(Clips of newscasts breaking the story:)
Shipman: “Our stomachs lurched as the bottom dropped out of our national political life.”
Lockhart: “The media frenzy that resulted from the first day of reporting I'm not sure we'll ever see again.”
Vlasto: “I remember looking at, when Ken Starr came out and there's hundreds of camera crews around him, it was exceptional. You become a bit afraid at how large it became and, you know, you wanted to make sure you were right.”
Davis: “Everybody recognized what was at stake here could be the presidency itself.”
ABC reporter Jackie Judd: “I have to say when I first heard the words 'resignation' and 'impeachment' uttered, so soon after the story was breaking, it set me back.”
Shipman: “Over the next days, weeks and months, we all learned the intimate details of the sexual relationship between the President and Monica Lewinsky. The ties she gave him that he publicly displayed, the blue dress she wore and memorably saved, all culminated in the infamous Starr Report. The images of a husband, a father, a family struggling to cope with a personal crisis were shared with the entire country.”
Beschloss: “It's really going to rest on history whether the way that unfolded was the right way for our democracy.”
Shipman: “Five years is hardly enough time to judge the long-term effect of the scandal. It may be, especially in this newly-sobered world, that the Lewinsky episode, as riveting as it seemed at the time, will have little lasting impact, will be little more than a memorable footnote in our political life. We do know this much so far: the Democrats lost the White House; the Independent Counsel Act doesn't exist anymore, a move supported by Ken Starr; Monica Lewinsky has had a handbag line, an HBO special, and I almost forgot, she's now planning to go to law school.”
Shipman told Sawyer: “I think Monica Lewinsky going to law school is an appropriate postscript to the story, but Diane, it's interesting because one other thing we do know, so many of the even peripheral players in this, unlike other important moments in history, they just, they don't want to talk about it anymore. They really just seem to want to move on.”
Sawyer: “And don't we all, in a way. We mark this anniversary with a thank heaven it's over.”
Shipman: “Indeed.”
Sawyer: “Thanks to you, Claire.”
(This article courtesy of the Media Research Center.)
by Brent Baker
Marking the five year anniversary of when the Monica Lewinsky story broke, on Thursday's Good Morning America Claire Shipman recalled how the revelation interrupted great hopes as it came when “the White House was busy building a bridge to the 21st century.” She portrayed Bill Clinton as the victim as she bemoaned how “the images of a husband, a father, a family struggling to cope with a personal crisis were shared with the entire country.”
She suggested it all didn't mean very much: “It may be, especially in this newly-sobered world, that the Lewinsky episode, as riveting as it seemed at the time, will have little lasting impact, will be little more than a memorable footnote in our political life.”
Shipman also marveled at how though Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky “spent only ten hours together,” it “almost brought down a President.”
By that reasoning you could lament how a ten-minute Oval Office conversation about breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee did bring down a President, but I don't recall any reporters regretting how such a brief conversation led to Nixon's downfall.
But the Washington press corps had to be dragged into the Lewinsky matter as they initially resisted the story and then spent a great deal of time trying to discredit and undermine the law enforcer, Ken Starr. Indeed, Shipman recalled how a “colleague” told her when reminded of the anniversary: “It's like a bad acid flashback, I can't take it!”
Nice to know that one of Shipman's press corps colleagues knows all about bad acid trips. That explains a lot of very discombobulated journalism.
Diane Sawyer introduced the January 16 segment:
“We're going to begin, though, with the dubious anniversary that takes place today, the intern who nearly ended a presidency. Senior National Correspondent Claire Shipman is joining us now. Claire.”
Shipman: “Can you believe it's been five years, Diane? It's funny, talking with one of my colleagues the other day, looking at those pictures, he said, [gasping] 'It's like a bad acid flashback, I can't take it!' I remember just-”
Sawyer wondered: “What kind of colleagues do you have?”
Shipman, not seeming to get Diane's reaction: “I know, exactly. But you felt queasy every day going to work, and I remember when that scandal broke, I don't think any of us knew how it was going to play out.
Over clips from the Monica era: “Sex, lies and impeachment. Looking back after five years, what do you really remember? Do you know what really happened? Would you be surprised to hear that Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, when all was said and done, spent only ten hours together? Yet, it almost brought down a President.”
Lanny Davis: “I've been in the middle of a few frenzies, but compared to this, it was the difference between a bomb and a nuclear bomb.”
Clinton: “I want you to listen to me, I'm going to say this again.”
Shipman: “The public felt angry and betrayed.”
Michael Beschloss: “It was an ugly year, it was a brutal year. People were vicious to one another.”
Chris Vlasto, ABC News producer: “Every player involved was attacked, and I don't think anyone came out unscathed.”
Shipman: “The start of 1998, an unusually calm Washington. Earlier Clinton scandals seemed under control. The White House was busy building a bridge to the 21st century. Behind the scenes, investigators were swarming. The Independent Counsel's office, looking into the Whitewater scandal, was given permission to extend its reach into another Clinton scandal: the Paula Jones case. January 17th, 1998, as the President set out that morning, he could not have known that the day's events would change forever the legacy he was busy planning.”
Clip from Paula Jones deposition: “At any time, were you and Monica Lewinsky alone?”
Shipman: “A surprise question as he testified behind closed doors in the Paula Jones case, and Clinton denied that he'd had an affair with a 24-year-old former White House intern.”
Vlasto: “I had the opportunity to go have dinner with the Paula Jones lawyers after Clinton's testimony. They bought bottles of champagne and were toasting, and it was then that I knew something serious had occurred inside that deposition.”
Shipman: “The real opening act in the Lewinsky scandal came four days later for most of us.”
Joe Lockhart: “I slept in for the first time since I'd been at the White House, and at about 9 o'clock in the morning called in and said the dumbest thing in the history of presidential politics: Is there anything goin' on?”
