MediaWatch: September 21, 1998
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: September 21, 1998
- Saving the Sex Talk For Our Sitcoms
- NewsBites
- Admired For Her Faithful, Loving Lies?
- "Remarkable" Calculated Confession
- Clinton's Lawyers Lashed
"Remarkable" Calculated Confession
Hours before the Starr report’s release on September 11, the networks were awed by Bill Clinton’s latest confession in front of a prayer breakfast. The awe wasn’t tempered by the possibility it was another calculated maneuver forced by events rather than genuine repentance, or the subsequent all-fronts attack by Clinton’s lawyers on the Starr report.
In live CBS coverage that morning, Dan Rather insisted: "The President of United States has given a solemn apology." That night he declared: "At an extraordinary White House prayer breakfast this morning, the President went beyond his recent round of apologies. He went to acknowledging sin and expressing remorse and repentance." CBS then aired a (for network TV, incredibly long) 90-second clip from the address.
On ABC in the morning, Peter Jennings lauded his courage: "A unique circumstance to see the most powerful man in the world saying what he did before all of us." Cokie Roberts chimed in: "Quite an extraordinary speech."
Tom Brokaw asked Tim Russert during live NBC coverage: "I don’t think anybody will say, except perhaps the most partisan adversary of the President, that what he had to say was too little. The question is was it too late Tim?" An impressed Russert replied: "Tom, it’s ironic. On August 17th the President was given a draft saying many of the things he said today. And he rejected it three weeks ago because he did not want to be perceived as quote, ‘weak.’ Today the President of the United States, the leader of the free world stood up in front of everyone and said, ‘I have sinned. I have a broken spirit.’ It was remarkable." Brokaw echoed Russert in asking David Bloom: "David, the White House staff have any sense the President was going to make this remarkable confession to the country today?" Later, MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing also called it "an extraordinary speech."
On CNN, reporter Wolf Blitzer told viewers: "It was the most dramatic, the most emotional, the most poignant speech he gave on this subject." Blitzer noted "many of his closest advisers" said Clinton "was about to speak from his heart this morning." Blitzer agreed, describing it as "a poignant statement by the President begging the country for forgiveness, saying he is going to do his best never again to sin, as he now says he clearly did sin."
