United States History - 20th Century - General & Miscellaneous, Journalism, U.S. Politics in the Post Cold-War Era, United States History - 20th Century - 1945 to 2000, Public Opinion, Media & Communications, Politics & Government - General & Miscellaneou

One Scandalous Story

Name: One Scandalous Story
Author: Marvin Kalb
ISBN: 9780684859392

by Marvin Kalb

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Overview

In 1963 Marvin Kalb observed the Secret Service escorting an attractive woman into a hotel for what was most likely a rendezvous with President Kennedy. Kalb, then a news correspondent for CBS, didn't consider the incident newsworthy. Thirty-five years later, Kalb watched in dismay as the press dove headfirst into the scandal of President Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, disclosing every prurient detail. How and why had the journalistic landscape shifted so dramatically?

One Scandalous Story seeks to answer this critical question through the inside story of thirteen days -- January 13-25, 1998 -- that make up a vital chapter in the history of American journalism. In riveting detail, Kalb examines just how the media covered the Lewinsky scandal, offering what he calls an "X-ray of the Washington press corps." Drawing on hundreds of original interviews, Kalb allows us to eavesdrop on the incestuous deals between reporters and sources, the bitter disagreements among editors, the machination of moguls for whom news is Big Business, and above all, the frantic maneuvering to break the story. With fresh insight, he retraces decisions made by Michael Isikoff of Newsweek, Internet renegade Matt Drudge, Jackie Judd of ABC, Clinton-basher Lucianne Goldberg, Susan Schmidt of The Washington Post, Jackie Bennett of the Office of the Independent Counsel, and other key players in this scandal that veered from low comedy to high drama.

Through the lens of those thirteen turbulent days, Kalb offers us a portrait of the "new news" in all its contradictions. He reveals how intense economic pressures in the news business, the ascendancy of the Internet, the blurring of roles between reporters and commentators, and a surge of dubious sourcing and "copy-cat journalism" have combined to make tabloid-style journalism increasingly mainstream. But are we condemned to a resurgence of "yellow journalism"? Painstakingly documented and sobering in its conclusions, One Scandalous Story issues a clarion call to newsmakers and the American public alike: "Journalism can change for the better -- and must."

About the Author, Marvin Kalb

Marvin Kalb has enjoyed an illustrious forty-year career as a journalist and professor. His numerous awards and honors include two Peabody Prizes, six Overseas Press Club awards, and the Edward R. Murrow Award. He is currently the executive director of the Washington office of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy. He lives with his wife in Chevy Chase, Maryland. This is his tenth book.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Veteran journalist Marvin Kalb strongly takes his peers to task for their often-misguided coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal's first 13 days, meticulously detailing the questionable methods and ethical decisions made in the nation's newsrooms.

Kalb lists some major changes in the industry as key factors in the deterioration of newsroom ethics. A major one is the recent proliferation of round-the-clock "news" channels such as MSNBC, Fox News, and CNBC; their constant need for compelling stories often means that countless hours of programming are devoted to various talking heads sharing theories and speculations. In addition, the Internet -- and its many "news" sites such as The Drudge Report -- has its own unquenchable thirst for breaking news.

Another factor, Kalb relates, is the lapsing of time-honored journalistic standards. The general rule used to be that no story would be published without the existence of two solid sources. But the increased competition during the Lewinsky scandal often led to news outlets merely parroting what other outlets were reporting, leaving them unaware of the legitimacy of the story's original sources. This led to dubiously sourced stories spreading like wildfire, as stories are rushed into print merely to keep up with the competition.

Kalb also cites the ever-increasing consolidation of the news industry, leading to increased scrutiny of news budgets and a greater emphasis on corporate profits -- at the expense of standards. One Scandalous Story represents an urgent plea for, as he puts it, "a few good men and women" to rise up within the industry, reject the "rush to judgment" mentality, and reclaim the standards of excellence journalists once staunchly followed. (Nicholas Sinisi)

Nicholas Sinisi is the Barnes&Noble.com Nonfiction Editor.

Publishers Weekly

Kalb is mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore. A distinguished TV journalist for 30 years and now director of the Washington office of Harvard's Shorestein Center on Press, Politics, and Public Policy Kalb (The Nixon Memo; etc.) decries the decline in standards he now finds in a profession he loves. He presents a detailed account of how journalism debased itself with a feeding frenzy in 1998, when l'affaire Lewinsky first broke. Television and newspapers' new motto became "All Monica, All the Time." Few reporters, however, really knew much about the story, and they were all too willing, according to Kalb, to report gossip as news, innuendo as fact, without finding reliable sources. Reporters even became sources in a "prairie fire of copycat journalism." A rumor would appear on the Internet, particularly the Drudge Report, and be picked up by a TV reporter, who would in turn be used as a source by a print journalist. So, whether eventually substantiated or not, stories of a stained blue dress or a witness to a Clinton-Lewinsky tryst, or allegations the President told Lewinsky to lie were all fed into the sordid national discourse. The problem, Kalb finds, is that the corporate concentration of ownership of news pushes the bottom line above all else. And with the proliferation of news outlets, especially in cable TV, reporters must titillate rather than teach in order to compete, to draw in viewers. Kalb's report on reporting is an engrossing and disturbing story of what happens when integrity gives way to expediency. (Oct.) Forecast: Hopefully, the news media won't be so stung by Kalb's sharp criticism that they ignore it and media attention should help this important studysell well. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Veteran reporter-turned-Harvard professor Kalb (The Nixon Memo) knows the business of journalism inside out. In this examination of how journalists, print and electronic, covered the 13 days surrounding the Clinton-Lewinsky sex scandal of 1998, he finds many reasons to fault his media colleagues. Kalb demonstrates how journalistic standards have changed for the worse since the Watergate era, arguing that coverage of the scandal did not on its own "smash the standards of American journalism. It merely accelerated a disturbing trend that had been apparent for several decades." He further argues that two forces have led to the decline of media standards: the explosion of new technologies and "the radical change in the economic ownership and management of a deregulated business." These changes, he says, "have transformed the news business from one tied to public trust to one linked to titillation and profit." This elegant and insightful work represents fine scholarship put to the use of public service. It is an important and disturbing book. Michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A veteran journalist examines the behavior of the press during the initial days of the Lewinsky scandal-and finds much to condemn. Kalb (Washington Exec. Dir./Harvard's Shorenstein Center; The Nixon Memo, 1994) has the credentials to command attention: 30 years as a respected TV newsman and now a worried citizen who holds to the fire the feet of his former colleagues. Accompanying this latest work is the powerful smell of much roasted flesh. Kalb begins with a confession: he once saw the Secret Service whisking a beautiful young woman up to the president's suite in a New York hotel. Of course, it was 1963, and the president was JFK. Kalb says it never crossed his mind to report the incident. Much, he notes, has changed. After exploring the genesis of the scandal (Whitewater), he zeroes in on 13 days: Jan. 13-25, 1998. He tells what stories the major newspapers ran; he summarizes the news hours and talk shows. And, one by one, he drags the principals under the unforgiving lens of his moral microscope: Michael Isikoff, Matt Drudge (for whom Kalb expresses much disdain), Rush Limbaugh, Lucianne Goldberg (the Clinton-hater who "danced a jig of joy in her New York apartment" when the story broke), Linda Tripp, the Starr prosecutors (some of whom were leaking like ill-tied water balloons), William Ginsburg, and even media notables like Tim Russert and Ted Koppel (whose Nightline was the first to discuss the oral-sex issue). Kalb is not so much interested in what happened as in how it was reported, and he sees disturbing tendencies: going with stories merely because they are "out there"; rushing to judgment; blurring the lines between journalism and politics; and eschewingthe two-source tradition. His conclusion about the scandal: "It stained the presidency, tarnished the reputation of the press, and cast a long shadow over the entire country." Stinging often lyrical, Kalb excoriates those who have diminished the profession he loves.