This week's gathering, sponsored by the Committee of Concerned Journalists, was a good example. The meeting was called to unveil the results of a study probing coverage of the President Clinton-Monica S. Lewinsky scandal. The study was based on an analysis of reporting by PBS, CNN, the three network news broadcasts, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today and Time and Newsweek magazines. The most damning accusation, however, was that the press may have lost its ethical moorings in a rush to report the story. There's so much more lying now.
People lie in a way they never did before. . . .
Clinton tells a lie clarifying his relationship with Gennifer Flowers to correct a lie. The playing field also has changed, Bradlee noted. Today's mainstream journalists are torn between the desire to keep unsubstantiated stories out of the news, and the pressure to beat or match breaking stories that filter into the media from new, nontraditional news sources, said Michael Oreskes, Washington bureau chief for the New York Times. You get beat some days. You win some days.