Earlier this morning, I took an analytical look at media bias and progressive capture through the lens of Uri Berliner's mea culpa for NPR. Now we can take a much more personal look at those effects by speaking with one of its shame-storm targets.
Mark Judge, a conservative culture writer, found himself one of the secondary targets of the efforts to destroy Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, and has been trying to tell his story ever since. He wrote a detailed, forceful, and even entertaining condemnation of the media and political circus in The Devil’s Triangle: Mark Judge vs the New American Stasi. And yet, despite the media firestorm surrounding Judge and Kavanaugh to this day, not one MSM outlet besides Fox bothered to review the book or discuss Mark's story of journalistic corruption.
Last month, the same media outlets that spent years ignoring The Devil's Triangle threw an enthusiastic -- and tellingly brief -- triumph for Christine Blasey Ford's literary attempt to cash in her chips on the scandal. And again, none of these media orgs bothered to even mention Mark's book or his pushback on Ford's claims. That led Kathleen Parker to write an excoriating condemnation of her industry and of Blasey Ford in the Washington Post.
Mark sent it over to me and we arranged an interview that took place yesterday afternoon. We talked about a wide range of topics -- our different but similar adolescences on opposite sides of the country, Mark's struggles with addiction, the utter destruction of a national-media "shame storm," and more. Among the highlights, lightly edited from the AI-generated transcript:
Q: I want to talk about the book, but I want to talk about what happened. It was like six weeks ago, seven weeks ago or so, maybe not even that long ago, that Blasey Ford's book came out. Immediately, the mainstream media swarmed to promote this book. And still, after several years, never even mentioned that there was another side to this story, with a couple of exceptions. Kathleen Parker at the Washington Post actually wrote an excoriating column about her colleagues...
A: This goes back several years, but to distill it to its essence, after this nightmare that I lived, which we can talk about in detail, if you want. ... Being a well-trained journalist with a lot of experience, I just started writing about it and it slowly accumulated into a book. And I think it's intense and horrifying and some of it's funny, but the main thing that was So shocking to me is after spending a couple years on this book and living in poverty and, you know, I quickly had two choices and it was, you know, lay low and just live the rest of your life, you know, working in a retail store, which is fine, or a restaurant and die with dishonor or write a book and die with honor. ...
Q: We were doing most of the same stuff that you guys were doing, and none of it was really meaningful, right? I mean, it's nothing that you would go back and say, well, you know, this is awful. And including, up to and including the humor. I mean, I wouldn't necessarily stand behind it today, but I mean, we were all part of Monty Python, National Lampoon. We were all doing stuff like that. I had a handful of friends and I that did, I think we called it Electro Shock Therapy, was our comedy group.
And it was all farts and, you know, potty humor and sex humor and stuff like that. And God help me if that stuff ever gets out, because now I know what's going to happen after watching what happened. It was meaningless. It's kids trying to figure out their place in the universe. And I think you speak very movingly about some of the people, some of the leadership in the school that were trying to help form you along the way. ...
A: We were also coming out of a cultural time that has passed, which is sort of in the wake of the Vietnam War, the 1970s, the drinking age had been lowered to 18 Vietnam, much less parental supervision, which was good and bad, it wasn't all bad, it was good, because you sort of learned how to fend for yourself, but also that Mad Magazine, Monty Python, Rolling Stone thing, where it's like, should we do something obnoxious and puerile and kind of stupid, Yes, we should. And that was, you're right, that was part of the culture back then.
Q: I think that they landed on the two people who were struggling with addiction problems to either bolster the story or become the villains in it. And obviously you're one and Leland Keyser, um, is the other. And I mean, Leland Keyser has been, you know, trying to keep a low profile ever since, but they were using her addiction issues to try to manipulate her. And I think that that's what they were trying to do with you too. I mean, do you get that sense that they landed on you and then Leland specifically for that purpose?
A: Yes, but I also, unlike Leland, I have a big mouth and I've written a lot of stuff and So, you know, I sort of I was more vocally out there than she was. But absolutely, yes. And there was also and again, even conservative journalists are elliptical about this or don't confront it directly. We are talking about extortion and witness tampering. Yes, that's what we are talking about. We were talking about Leland Kaiser being told bad things can be said about you unless you change your story. We were talking about me getting a phone call on September 24th, 2018 from a California number. Which the FBI has, saying, you like effing with people, I like effing with people too, you need to change your story.
We were talking about direct criminal activity against me and Leland Kaiser. And maybe they didn't bargain for a couple of things. ...
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Be sure to watch the entire podcast. Mark surprised me with his happy-warrior outlook, clearly a product of his Catholic faith and intellectual formation at Georgetown Prep, albeit tempered by the assaults on his character and ability to earn a living. This was more about hope than bitterness, and more about truth than retribution, and I hope everyone takes the time to here the other side of the story -- the side of the story that should have emerged to dominate the issue six years ago.
Once again, I highly recommend Mark's book The Devil’s Triangle: Mark Judge vs the New American Stasi. If you want other ways to support Mark, he has a GoFundMe page as well as a GiveSendGo account, for those who don't like GoFundMe. If you want to connect more directly, Mark has a UPS box: 3220 N ST NW #175, Washington DC, 20007.
Oh, and as for NPR, well ...
Terry Gross @NPR interviewed Christine Blasey Ford. They also reviewed her book. @MaureenCorrigan - ready for my turn, you absolute Stasi cowards. https://t.co/LDc7ny7Lup
— Mark Judge (@markgjudge) April 9, 2024
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