White House of Blues
USA
Today , the Washington Post , and the New York Times
all lead with the latest developments in the White House sex scandal. The
Los
Angeles Times goes another way, leading with the latest developments in
the White House money scandal (remember?).
The Lewinsky matter moved Thursday on several fronts, which get covered to
varying degrees. The USAT lead reports that while denying any
obstruction of justice, Jordan said that he kept Bill Clinton informed about
his efforts to land Monica Lewinsky a private-sector job. USAT also has
the Post traumatic distress syndrome of Robert Bennett, one of Clinton's
private lawyers, as well as word that Ginsburg and Starr squared off before a
federal judge, but in both regards it leaves important details out. You have to
read the Post to learn that Bennett not only viewed the WP
deposition leak as "reckless, reprehensible and unethical" but also that he
said, "We are going to seek relief in court on this...." (Apparently, Bennett
didn't elaborate and the Post wasn't about to--after all, it's the
WP 's source Bennett is talking about going after.) And to learn that the
point of the closed hearing was so Ginsburg could try to convince a judge to
make Starr abide by a preliminary agreement to extend immunity to Lewinsky in
return for her testimony.
Both the WP and NYT describe the wild scene outside the
courthouse, mobbed with press and topped off with anti-Clinton protestors
chanting, "Five-six-seven-eight! Married men don't date!"
The two papers also detail Clinton's hot reaction to Thursday's Post
scoop: "the court has made it absolutely clear it is illegal to leak and
discuss" his deposition. Both papers report that all players in the
controversy--including Ken Starr and Paula Jones' lawyers--deny leaking the
depo. Also, the LAT front reports that Clinton "sternly refused" to
explain Thursday why in his deposition, he said he warned Monica L. that she
was likely to be called in the Jones case.
The NYT lead plays catch-up on the depo story by pointing out that
the deposition's heavier than anticipated focus on Lewinsky makes sense of the
prior Times scoop about Betty Currie's testimony that, the day after,
Clinton went over with her the facts about his relationship with the intern.
The piece emphasizes how in the Clinton deposition account Currie is the
central figure, even to the point where it was her idea to get Monica a gift
when he went to Martha's Vineyard on vacation. The Times adds this
tidbit: Clinton said in his depo that previous accusations about drug dealing
and even murder had left him "paranoid."
The LAT lead is the news that California campaign donor Johnny Chung,
who once compared the White House to a subway, where you need coins to open the
doors, will plead guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud and election law violations
in an agreement with the DOJ under which he will cooperation with the
Department's fund-raising investigation. The paper also reports that another
big Clinton donor suspected of funneling foreign money to the Democratic Party,
Yogesh Gandhi, was arrested Thursday on unrelated fraud charges as he prepared
to leave the country. The WP and NYT run the Chung story on their
front pages.
The Wall Street Journal reports that military planners of
possible airstrikes against Iraq have become less confident of the U.S. ability
to bomb biological weapons sites in Iraq after a secret Air Force test in which
a special bomb that was expected to incinerate a stockpile of anthrax-like
germs instead spread them.
While all the dailies were going front-page earlier this week with the news
that hands-on basketballer Latrell Sprewell was being given his millions back,
there was virtually no newsplay of his most recent escapade. It seems that on
Monday, Sprewell was involved in a car accident that sent two other people to
the hospital. The California Highway Patrol says Sprewell's Mercedes was
traveling at "high speed" when it struck sand barrel obstacles, hit a wall and
then collided with another car. Witnesses said they'd seen Sprewell speeding.
Perhaps the Highway Patrol fears another arbitrator in the wings. It didn't
give Sprewell a ticket. All this information comes from the only press coverage
"Today's Papers" is aware of--a brief AP item on page 4 of Tuesday's LAT
sports section. You know, where everyone put the news that OJ had pleaded no
contest to beating his wife.
