Sunshine Skyways

The first generation of Web journalism was bland, irrelevant, and generally clueless. Nobody paid much attention to it. Then came the Clinton scandal and Starr report, and everything changed. It was the first time that official Washington, journalism, and the Internet bumped into one another nose to nose. (Jon Katz, quoted in Lasica 2000)

With Clinton-Lewinsky all notions that one could make clear cut distinctions between serious and less serious news outlets, even between news and non-news genres had been effectively destroyed. Whether one started the day by listening to National Public Radio or Howard Stern, by watching Good Morning America or CNN, by reading The New York Times or The Star, the topic was the same. (Williams & Delli Carpini 2000)

In 1998, an Internet tabloid newspaper (or tablog) better known to those with a penchant for Hollywood gossip and tidbits about political scandals beat established newspapers, news magazines, and television broadcasters to one of the stories of that decade. In a series of posts that began on the evening of Saturday, January 17, 1998 (23:32 PST), the Drudge Report broke the story that a former White House intern had claimed to have had a sexual relationship with President Bill Clinton. Although it may have been tempting to dismiss the first post as just another example of Matt Drudge's tablog's unfounded stories, such as when it reported that an anonymous Republican claimed court records existed to show that Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal had committed violent acts against his wife, the post attracted the attention of mainstream journalists and others for two reasons. First, not all of the tablog's exclusives were false; it did have previous, although rare, firsts that held up to scrutiny, such as when it broke the news that Connie Chung was being fired as co-chair of CBS Evening News in May 1997, that Princess Diana had been killed in a fatal car accident in August 1997, and that Republican Bob Dole had selected Jack Kemp to be his vice-presidental running mate in 1996.[1] Second, and perhaps more importantly, unlike most of its original stories that were gossip supplied by anonymous tipsters and then spiced with innuendo, the January 17th post seemed to be based on information compiled by a mainstream journalist for an established news magazine. Part of that famous first post is repeated below:

The Drudge Report has learned that reporter Michael Isikoff developed the story of his career, only to have it spiked by top Newsweek suits hours before publication. A young woman, 23, sexually involved with the love of her life, the President of the United States, since she was a 21-year-old intern at the White House. She was a frequent visitor to a small study just off the Oval Office where she claims to have indulged the president's sexual preference. ... The Drudge Report has learned that tapes of intimate phone conversations exist.[2]

By early the next morning, the post was the topic of public-affairs forums of Usenet newsgroups, first, at alt.current-events.Clinton.whitewater and alt.impeach.clinton, then it moved on to "more mainstream political discussion groups" (BBC News). On ABC's Sunday morning program, This Week With Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts, neoconservative commentator William Kristol was the first to mention the topic of the post in the mainstream media. Kristol said the story in Washington that morning was that Newsweek had killed a big story based on taped-recorded conversations of a former White House intern; however, his comment was dismissed by former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos, who said the Drudge Report was a discredited gossip column, and its veracity questioned by Sam Donaldson, who argued that Newsweek may have delayed publishing the story until it had additional information (Brill 1998).

Drudge's post used innuendo to suggest that Newsweek editors' decision to pull Isikoff's story was motivated by their desire to protect the president, which played into the myth of a liberal press. According to Brill (1998), however, Newsweek chairman and editor in chief Richard Smith decided to delay publishing the story for 3 reasons: 1) Staff were unable to question Lewinsky directly, 2) Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr had asked the magazine to delay publishing the story because he and his staff planned to use Lewinsky by having her wear a wire to get more information; and 3) Newsweek staff were not satisfied with what was heard and not heard about Clinton adviser Vernon Jordan on the audiotapes.[3]

On Monday, January 19th, talk of Drudge's first post continued. The Washington Post reported "that 'commentators on ABC discussed reports that Newsweek killed a ... sensational story alleging a long-running tryst involving Clinton while he's been president'" (Kalb 1998). Later that evening the story that the president had had sex with a former intern was mentioned on the CNBC talk show Equal Time (Kalb 1998), and Ann Coulter, who was a pundit on the show, advised viewers to read the Drudge Report. Also, during that day the story was mentioned on the Christian Broadcasting Network's 700 Club (Boston Globe January 22, 1998). Furthermore, at the end of the evening (22:33 PST), Drudge scooped the established media again when he identified the former White House intern as Monica Lewinsky:

The Drudge Report has learned that former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, 23, has been subpoenaed to give a deposition in the Paula Jones case.

On Tuesday, January 20th, the Manchester, New Hampshire, Union Leader, known as a "staunchly conservative" newspaper, featured the story in an editorial entitled, "Bimbo Eruption," which cited the Drudge Report for its "reliable sources in the Washington media" (Kalb 1998; Boston Globe January 22, 1998; alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater). But it just wasn't "staunchly conservative" newspapers that were paying attention to the alleged scandal. According to Kalb (1998) and Brill (1998), there now seemed to be a race among established news sources to get their versions of the sex scandal out in cyberspace, print, and on the airwaves as soon as possible. That morning both The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times published stories of a sex scandal on their Web sites, and later that day ABC News put the story on its Web site (Kalb 1998).

The next day, January 21st, both The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times made the sex scandal their feature stories of their printed editions. Both newspapers seemed to follow Matt Drudge's journalistic practice of using shadowy tipsters to make titilating accusations. First, the Post's story with the headline,"Clinton Accused of Urging Aide to Lie," used anonymous sources to suggest that there was unquestionable evidence that Clinton urged a witness to lie under oath:

Sources said [Linda] Tripp provided Starr with audiotapes of more than 10 conversations she had with Lewinsky over recent months in which Lewinsky graphically recounted details of a year-and-a-half-long affair she said she had with Clinton. In some of the conversations -- including one in recent days -- Lewinsky described Clinton and Jordan directing her to testify falsely in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case against the president, according to sources.

Second, the Los Angeles Times' story, "Starr Examines Clinton Link to Female Intern," relied on vaguely identified sources to report its grand allegation:

A panel of federal judges has authorized the Whitewater independent counsel to examine whether President Clinton encouraged a woman to testify falsely regarding the nature of their relationship, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday. ... Sources told the Washington Post that the associate [of Lewinsky's who was familiar with her during her tenure at the White House] provided Starr with audiotapes of more than 10 conversations she had with Lewinsky over recent months in which Lewinsky graphically recounted details of a 1.5 year-year affair she said she had with Clinton.

Not to be outdone, ABC Radio and ABC's Good Morning America reported the allegation of a sexual affair between the president and Lewinsky and cited "a source with a witness familiar in the matter," who alleged that "Lewinsky could be heard on tape claiming the president told her to deny an affair and that Vernon Jordan 'instructed her to lie'" (Project for Excellence in Journalism).

The first news reports on the scandal by The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and ABC were representative of the established media's early coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky story. Rumor, third-hand reports, and wild speculation were used to spin sensational stories more traditionally found in tabloid journalism, such as the Drudge Report (Lasica). However, there were some bright moments for the media, such as Michael Isikoff's January 21st article for Newsweek Interactive on AOL. Isikoff identified his sources as Kenneth "Starr's deputies" and Linda Tripp; furthermore, his report contradicted any story that suggested there was hard evidence that the president or Vernon Jordan had instructed Lewinsky to lie.

The Drudge Report continued to contribute to an evolving media frenzy, and on January 21, 1998, it scored its third scoop. That day it reported that there may exist physical evidence of a Clinton-Lewinsky sexual affair:

investigators have become convinced that there may be a DNA trail that could confirm President Clinton's sexual involvement with Lewinsky, a relationship that was captured in Lewinsky's own voice on an audiotape. Tripp has shared with investigators a conversation where Lewinsky allegedly confided that she kept a garment with Clinton's dried semen on it -- a garment she said she would never wash?

The same day, January 21st, a Newsweek special online report mentioned that Monica Lewinsky was heard to say on tape that the president had given her a dress. Newsweek's statement that the president gave Lewinsky a dress was mundane in comparison to Matt Drudge's story that there was presidential semen on an intern's dress. Drudge's story was an example of sensational journalism, and it got the attention of the established media so much so that in the days and weeks that followed, the established media was talking about and to Drudge as it produced a Clinton-Lewinsky blitzkrieg and made Drudge a celebrity and a new media power.[5]



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FOOTNOTES:
[1] Despite the Drudge Report's questionable record of presenting the news, it was considered, nonetheless, "something of a must-read" for many in the Washington press corps (Lasica 2000).
[2] Steven Brill is among many of those who suspect that it was Lucianne Goldberg who leaked the story to Matt Drudge.
[3] At that time there was a rumor that Vernon Jordan and/or President Clinton had asked Monica Lewinsky to lie to Kenneth Starr and his investigating team.
[4] According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism' s report, The Clinton/Lewinsky Story: How Accurate? How Fair?, Kenneth Starr was accused of using reporters to shape public opinion in the Lewinsky case by leaking prejudicial grand jury material. "The judge in charge of the Starr grand jury gave credence to those accusations by ordering Starr to show cause why he should not be held in contempt of court for leaks" (p. 6). By leaking information to the reporters, the media became actors in the stories they were reporting.
[5] The business departments of established media took notice. Drudge's style of reporting -- which used few facts, a lot of gossip, attitude, and innuendo -- was cheaper than traditional journalistic practices, such as investigative reporting and fact checking. Plus, his site regularly got a large number of hits, which suggested his style was entertaining as well. As corporate news departments have fallen to the pressures of the bottom line, there has been a tremendous rise in news as infotainment (Scott).