It used to be that conservatives thought that Monica Lewinsky was an at least somewhat innocent victim of the predatory sexual desires of Bill Clinton in their notorious Oval Office affair. Now that Lewinsky is speaking for herself these days, that's gone out the window.
Lewinsky wrote a piece for the New York Times lamenting how the late Roger Ailes and Fox News exploited the affair and peddled salacious rumors, creating an atmosphere where "truth and fiction mixed at random in the service of higher ratings." She cited one Fox News poll that asked if she was a "young tramp looking for thrills."
Well, Brent Bozell and Tim Graham of the Media Research Center — both regular guests on Fox News — are here to answer that poll question in the affirmative ... and to further slut-shame Lewinsky for expressing her opinion.
In their May 24 column, Bozell and Graham rush to denigrate Lewinsky for speaking out, actually calling her a "complete slut":
In her latest incarnation, Lewinsky is a victim of cyberbullying. She claims that's what she suffered at the hands of Clinton's critics. Is it cyberbullying to state she behaved like a complete slut, besmirching the honor of the Oval Office in the process?
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Lewinsky complained that Fox took a poll in the first weeks of the intern scandal asking whether she was a "young tramp looking for thrills." That's blunt. But what other words does one use for an intern who [independent counsel Kenneth] Starr reported flashed her thong underwear at the married president of the United States at their first meeting and later performed oral sex for him? "Overachiever"?
Five days after his death, Monica Lewinsky accused Ailes of exploiting a "personal and national tragedy" for profit. She is a pathetic creature and the perfect foil for The New York Times.
Bozell’s MRC attacked anyone who dared to tell the full truth about Ailes after his death — i.e., his lengthy record of sexual harassment of female Fox News employees — and his and Graham’s sleazy smears of Lewinsky here are just a continuation of that.
In case the slut-shaming intent wasn't clear enough, the MRC's NewsBusters Twitter feed promoted Bozell and Graham's column by calling Lewinsky "a bit nutty, a bit slutty" — an echo of David Brock's 1990s attack on Anita Hill over her sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas.
For the past quarter-century, the MRC has continually attacked Hill for daring to criticize a beloved conservative. It appears it will do the same to Lewinsky for the very same reason.