the dilemma facing former education secretary and drug czar William Bennett, who this morning held a press conference in Washington to unveil the second edition of his book The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators. Bennett is battling the inconvenient onslaught of good news with three strategems--retreat, partisanship, and dishonesty. Walter Olson William Bennett, Gays, and the TruthHey, Wait a Minute: Mr. Virtue dabbles in phony statisticsBennett uses psuedo-science to argue that gays die young.
|
MORE LINKSBruce Wilson Bill Bennett, God-Man : "When 4 Americans Are Hung.... You Level The City"I'm at the 2006 "Voter Values" conference sponsored by the Family Research Council, and this morning's first prominent speaker was Seran Hannity, followed by William Bennet. Recounting the incident that led to a massive US military assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah - and implying that the US response to the deaths of four American private mercenaries working for Blackwater USA , Bennet stated : "When four Americans are hung and the city cheers, you take out Fallujah. You level the city.. Bennett then cited the example of the destruction of Hiroshima. Bennetts exhortation to mass collective punishment - the slaughter of hundreds or thousands of innocent civilians perhaps, or at least the destruction of their homes and cities - received enthusiastic applause.
Eric Alterman What Some Call Treason, Others Call TruthConservative blowhard and CNN talking head William Bennett gave America’s top newspaper reporters a backhanded compliment on Tuesday when he complained that three 2006 Pulitzer Prize winners were “worthy of jail.”
Editor & Publisher Bennett: Pulitzer Winners Risen, Lichtblau, Priest 'Worthy of Jail'On his national radio program today, William Bennett, the former Reagan and George H.W. Bush administration official and now a CNN commentator, said that three reporters who won Pulitzer Prizes yesterday were not "worthy of an award" but rather "worthy of jail."
AmericaBlog CNN's new employee, William Bennett, slanders Islam over cartoon issueWell, I think CNN just bought itself a few more riots with their wonderful new employee, far-right conservative William Bennett, and his blanket slander of the world's one billion Muslims..
The Carpetbagger Report Bill Bennett to CNN...Bennett made national headlines a few months ago when he declared on his radio program that if "you wanted to reduce crime … if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." There was considerable debate about whether his comments were taken out of context, but the controversy surrounding the remarks led to widespread denunciations, including from the Bush White House.
Margaret Kimberley Bill Bennett's Fantasy: Freak in Life; Demon in ImaginationComedian Richard Pryor posed a question about how and whether America saw black people in its future. He noted that futuristic science fiction films rarely if ever had black characters. Was this absence a creative oversight or were we being given a hint?
Paul Glastris Bad GambleThe fallout continues from William Bennett's on-air speculation about the crime-reducing potential of aborting African-American fetuses. Today, the virtuecrat-turned-radio-host resigned as chairman of the online education firm K-12, saying the move was necessary because "I am in the midst of a political battle based on a coordinated campaign willfully distorting my views, my record, and my statements."
Reed Hundt A true story about Bill BennettWhen I was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (1993-97), I asked Bill Bennett to visit my office so that I could ask him for help in seeking legislation that would pay for internet access in all classrooms and libraries in the country.
MediaMatters.org Bill Bennett: "[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down"Addressing a caller's suggestion that the "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" would be enough to preserve Social Security's solvency, radio host and former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett dismissed such "far-reaching, extensive extrapolations" by declaring that if "you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."
Carpetbagger Report.com Remember, Mr. Bennett, disclosure is a virtue..Bill Bennett...has been on Fox News Channel’s Hannity & Colmes five times in less than three months...In each instance, Bennett was on as a conservative pundit, offering viewers a defense of Bush, his administration, and its policies...K12, Inc., run by...Bennett, has received $4.1 million from the U.S. Department of Education...under a provision in the "No Child Left Behind" education bill that is designed to expand options in public school choice.
Anna Quindlen Do as I Say, Not as I DoThe privacy of public men can be measured by a kind of algebra of exposure: the prominence of their position multiplied by the variance between their espoused beliefs and actual behavior, what might be called the hypocrisy quotient
Washington Monthly The Bookie of VirtueWilliam J. Bennett has made millions lecturing people on morality--and blown it on gambling Also see:Calpundit rounds up Republican's responses to Bennett's gambling Joe Soucheray: Bennett is "a complete idiot, a legal, taxpaying, God-fearing complete idiot" Peter Beinart in TNR: Bennett a political opportunist Dave Marsh: "Video poker [Bennett's game] represents the sucker bet of all sucker bets.." Wisconsin says: "Hey Bill, we've got casinos, too!"
Daily Howler Bill Bennett’s actual vice? Bill Bennett has a problem with the truth, as has been clear for some time
Burton S. Blumert Bill Bennett's fingerprints are all over the disastrous, totalitarian, never-ending "War on Drugs"
Jeff Elkins AVOT?...Make no mistake: William J. Bennett is a blubbery bully-boy who delights in the suppression of dissenting views on the left, but most especially in crushing dissent from the right. Bennett and others of his ilk have specialized in the destruction of the Bill of Rights via their evil war on drugs and and they most especially hate and fear the 1st and 2nd Amendments of the Bill of Rights. The horrific events of September 11th were a godsend for these enemies of freedom. In a mere six months they have managed to advance their timetable of slavery by decades...
Bill Berkowitz Holy war on dissentBill Bennett is on the attack with his new Americans for Victory Over Terrorism [Bennett] chastised former president Jimmy Carter for remarks he made that were critical of the president's use of the term "axis of evil."
Frank Rich Condit Country or Bust"Trying to square Mr. Condit's sex life with his conservatism, William Bennett, the born-again moral relativist, declared, 'Hypocrisy is better than no standards at all.' "
NewsHour on PBS THE STATE OF THE RACEThough Bennett relies on working for non-profits for his financial well-being, he is nevertheless one of the key players in the national Republican party, often speaking for it, jockeying for power within it, or underwriting in some way one of its politicans. On the NewsHour, March 6, 1996, Bennett referred to as a key "Republican Operative," along with his friend at Empower American Vin Weber.
|
||||||||||||||
The Bell Curve
