The only upside to the scandal

White House aides always complain how hard it is to “get the messageout,” and though they bristle at the media hysteria over Monica Lewinsky some see an ironic upside. “Whenever a speech by the President on a substantive issue can be heard, that’s a good thing, even if it’s being covered for the wrong reasons,” said spokesman Barry Toiv.

Some news anchors have even accused the White House of cynically turning the phenomenon to its advantage. CNN went live with a Clinton fund-raising speech in a Florida campaign after aides signaled he would use it to deliver a long-awaited apology. But when Clinton went on at length about the candidate, the CNN show host broke in promising to return to the address when and if Clinton mentioned Lewinsky.

“Some editor presumably recognised that this is essentially an unpaid ad opportunity and they should really give equal time to the opponent,” said Kathleen Hall Jameison, dean of the Annendale School of Communications.

Similarly, when Clinton made an unscheduled appearance on the White House lawn to announce the Northwest Airlinesettlement, a news anchor complained he had been conned into carrying it live as breaking news thinking it would be another Monica mea culpa.

“I remember when the settlement of a major airline was news,” Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz said in an interview. “The fact is the press is still treating most substantive pronouncements by the President as a sideshow or diversion,” he said, noting that the scandal gets mentioned, no matter what Clinton says.

Many Americans complain reporters are obsessed with sex and obliterate other issues with the Lewinsky affair, and Jameison warned the distraction could do real damage.

On Monday, Clinton made an unusually strong pitch on economic policy but it did not make the headlines the way the sex scandal did. “One could argue that we have Russia in a free fall, the whole of Asia in serious economic trouble and the US, with its stock market volatility, should be in a position of concern at the least and at the most in a position of internationalleadership,” Jameison said. “When the President can’t command the centre of the nation’s newspapers when he makes an economic speech about what we ought to be doing, that probably is at a cost to him and his ability to lead,” she added.

On Wednesday, reporters got another shot at airing the country’s dirty laundry when Clinton held another conference with Czech President Vaclav Havel. Clinton, however, sidestepped a query on whether he might consider resigning because of a sex-and-lies scandal and said the people wanted him to “keep doing my job”.

“I am working on what I should be working on,” Clinton told the news conference. “Now that they know what happened, they want to go on and want me to go on and do my job,” he said, referring to the American people. Polls show most Americans don’t want Clinton forced out of office.

He declined to comment specifically on the now-published account of his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Clinton also avoided directly answering a question regarding whatcircumstances might prompt him to resign. “I am seized on two things. I am trying to do the still quite painful work that I need to do with my family in our own life, and I’m determined to lead this country and to focus on the issues that are before us,” Clinton said. “There’s no option,” he added.