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'''The Vast Right-wing Conspiracy''' is a concept postulated by then [[First Lady]] [[Hillary Rodham Clinton]] on January 27, 1998. ''[[Time magazine]]'' reported, "Mrs. Clinton's inflammatory sound bite burned its way through the welter of cable-TV shows, Internet forums and talk-radio programs that are to the Lewinsky scandal what the Pony Express was to the Wild West, a quick consensus formed: the [[White House]] either believed in the conspiracy (a symptom of [[Nixon]]ian delusion) or it was engaging in a diversion (a sign of desperation). [[Janet Reno]] and the ''Washington Post'', both key players in the current scandal, hardly seem like reactionary schemers. ... Remember the hundreds of [[FBI]] reports on influential Republicans that mysteriously appeared in the White House in 1996? The cloak of unnecessary secrecy thrown over Mrs. [[Clinton's health-care task force]]? Indeed, so obsessed is this White House with its enemies--real and imagined, great and small--that in July 1995 it prepared a 331-page report exposing their alleged machinations. In the tradition of [[Spiro Agnew]]'s nattering nabobs of negativism, the report was titled The [[Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce]]."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,987781-4,00.html Persecuted or Paranoid?], Walter Kirn, Time magazine, Feb. 09, 1998.</ref>  The report stated,

The '''Vast Right-wing Conspiracy''' is an accusation made by [[Hillary Rodham Clinton]] on January 27, 1998 roundly criticized as delusional.

:"The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce' refers to the mode of communication employed by the right wing to convey their fringe stories into legitimate subjects of coverage by the mainstream media. This is how the stream works. First, well-funded right-wing think tanks and individuals underwrite conservative newsletters and newspapers such as the Western Journalism Center, the ''American Spectator'' and the ''Pittsburgh Tribune-Review''. Next the stories are reprinted on the Internet where they are bounced all over the world. From the Internet, the stories are bounced into the mainstream media through one of two ways: 1) The story will be picked up by the British tabloids and covered as a major story, from which the American right-of-center mainstream media (i.e. the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'', ''[[Washington Times]]'' and ''[[New York Post]]'') will then pick the story up; or 2) The story will be bounced directly from the Internet to the right-of-center mainstream American media. After the mainstream right-of-center American media covers the story, congressional committees will look into the story. After Congress looks into the story, the story now has the legitimacy to be covered by the remainder of the American mainstream press as a 'real' story.

:"The Internet has become one of the major and most dynamic modes of communication. The Internet can link people, groups and organizations together instantly. Moreover, it allows an extraordinary amount of unregulated (emphasis added) data and information to be located in one area and available to all. The right wing has seized upon the Internet as a means of communicating its ideas to people. Moreover, evidence exists that Republican staffers surf the Internet, interacting with extremists in order to exchange ideas and information."  

 

 

 

 

:"The Internet has become one of the major and most dynamic modes of communication. The Internet can link people, groups and organizations together instantly. Moreover, it allows an extraordinary amount of unregulated (emphasis added) data and information to be located in one area and available to all. The right wing has seized upon the Internet as a means of communicating its ideas to people. Moreover, evidence exists that Republican staffers surf the Internet, interacting with extremists in order to exchange ideas and information." }}

[[Joseph Farah]] of [[WorldNetDaily.com]] observed, "In 1995 there were approximately 1 million computers connected to the Internet. By the end of 1998, there were 50 million. Within 10 years, there will be in excess of 1 billion connections. To put that in perspective, after the invention of television, it took more than 10 years before there were 50 million sets in the world. The same rise on the Internet has taken less than three years."<ref>[http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=14676 Hillary Clinton, conspiracy theorist], Joseph Farah, WorldNetDaily.com, February 11, 1999.</ref>

[[Joseph Farah]] of [[WorldNetDaily.com]] observed, "In 1995 there were approximately 1 million computers connected to the Internet. By the end of 1998, there were 50 million. Within 10 years, there will be in excess of 1 billion connections. To put that in perspective, after the invention of television, it took more than 10 years before there were 50 million sets in the world. The same rise on the Internet has taken less than three years."<ref>[http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=14676 Hillary Clinton, conspiracy theorist], Joseph Farah, WorldNetDaily.com, February 11, 1999.</ref>