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Democracy Now!
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From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 8-11-03
PRSS Channel: A67.7
8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Democracy Now Special: A Never Before Played Interview With
the Late J.H. Hatfield, Author of Fortunate Son: George W.
Bush and The Making of An American President. Today we play
an interview that we have held for over two years. It involves
allegations of President Bush, drugs, obstruction of justice
and corporate scandal. It raises questions about why Bush’s
driver license number was changed. And it involves a man who
died of an alleged suicide. In the book Fortunate Son: George
W. Bush and the Making of an American President author J.H.
Hatfield charges that President Bush was arrested in 1972
for cocaine possession and that Bush’s father George
Sr. used his political connections to have his son’s
record expunged. Soon after publication, Hatfield’s
credibility was challenged. He had been convicted in 1988
for hiring a hit-man in a failed attempt to kill his boss
and had served five years in prison. J.H. Hatfield died of
an alleged suicide in July 2001.
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:58 Democracy Now! Premiere: An Interview With the
Late J.H. Hatfield, Author of Fortunate Son: George W. Bush
and The Making of An American President
Today we play an interview that we have held for over two
years. It involves allegations of President Bush, drugs, obstruction
of justice and corporate scandal. It raises questions about
why Bush’s driver license number was changed. And it
involves a man who died of an alleged suicide.
This is how the story goes: Four years ago St. Martins Press
published a book by author James H. Hatfield called Fortunate
Son. It is about the life of George W. Bush.
The book examines Bush’s past from his engineering
the seizure of other people's property for use by his Texas
Rangers baseball team, to the millions he made in dubious
insider stock swaps, to his connections to the BCCI scandal.
Hatfield also makes another charge. He says Bush was arrested
in 1972 for cocaine possession. Why wasn’t the future
President charged? Hatfield writes that Bush’s father
used his political connections to have his son’s record
expunged.
Soon after publication of Fortunate Son, Hatfield’s
credibility came under fierce attack. The Dallas Morning News
happened to suddenly receive information about Hatfield’s
criminal past. He had been convicted in 1988 for hiring a
hit-man in a failed attempt to kill his boss and had served
five years in prison.
The media jumped all over it and Hatfield’s reputation
and credibility were ruined.
St. Martins Press promised to turn Fortunate Son into “furnace
fodder.” It withdrew 70,000 copies from bookshelves
and destroyed them. But a small publisher Soft Skull Press
reprinted the book with the banner “The Book They Burned
is Back.”
Hatfield had previously refused to reveal the source of his
information about Bush’s alleged cocaine arrest. He
now to decided to name him. He claimed it was none other than
Karl Rove, Bush’s closest political adviser.
If Karl Rove did indeed leak the information, he couldn’t
have leaked it to a better subject. Soon after publication
of the book, Hatfield’s credibility came under fierce
attack.
The media followed the trail laid out for them. They diverted
inquiries about Bush’s drug history to stories about
Hatfield’s checkered past. He lost two other book contracts
and faced financial ruin and obscurity.
The character assassination finally took its toll. In July
2001, Hatfield was found dead of an apparent suicide in a
hotel room in Springdale, Arkansas. He was 43 years old. Police
said he left notes for his family and friends that listed
alcohol, financial problems and Fortunate Son as reasons for
killing himself. He is survived by a wife and daughter.
Special thanks to Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky who made
the documentary film "Horns and Halos" about J.H.
Hatfield and Soft Skull Press publisher Sander Hicks. They
filmed the Democracy Now! interview we premiered today.
- J.H. Hatfield, interview conducted in late 2000. He is
the author of Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and The Making
of An American President. In his book he charges that Bush
was arrested for cocaine possession in 1972. The interview
was conducted in the winter of 2000 before George W. Bush
was elected President and before the Sept. 11 attacks. The
writer spent a year investigating Bush. His credibility
was challenged because he had been convicted in 1988 for
hiring a hit-man in a failed attempt to kill his boss and
had served five years in prison. Hatfield died of an alleged
suicide July 2001.
- Toby Rodgers, wrote the introduction to the Soft Skull
edition of Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and The Making
of An American President.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Angie
Karran, Sharif Abdul Kouddous, Lenina Nadal, Ana Nogueira,
and Elizabeth Press. Mike Di Filippo is our music maestro
and engineer.
[Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Rafael delaUz, Gabriel Weiss, Johnny Sender,
Rich Kim, Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Jenny
Filipazzo and Ionnis Mookas.
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