Salon Newsreal | Finally, the Flynt Report

A L S O+T O D A Y

The unhappiest allies
By Gabriel Kahn
Italians question NATO moves in Kosovo as the country braces for more refugees

Day Two: The airstrikes persist
NATO bombards Yugoslavia for the second night, saying it will attack, disrupt, degrade, devastate and destroy Yugoslav forces unless Milosevic capitulates

Outlaw nation?
By Laura Rozen
Even Serbs who hate Milosevic are outraged at NATO bombing

Verdict on Starr's witness
By Murray S. Waas and Suzi Parker
Whitewater figure David Hale is found guilty on Arkansas state criminal charges

T A B L E+T A L K
Don't ask, don't Teletubbie? Know of any other gay icons for children? Do tell in the Headlines area of Table Talk

___________________
Learn more about the legendary Larry Flynt at barnesandnoble.com
___________________

R E C E N T L Y
The bombing begins
By Jeff Stein
Will NATO strikes push the Serbs to peace talks, or engulf the region in bloody chaos?
(03/25/99)
The Kosovo myth
By Christopher Ott
A battle fought 600 years ago animates the Serbian lust for a province now populated by Albanians
(03/25/99)
Banned in Belgrade
By Janelle Brown
The Web provides links to Serbian diatribes, Albanian liberation dispatches and Yugoslav radio you can't get in Yugoslavia
(03/25/99)
Where does Elizabeth Dole really stand on abortion?
By Daryl Lindsey
The question won't go away
(03/24/99)
Susan McDougal's moment of truth
By Suzi Parker
Bad day for Starr as she says Clinton told the truth about Whitewater loan
(03/24/99)
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Finally, the Flynt Report
Are these smutty tales true? Let the reader beware.

BY CAROL LLOYD | Just as the dirty laundry of the impeachment scandal had been tossed to the back of the nation's closet like a soiled blue Gap dress, out comes the Flynt Report, the long-awaited, nearly forgotten product of the porn mogul's $4 million investigation into the sex lives of the Republicans. With its blocky red and black Newsweek format and its deliciously gleeful headlines ("John E. Peterson: Sunday-School Teacher with Preying Hands," chortles one), it is a peculiarly riveting document, a cross between a slick mainstream glossy and a rabble-rousing Tom Paine pamphlet of the American Revolution.
The 82-page report makes a simple enough argument: Many of the Republicans who preached morality during the impeachment trial are hypocrites in their personal lives, and the public deserves to know this. In the service of this argument, however, the editors have presented such a wild blend of rhetoric, reporting and rumor that readers will sometimes feel Hustled by a new species of pornography -- political wanking at its lurid lowest. But they may nonetheless enjoy this new, candid and highly entertaining entry in the annals of American advocacy journalism, in which Rep. Henry Hyde is described as a "huge blood-swollen tick in a rumpled suit"; Rep. Bob Barr "could teach slippery behavior to a greased weasel," and Hyde, Indiana Rep. Dan Burton and Idaho Rep. Helen Chenoweth -- admitted adulterers all -- are referred to as "snap[ping] and salivat[ing] like one huge three-headed beast."
So what does the Flynt Report actually say that hasn't been said (and printed and broadcast and posted) already? That depends on who you are and how closely you have been following the private lives of the GOP. Allan MacDonell, Hustler's executive editor and the unnamed author of the majority of the report, says it's aimed at a readership that doesn't necessarily follow Washington politics. "We tried to write it in a very engaging, funny manner for the normal person to learn something about these politicians, and see conclusively that they were not motivated by moral values," he explains. His mother-in-law read early drafts, he said, to make sure it was written for people like her. "But for any kind of Beltway insider, there is not a lot of new information."
Although there are no bombshell revelations, the report does offer a cohesive collection of profiles, with many new and little-known details. Flynt's writers and researchers have consolidated myriad facts not only from their own investigation but from scores of other journalistic outfits -- Salon, Mother Jones, the Riverside [Calif.] Press-Enterprise and other local papers -- and created easy-to-read, sordid fairy tales for the millennium. The result is an odd mix: Think of Grimm's Tales populated by blandly suited elected officials and streetwalkers instead of handsome princes and glamorous orphan girls.
Former Speaker-designate Robert Livingston and Barr get the most thorough attention, and though their foibles have been widely exposed, these profiles offer details that may surprise many readers. Barr's tale of adultery and abortion, for instance, gets a painstaking re-telling, and thoroughly illuminates the hypocrisy of the white-supremacist-loving Georgia congressman. For journalists who followed Flynt's original release of the story, the damning details -- Barr's asking his wife, who worked as his secretary, to arrange his lunch dates with his mistress, Jeri Dobbins, who became his next wife; his driving his wife to an abortion clinic, and paying for her abortion, while being rabidly "pro-life" -- are not news. But for the average reader, they will be. Flynt reproduces excerpts of the Barrs' divorce transcripts, which show Barr and Dobbins responding to questions about their affair by repeating "I decline to answer" over and over like a pair of autistic parrots. Barr insisted that comparing his refusal to tell the truth about his affair under oath with Clinton's legalistic acrobatics was like comparing apples to oranges, but the report quips: "The difference between Bill Clinton's truth-fudging and Bob Barr's refusal to answer honestly is the difference between a wormy Red Delicious and a rotten Granny Smith."
A section of nine profiles called "The Hall of Infamy" contains what may be the most explosive information in the report. "Ken Calvert: Touched by a Hooker" recounts the poignant tale, first reported in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, of the Southern California Republican representative being caught with his pants down with a hooker in his car. Corona police reportedly found him with a prostitute's face "laying [sic] in the driver's lap" while the congressman "was placing his penis into his unzipped dress slacks and ... trying to hide it with his untucked dress shirt." When asked his reasons for his conduct, he allegedly answered: "I was feeling intensely lonely." In a similar face-in-lap sighting, an aide to Newt Gingrich reportedly approached the former House speaker's car to spot "a woman with her head buried in Newt's lap." Pennsylvania Rep. John E. Peterson, who has admitted to having been an "excessive hugger," is accused of grabbing an 18-year-old's breast in an elevator and greeting a woman lobbyist with a forced "deep throat kiss," when she visited him to say that a mutual friend had died.
The report also delivers a hailstorm of lesser-known scandals -- many of which are sourced merely as hearsay. One article focuses on the Republican sex rumors that have circulated among mainstream reporters but have not been reported -- and reports them. Rep. Mary Bono, House Whip Tom DeLay and Sen. Tim Hutchinson are among those named with no sources or evidence given. And in chronicling Speaker-designate Livingston's dramatic fall from power -- as a result of reports that Flynt had information about his extramarital affairs -- the report suggests that those affairs involved lobbyists for whom he favorably influenced legislature, but again, does not name names or elaborate on sources.
Between these well-worn and barely told tales, the report also offers a banquet of scandalous morsels. There's a historical account of presidential indiscretions headlined "Our Philandering Fathers," a cross-cultural comparison of "Mistresses Worldwide" and a collection of comic strips from Hustler about the scandal. An ad calls for more informants to step up to the phone and dish dirt; a cost analysis compares Flynt's and Starr's investigations and their efficacy; and a photo of a naked woman accompanies a piece profiling the kinds of informants who responded to the original ad.
N E X T+P A G E+| What should the reader believe?

A L S O+T O D A Y The unhappiest allies By Gabriel Kahn Italians question NATO moves in Kosovo as the country braces for more refugees Day Two: The airstrikes persist NATO bombards Yugoslavia for the second night, saying it will attack, disrupt, degrade, devastate and destroy Yugoslav forces unless Milosevic capitulates Outlaw nation? By Laura Rozen Even Serbs who hate Milosevic are outraged at NATO bombing Verdict on Starr's witness By Murray S. Waas and Suzi Parker Whitewater figure David Hale is found guilty on Arkansas state criminal charges T A B L E+T A L K Don't ask, don't Teletubbie? Know of any other gay icons for children? Do tell in the Headlines area of Table Talk ___________________ Learn more about the legendary Larry Flynt at barnesandnoble.com ___________________ R E C E N T L Y The bombing begins By Jeff Stein Will NATO strikes push the Serbs to peace talks, or engulf the region in bloody chaos? (03/25/99) The Kosovo myth By Christopher Ott A battle fought 600 years ago animates the Serbian lust for a province now populated by Albanians (03/25/99) Banned in Belgrade By Janelle Brown The Web provides links to Serbian diatribes, Albanian liberation dispatches and Yugoslav radio you can't get in Yugoslavia (03/25/99) Where does Elizabeth Dole really stand on abortion? By Daryl Lindsey The question won't go away (03/24/99) Susan McDougal's moment of truth By Suzi Parker Bad day for Starr as she says Clinton told the truth about Whitewater loan (03/24/99) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		Finally, the Flynt Report Are these smutty tales true? Let the reader beware. BY CAROL LLOYD \| Just as the dirty laundry of the impeachment scandal had been tossed to the back of the nation's closet like a soiled blue Gap dress, out comes the Flynt Report, the long-awaited, nearly forgotten product of the porn mogul's $4 million investigation into the sex lives of the Republicans. With its blocky red and black Newsweek format and its deliciously gleeful headlines ("John E. Peterson: Sunday-School Teacher with Preying Hands," chortles one), it is a peculiarly riveting document, a cross between a slick mainstream glossy and a rabble-rousing Tom Paine pamphlet of the American Revolution. The 82-page report makes a simple enough argument: Many of the Republicans who preached morality during the impeachment trial are hypocrites in their personal lives, and the public deserves to know this. In the service of this argument, however, the editors have presented such a wild blend of rhetoric, reporting and rumor that readers will sometimes feel Hustled by a new species of pornography -- political wanking at its lurid lowest. But they may nonetheless enjoy this new, candid and highly entertaining entry in the annals of American advocacy journalism, in which Rep. Henry Hyde is described as a "huge blood-swollen tick in a rumpled suit"; Rep. Bob Barr "could teach slippery behavior to a greased weasel," and Hyde, Indiana Rep. Dan Burton and Idaho Rep. Helen Chenoweth -- admitted adulterers all -- are referred to as "snap[ping] and salivat[ing] like one huge three-headed beast." So what does the Flynt Report actually say that hasn't been said (and printed and broadcast and posted) already? That depends on who you are and how closely you have been following the private lives of the GOP. Allan MacDonell, Hustler's executive editor and the unnamed author of the majority of the report, says it's aimed at a readership that doesn't necessarily follow Washington politics. "We tried to write it in a very engaging, funny manner for the normal person to learn something about these politicians, and see conclusively that they were not motivated by moral values," he explains. His mother-in-law read early drafts, he said, to make sure it was written for people like her. "But for any kind of Beltway insider, there is not a lot of new information." Although there are no bombshell revelations, the report does offer a cohesive collection of profiles, with many new and little-known details. Flynt's writers and researchers have consolidated myriad facts not only from their own investigation but from scores of other journalistic outfits -- Salon, Mother Jones, the Riverside [Calif.] Press-Enterprise and other local papers -- and created easy-to-read, sordid fairy tales for the millennium. The result is an odd mix: Think of Grimm's Tales populated by blandly suited elected officials and streetwalkers instead of handsome princes and glamorous orphan girls. Former Speaker-designate Robert Livingston and Barr get the most thorough attention, and though their foibles have been widely exposed, these profiles offer details that may surprise many readers. Barr's tale of adultery and abortion, for instance, gets a painstaking re-telling, and thoroughly illuminates the hypocrisy of the white-supremacist-loving Georgia congressman. For journalists who followed Flynt's original release of the story, the damning details -- Barr's asking his wife, who worked as his secretary, to arrange his lunch dates with his mistress, Jeri Dobbins, who became his next wife; his driving his wife to an abortion clinic, and paying for her abortion, while being rabidly "pro-life" -- are not news. But for the average reader, they will be. Flynt reproduces excerpts of the Barrs' divorce transcripts, which show Barr and Dobbins responding to questions about their affair by repeating "I decline to answer" over and over like a pair of autistic parrots. Barr insisted that comparing his refusal to tell the truth about his affair under oath with Clinton's legalistic acrobatics was like comparing apples to oranges, but the report quips: "The difference between Bill Clinton's truth-fudging and Bob Barr's refusal to answer honestly is the difference between a wormy Red Delicious and a rotten Granny Smith." A section of nine profiles called "The Hall of Infamy" contains what may be the most explosive information in the report. "Ken Calvert: Touched by a Hooker" recounts the poignant tale, first reported in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, of the Southern California Republican representative being caught with his pants down with a hooker in his car. Corona police reportedly found him with a prostitute's face "laying [sic] in the driver's lap" while the congressman "was placing his penis into his unzipped dress slacks and ... trying to hide it with his untucked dress shirt." When asked his reasons for his conduct, he allegedly answered: "I was feeling intensely lonely." In a similar face-in-lap sighting, an aide to Newt Gingrich reportedly approached the former House speaker's car to spot "a woman with her head buried in Newt's lap." Pennsylvania Rep. John E. Peterson, who has admitted to having been an "excessive hugger," is accused of grabbing an 18-year-old's breast in an elevator and greeting a woman lobbyist with a forced "deep throat kiss," when she visited him to say that a mutual friend had died. The report also delivers a hailstorm of lesser-known scandals -- many of which are sourced merely as hearsay. One article focuses on the Republican sex rumors that have circulated among mainstream reporters but have not been reported -- and reports them. Rep. Mary Bono, House Whip Tom DeLay and Sen. Tim Hutchinson are among those named with no sources or evidence given. And in chronicling Speaker-designate Livingston's dramatic fall from power -- as a result of reports that Flynt had information about his extramarital affairs -- the report suggests that those affairs involved lobbyists for whom he favorably influenced legislature, but again, does not name names or elaborate on sources. Between these well-worn and barely told tales, the report also offers a banquet of scandalous morsels. There's a historical account of presidential indiscretions headlined "Our Philandering Fathers," a cross-cultural comparison of "Mistresses Worldwide" and a collection of comic strips from Hustler about the scandal. An ad calls for more informants to step up to the phone and dish dirt; a cost analysis compares Flynt's and Starr's investigations and their efficacy; and a photo of a naked woman accompanies a piece profiling the kinds of informants who responded to the original ad. N E X T+P A G E+\| What should the reader believe?