Bill Bennett: “my theme today has to do with our friends in the media, or the fourth estate as they like to call themselves. There are…”

“my theme today has to do with our friends in the media, or the fourth estate as they like to call themselves. There are two items I wish to call to the attention of the Senate and anyone else who might be listening with respect to the performance of the media. The first one is highlighted in an editorial that appeared this morning in the Wall Street Journal entitled ``Frist's Vindication.'' All of us in this Chamber know Senator Frist. We know him as a man of integrity, intelligence, and grace. He presided over the Senate as the majority leader for 4 years. He has a long history as a humanitarian, as a scientist, as a skilled doctor who pioneered procedures in the process of heart and lung transplants. We also know him as the target of media attack for insider trading, and we know groups that are self-anointed as watchdogs of the public consciousness that picked that up and kept the drumbeat alive. Our friends in the media also kept the drumbeat alive saying, over and over again, Dr. Frist was a hypocrite, Dr. Frist engaged in insider trading, Dr. Frist used his position to enrich himself while he was here in the Senate. Well, the Securities and Exchange Commission was sufficiently aroused by those attacks that they entered into an investigation of Dr. Frist's activities with respect to his stock. That investigation is now closed. I did not realize the investigation was closed because there has been no hue and cry whatsoever in the media.…”