WASHINGTON, January 23: Just as long last Saturday was for United States President Bill Clinton, who endured six hours of grilling in the Paula Jones case, the day was even longer for the reporters and editors of Newsweek magazine.A year's worth of investigation by reporter Michael Isikoff had given Newsweek a story perhaps unrivaled since the watergate era: The President of the US allegedly had an affair with a White House intern, and then he and a top adviser allegedly encouraged her to lie to investigators about it.
Isikoff and others had heard a 90-minute tape seeming to confirm the story, one of 17 such tapes containing about 20 hours of conversations between intern Monica Lewinsky, and a confidant, her colleague Linda Tripp.
But as the minutes ticked off before Newsweek's Saturday night publication deadline, there were still lingering doubts.
Was the 24-year-old Lewinsky credible? Would publishing the story harm a criminal investigation of the President and his aide, VernonJordan, as Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr warned the magazine? Was there any more evidence that could make the story iron-clad, considering it could trigger the downfall of the President of the US?
In the end, Newsweek decided to wait for better information to make those judgments. It rolled its presses with a cover story about new brain science.
Above all, because Lewinsky's name had not surfaced (publicly), Newsweek's editors felt there was insufficient hard evidence to drag her into ``the media maelstrom,'' the magazine would later write.Then came Wednesday morning and a front-page story in Newsweek's sister publication, the Washington Post.
`Clinton accused of urging aide to lie,' blared the headline.
Within hours, Newsweek made the extraordinary decision to upstage itself: It posted a chronology of the alleged affair on its internet site. The magazine promised to follow-up with full details in its issue being published next week.
In the story posted on
the web, Newsweek says that it decided to forge ahead after obtaining the type of information it had so desperately sought as its deadline approached on Saturday.
It was a list of written talking points, allegedly given to Tripp by Lewinsky. Under the heading `Points to make in affidavit,' the document urges that the reader undercut the credibility of another woman who accused Clinton of making a pass at her. It also asks the reader to be a ``team player'' and submit an affidavit for review to ``Bennett's people,'' apparently a reference to Clinton's attorney Robert Bennett.
Clintons: A family wedded to controversies
The sordid new charges against President Bill Clinton are a distressing deja vu for his wife Hillary, who has had to stand by her man more than once amid humiliating reports of his sexual adventures.
The most memorable episode erupted at the height of the 1992 Presidential campaign when nightclub singer Geniffer Flowers announced she had a 12-year affair with Clinton.
Flowers' revelation was accompanied by embarrassing reports on everything from Clinton's performance in bed to his romantic feelings for her. Demonstrating their superior skills at damage control, the Clintons immediately appeared on prime time television to admit they had marital troubles -- like everyone else -- but that ultimately was their private business.
And Hillary refused to accept the role of victim. ``I'm not sitting here, some little woman standing by her man,'' she said. ``I'm sitting here because I love him and I respect him.'' But stand by Clinton she did, and she is doing it again now.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
