Stories like this are legion. I have heard similar tales from many others.

The leftist media's bizarre adamantine certainty that they are, in fact totally unbiased has been also described in books like "Bias." They honestly believe that they are right down the centerline, and most would probably pass a lie detector test while they told you they had no political leanings at all. Of course, only four percent will describe themselves as conservative, so how they manage this is beyond my ken.

Below, I copy the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article, which cost me three bucks, but was worth it. Watch the liberal press in action. This is a masterpiece of the art of innuendo and near-subliminal verbal attack, and is worth examining closely. Look at how not only Stein, but McTeer--a potential candidate for higher office, and probably the real target--are systematically destroyed. I give extra points for the gratuitious insertion of George Bush into the mix.

May 15, 2002



Political talk irks Fed members
MIKE LEE; MARIA RECIO
Star-Telegram Staff Writers

Federal Reserve Bank directors from the Dallas and San Francisco districts were stunned when a conservative
author's luncheon speech at the Dallas bank turned into a lecture about political correctness, blacks, gays, and women who put their children in day care.

At least one board member from the San Francisco district walked out in protest, and the San Francisco bank's president released a statement calling the remarks "offensive and inappropriate."

Bob McTeer, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, quickly apologized to his colleagues, but the flap has
reached officials in Washington, D.C., where McTeer, popular for his folksy manner and steadfast belief in free markets, has been considered a possible successor to Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan.

"I personally didn't think he [the author] was out of line," McTeer said, but added, "I regret it and I'm sorry that it
happened."

For the past four years, the Dallas Fed, which by law is expected to be nonpartisan, has co-sponsored a series of luncheons with the National Center for Policy Analysis. The policy center is a Dallas think tank sponsored largely by donations from wealthy individuals, including the Hunt family of Dallas, and is associated with President Bush.

The lunch speakers have been conservative, and most have been economists, a center spokesman said. Thursday's
speaker was Harry Stein, author of "How I Joined the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (and Found Inner Peace)."

In the book and in his speech in Dallas, Stein tells how he went from being a '60s radical to a neoconservative, after he was criticized for questioning what he called the prevailing liberal wisdom.

In the speech, which was videotaped, Stein said his parents were so liberal that "I grew up rooting for certain teams
according to how many blacks were on the roster."

He gave what were supposed to be humorous definitions, including:

The Democratic Party: "Morally corrupt to the core. Preaches hope and decency. Practices cynicism and racial and gender extortionism."

Multiculturalism: "A movement that pretends to promote tolerance by rewriting history and otherwise debasing standards."

On gay issues: "The drive to question and mock 2,000 millennia of religious teaching, to dismiss it out of hand ... is
tragic."

Feminism: "Has poisoned the culture by a relentless war on nature."

He also described an argument his son had with a teacher about Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and repeated a racial slur that is in the book.

During a question-and-answer period after the speech, William Jones, chairman of the Fed's Los Angeles branch and the owner of an investment company, said he was "very personally offended by your jokes about black people and your seemingly rationalizing the use of the word 'n---.'

"I'm a businessman, my wife is a prosecutor, my children go to college, we pay our taxes. The overgeneralization doesn't really help to further what I think you really want, which is understanding," said Jones, who is African-American.

He later walked out of the room, according to McTeer and others at the luncheon.

Stein said in an interview that he didn't understand why Jones was upset.

"When I was telling the Huck Finn story, he just heard the n-word," Stein said. "Ninety-five percent of the people in that room got it."

Jones did not return calls to comment.

Most members and directors of the San Francisco and Dallas regional Federal Reserve boards who heard the speech have declined to comment.

However, Carol Eckert, a spokeswoman for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issued a statement from Robert Parry, the bank's president and chief executive.

"Our president found the speaker's choice of words to be offensive and inappropriate for a gathering held at a Federal
Reserve bank," Eckert said. She declined to elaborate.

One director of the Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve's San Francisco bank, who was not at the Dallas meeting, said that several directors who attended said they were uncomfortable with the speaker's remarks.

"I understand it got fairly quiet in there," said the director, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "A number of the
directors felt they would have rather been somewhere else."

This director was "shocked" that there would be a controversial speaker since "we deal with economic issues."

"I've never been to a meeting where a speaker has spoken on social issues. This is so highly unusual," the director said.

McTeer said he asked the policy center to invite Stein after reading his book. The speech was in the Dallas Fed's
auditorium, but the center paid for the event.

"No public funds were involved," McTeer said.

The San Francisco board members were in town for a joint meeting with Dallas board members on Thursday morning.
McTeer said he asked for the meeting to adjourn at noon so the members could attend the luncheon and speech.

The Federal Reserve Board sets U.S. monetary policy, regulates banks that are federally chartered and administers federal fair banking laws, such as the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. The Dallas Fed is one of 12 Federal Reserve districts nationwide, and covers Texas and parts of Louisiana and New Mexico. McTeer also serves on the Federal Open Market Committee, which influences short-term interest rates.

Robert Auerbach, a professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin who is writing a book about the Fed, said the Federal Reserve Bank has a history of defying congressional oversight.

Fed officials have argued that the bank is only a quasi-governmental body because it is actually owned by its member banks. But Auerbach said the regional banks carry out government functions, including regulating private banks in their areas.

"I believe there has to be a lot more oversight," he said.

McTeer is occasionally mentioned as a successor to Greenspan, and some observers believe he is backpedaling furiously from the controversy to keep his name in play.

"McTeer made a great blunder in inviting this person to speak in the inner sanctum of the Federal Reserve," a high-level banking industry source said. "The Fed should not be inviting politically incorrect people to major internal forums."

USA Today said in February that "Dallas Fed Bank President Robert McTeer is a Republican and is often mentioned as a possible successor but is not as celebrated an economist as some other candidates."