I'm listening to a little of The Al Franken Show at the moment. He has on Ed Klein, the author of that new book on Hillary Clinton, and Klein was either very, very brave to come on the show or very, very dumb. Reporter Joe Conason is ripping the man and his book into teensy shreds, citing errors and forcing Klein to either admit he got something wrong or to defend it by saying, "Well, I heard that from someone," and of course, he can't say who that someone was. I missed the first part but I haven't yet heard Klein able to defend the accuracy of anything being discussed. No wonder Conservative pundits are distancing themselves from this guy.
It's interesting to me that some of Klein's critics have brought up what I always felt was an underrated aspect of all the Clinton-bashing that goes on…and it's true of a lot of Bush-bashing and other political extremism that infests our national dialogue, though the anti-Clinton folks brought it to a high art. It's the sheer profit motive. There's money in writing books and giving lectures that demonize polarizing public figures. A certain amount of America — surely not the majority but more than enough to make a book into a best-seller — wants to hear that the people they despise are even worse than anyone could imagine. And here's the key thing: It doesn't even matter that much if the "information" may be incorrect, just as it doesn't matter to most fans of Pro Wrestling that the outcome of the match is predetermined. They want to hate someone and to see that person get beaten up.
No one of any substance is willing to stand behind Ed Klein's book but according to some reports, he's going to clear something like $10 million from it, plus whatever advances he receives for his next few projects. He's not making that money because he's a good reporter. He's making it because he's giving a certain group of people what they want to hear.