The Media and the Clinton Scandal

Some key dates in a frenzy over presidential sex and lies:

July 4, 1997: The Drudge Report leaks word that Michael Isikoff of Newsweekis working on a story about President Clinton and Kathleen Willey, a former White House volunteer.

Jan. 17, 1998: The Drudge Report says that Newsweek has decided to hold the publication of a story on Clinton and Monica S. Lewinsky.

Jan. 21, 1998: Jackie Judd breaks the story of Lewinsky by reporting iton ABC’s radio network at 12:45 a.m. EDT. The same morning, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post report on Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s widening probe into allegations surrounding the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship.

Jan. 26, 1998: The Dallas Morning News publishes a story on its Web site andin the early edition of the next day’s paper saying a Secret Service agent had witnessed Clinton and Lewinsky in a “compromising situation” in the White House. The story is later pulled.

Feb. 1, 1998: William H. Ginsburg, Lewinsky’s lawyer at the time, appears on five Sunday TV talk shows in a row and predicts the whole controversy will blow over soon.

Feb. 4, 1998: The Wall Street Journal Web site posts a story saying a White House valet had testified that he observed Clinton and Lewinsky alone, in a study adjacent to the Oval Office. The paper later says the report was incorrect.

Feb. 18, 1998: According to a study of the major news media by the Committee of Concerned Journalists, 41% of the published and broadcast statements on Clinton/Lewinsky in the first six days of the story were not fact but “analysis, opinion, speculation or judgment”; an additional 33% were based either on anonymous sources or on what other news media said.

March 15, 1998: Willey in a nationally televised interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” contendsClinton hugged her tightly, kissed her on the mouth, fondled her breasts and placed her hand on his crotch.

Sept. 11, 1998: Congress releases the 445-page report from Starr on the House, the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office Web sites. Three publishers soon print the report in book form.

Oct. 4, 1998: Larry Flynt places an ad in the Washington Post, offering upto $1 million for “evidence of illicit sexual relations” with top federallawmakers. The cash-for-confessions scheme reportedly helps prompt House Speaker-elect Bob Livingston to admit to adultery and announce his resignation from Congress in December.

Nov. 16, 1998: ABC News says that Barbara Walters will soon conduct the first interview with Lewinsky, to air on the program “20/20.”

Jan. 6, 1999: A federal judge overseeing grand jury secrecy unseals court documents that show a court-appointed investigator is still probing 1998 news leaks in the case.

Sources: Los Angeles Times and wires

Compiled by Maloy Moore and Cary Schneider, Los Angeles Times Editorial Library