The 34th annual Conservative Political Action Conference convenes today at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, but not all of the action at the conference will be political. CPAC is also a huge social event, the one occasion that brings together every conceivable element of the Reaganite "Big Tent" coalition.

Most folks come to CPAC for the speeches by political big shots (although John McCain is notably absent this year) and panel discussions about major issues, but some of the biggest fun happens away from the main stage.

Downstairs, there's an exhibition hall full of displays by all kinds of groups, with T-shirts, books and bumper stickers. If you can't wangle an invite to one of the VIP receptions, the hotel's Marquee Lounge is generally full of lively people.

And it's possible to bump into influential conservatives more or less at random — last year, I found myself in a hallway chat with publicist Diana Banister and Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness.

CPAC played a background role in one of the major journalism scandals of the 1990s, when Stephen Glass of the New Republic was discovered to have fictionalized several articles he wrote for that magazine.

Glass's March 1997 article about CPAC described the event as a decadent bacchanalia and "recounted wild orgies and drug fests in hotel rooms," as Brent Bozell observed in a column after Glass's fraud was exposed:

What bothers David Keene, the head of CPAC, most, however, is that The New Republic had to know it wasn't true, either. "The editors at the time certainly had good reason to know what he was turning in wasn't true," Mr. Keene told me. "It boggles the mind that an editor wouldn't demand sourcing for a seemingly incredibly timed, perfectly scripted hit piece."

Mr. Bozell's Media Research Center has been documenting liberal bias in media for 20 years, and is profiled on today's Culture page:

Mr. Bozell defines liberal bias as "censorship of the conservative worldview," but says he doesn't expect the news to be strictly neutral.
"Here's the problem: There is no such thing as pure objectivity in the news media. Everything that comes out in the news media has, and must have, an element of bias," he says. "Our position is that journalists should strive for objectivity as the Holy Grail, but it begins with recognizing their own biases, and making an effort to balance their stories."

Glass's bogus "reporting" went beyond mere bias, of course. There is simply no excuse for fictionalized libel like that. CPAC is great fun, but … sorry, no orgies under the Big Tent.

-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times