Monica Lewinsky Doesn't Exist

[Jim Siler]

Monica Lewinsky Doesn't Exist
...at least not in the "mainstream media". Not a single mention
anywhere this morning either in print or on the tube.

Looks like another job for talk radio.

[Danny Cox]

In <34c3547c...@snews.zippo.com> mag...@adelphia.net (Jim Siler)
writes:

The story was covered on the "700 Club" news summary.

[L. Shelton Bumgarner]

On Mon, 19 Jan 1998 13:31:31 GMT, mag...@adelphia.net (Jim Siler)
wrote:

>Monica Lewinsky Doesn't Exist
>...at least not in the "mainstream media". Not a single mention
>anywhere this morning either in print or on the tube.
>
>Looks like another job for talk radio.

As it turned out, it was a job for Usenet!

lee
who is proud that he's not seen one fukkin reference to The WELL since
this all started. Maybe now the journalists will talk about _Usenet_
and NOT The WELL when they mention "cyber culture."

[Max Kennedy]

On Thu, 22 Jan 1998 07:56:17 GMT, lee...@nottowayez.net (L. Shelton Bumgarner)
wrote:

>As it turned out, it was a job for Usenet!
>
>lee
>who is proud that he's not seen one fukkin reference to The WELL since
>this all started. Maybe now the journalists will talk about _Usenet_
>and NOT The WELL when they mention "cyber culture."

Newsweek's Melted Scoop
Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 22, 1998; Page C1

Newsweek's top editors, after a day of frenetic meetings, sought yesterday
to explain why they failed to publish the story that stunned the nation, an
exclusive piece about allegations that President Clinton encouraged a
24-year-old former White House intern to lie about whether they had an
affair.

As the media furor over the charges reached a fever pitch, the magazine
planned to belatedly post Michael Isikoff's story on its America Online
site, four days after top editors pulled the potentially explosive piece
from this week's issue late Saturday.

Newsweek editors said they delayed the article in part at the request of
independent counsel Kenneth Starr to avoid compromising his investigation.
"On the basis of what we knew Saturday, I am comfortable that we didn't go
ahead with the story," Newsweek President Richard Smith said last night.
"Given the time that was left, we had the ability to get some very
sensational charges out there, but ... when the clock ran out, I wasn't
prepared to air an allegation that a young White House intern had an affair
with the president without more independent reporting on her."

But there are few secrets in the modern media world, and word of Isikoff's
suppressed scoop leaked out through an increasingly familiar route: Matt
Drudge's Internet gossip column. Reporters across Washington, some of whom
were already pursuing the story, kept scrambling for confirmation.

The Washington Post broke the story in its early editions Tuesday night,
followed by ABC News, with a 12:45 a.m. radio report, and the Los Angeles
Times. The reports said Starr is investigating whether Clinton and his
friend Vernon Jordan encouraged former intern Monica Lewinsky to lie to
lawyers for Paula Jones about whether she had an affair with the president.

The story detonated in the media with Watergate-like intensity. CNN, MSNBC
and Fox News Channel provided live coverage of White House spokesman Mike
McCurry's grilling at the daily media briefing, where ABC's Sam Donaldson
asked whether Clinton would cooperate with an impeachment inquiry. Moments
later, Rush Limbaugh read listeners the latest Drudge update.

ABC's Peter Jennings, in Cuba for the pope's visit, broke into regular
programming at 3:32 p.m. to pick up a live feed of Clinton's interview with
PBS's Jim Lehrer, made available by Lehrer's "News Hour." Jennings was
followed two minutes later by NBC's Tom Brokaw. And, in what many CBS
staffers considered an embarrassment, anchor Dan Rather did not get on the
air until more than 20 minutes later. Ted Koppel, meanwhile, returned from
Havana to anchor "Nightline."

All of which underscored the question: What happened at Newsweek?

Some staffers there say the magazine's editors appeared fearful of the
enormity of the charges and the gravity of an obstruction-of-justice
investigation involving the president. Newsweek's Smith kept Donald Graham,
chief executive of the parent Washington Post Co., apprised of the
decision.

While acknowledging "disagreement" among his editors, Smith said: "We were
determined from the beginning not to let the deadline drive the judgment.
... We were all disheartened that we hadn't gotten it across the finish
line before the deadline."

Newsweek sources said Isikoff lobbied vigorously for publication, arguing
that it was not the magazine's role to help Starr do his job. Isikoff would
say only that "there was a vigorous discussion about what was the
journalistically proper thing to do. There were no screaming matches."

For Isikoff, losing the exclusive involved a double dose of déjà vu. As a
Washington Post reporter in 1994, he clashed with his editors over whether
to publish a detailed account of Paula Jones's allegations, then already
public, that Clinton crudely pressed her for sex in a Little Rock hotel
room in 1991. The Post eventually published the story, but not before
Isikoff was suspended for two weeks because of a shouting match with
editors. He joined Newsweek soon afterward.

Last summer, Isikoff was scooped by Drudge on another charge of sexual
misconduct by Clinton. While Newsweek was weighing whether to run his
article on allegations that Clinton made advances toward another former
White House aide, Kathleen Willey, in the executive mansion, Drudge "outed"
the Isikoff piece on computer screens across the country. Drudge says that
leak came from another Newsweek staffer.

"Lightning did strike twice," Drudge said yesterday. "There's something in
the culture of Washington where reporters share their stories, and now
there's an outlet, meaning me. Before we all talked about it, but who's
going to print it? ... This thing just fell into my lap." He said news
organizations were failing to credit him with the scoop.

"Newsweek had significant evidence. Among other things, Isikoff listened to
a tape of Lewinsky describing her relationship with the president, which
was recorded surreptitiously by another former White House aide, Linda
Tripp. Starr's office wanted to use Lewinsky to "sting" Clinton's friend
Jordan in a recorded conversation, according to Newsweek.

Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, said Newsweek's decision "really
looks as though it was a mistake. The Starr investigation gives it a
legitimate angle; it's not just salacious gossip. I would not want to be
the person in charge of explaining this decision to Isikoff."

For the White House, the self-styled conservative Drudge has become a
growing irritant. White House aide Sidney Blumenthal sued him over a false
report – which the columnist retracted and apologized for – that Blumenthal
once beat his wife.

Former White House aide George Stephanopoulos, now an ABC consultant,
criticized Drudge Sunday on ABC's "This Week." He seized the opportunity
when Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, mentioned Newsweek's
killing of the story. (Kristol says he knew of the imbroglio, from a source
who had heard the tapes, a day before an ABC staffer handed him the Drudge
item.)

"Where did it come from? The Drudge Report," Stephanopoulos said. "We've
all seen how discredited that's been."

/---------
People shouldn't expect the mass media to do investigative stories.
That job belongs to the 'fringe' media. -- Ted Koppel
http://www.iglou.com/homepages/mkennedy/press.html
/----------
Ron's dead. They can't indict him.
Nola Hill on Ron Brown
/----------
http://www.iglou.com/homepages/mkennedy/twa2.html