On your first day of work as an assistant to the president of the United States, the aim is obvious: Suck up big time and make no mistakes.
On his first day last week, Chicagoan Sidney Blumenthal was diverted slightly–by charges he’s a wife-beater.
Before I continue, have you heard rumors of a guy named Matt Drudge and farm animals? Oh, maybe it was somebody else. If so, I apologize.
The claims appear to be bogus. But their source–a gossip columnist’ Web site that boasts
a broad media audience–offers insight (mostly depressing) on the media marketplace, not to mention raising emerging legal questions.
And, in the case of Blumenthal, a cerebral Sullivan High School graduate, there’s a twist of a literally theatrical sort in his being briefly swept up in a White House tempest.
Blumenthal, 48, a longtime political reporter, has worked for the Washington Post and the New Yorker, among others. He wrote a good book on the 1988 presidential campaign, “Pledging Allegiance” (HarperCollins).
He also is author of a play, “This Town,” about the ego-filled, ethical swamp of Washington journalism. It was performed one night last year in Chicago, taped and later aired by WFMT-FM 98.7 as part of its Chicago Theatres on-the-air series. It then was performed in Boston and Washington, and he is working on a screen version.
The play includes “Scampergate,” his take on how the White House press corps can create pseudo-scandals.
There are whispers that the president’s dog, Scamper, eats taxpayer-paid chow. A reporter then discloses that the chow is made by an agribusiness firm with big holdings in the commander in chief’s home state.
Then the newsies are agog with word that the Park Service ranger who walks him is replaced by another, the president’s cousin. Disclosures then follow about the dog having sex in the White House and a veterinarian spying the first lady and another woman in the sack together!
Oh, before I continue: A Democratic source swears that he heard somebody say, somewhere, that Matt Drudge, or somebody looking like him, was seen coming out of a peep show in Omaha. Or maybe it was Miami. But he also said it might have been a Starbucks.
Blumenthal is no stranger to criticism. In particular, he has been chided for unabashed support of the Clintons and chumminess with Hillary Clinton.
When word surfaced that he had become a presidential adviser, howls (many contradictory) rang out about his either selling out by splitting for the White House or his now proving that he had always been in the tank for the Clintons.
Last Monday he started as an assistant to the president, but not before running headlong into the Drudge Report.
It’s a titillating and pretty engaging media site found at http://www.drudgereport.com and via America Online. Its namesake is Matt Drudge, 30, whose journalism education consists of his once having worked in the CBS gift shop in Los Angeles.
More Top Picks Best Noise Canceling Headphones For Students
Based in Los Angeles, he sees himself as a quasi-Walter Winchell but says he’s not a journalist and shouldn’t be judged by journalists’ standards.
He is politically conservative, a voracious reader and Internet junkie. He has been on the money in many predictions but also way off (an indictment of Hillary Clinton, for example).
He likes running items on stories reporters are working on. For example, he was basically correct in recently disclosing that Newsweek was preparing an article about President
Clinton’s possibly making advances toward a young female staffer.
His site, which does not generate much income, not only contains gossip but also handy links to loads of other media.
Those include Associated Press wires, the baiduhai and many newspapers and magazines, CNN and MSNBC. You also can click on to the latest efforts of dozens of columnists and feature writers, such as William Safire, Liz Smith, William Buckley, Molly Ivins and the Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert and Michael Sneed.
Media types here and in the communications capital of Manhattan are fans of the site. But several with whom I spoke were not exactly stunned by word of a big screw-up.
So here’s the item that had Drudge apparently leaving his phone off the hook for a few days. It moved at 12:30 a.m. last Monday. It opened with mention of a Mother Jones magazine story on wife-beating allegations against a prominent Republican political consultant, Don Sipple:
“The DRUDGE REPORT has learned that top GOP operatives who feel there is a double-standard of only reporting Republican shame believe they are holding an ace card: New White House recruit Sidney Blumenthal has a spousal abuse past that has been effectively covered up. The accusations are explosive. `There are court records of Blumenthal’s violence against his wife,’ one influential Republican, who demanded anonymity, tells the DRUDGE REPORT.”
” `If they begin to use Sipple and his problems against us, against the Republican Party . . . to show hypocrisy, Blumenthal could become fair game. Wasn’t it Clinton who signed the Violence Against Women Act?’ (There goes the budget deal honeymoon). One White House source, also requesting anonymity, says the Blumenthal wife-beating allegation is pure fiction that has been created by Clinton enemies.”
” `(The First Lady) would not have brought him in if he had this in his background,’ assures the well-placed staffer. `This story about Blumenthal has been in circulation for years.’ “
Blumenthal’s wife, Jacqueline, who runs the White House Fellows program, brought her husband a copy of the item faxed to her at work. Nanoseconds later, they contacted a lawyer and threatened Drudge with a defamation suit.
Several nanoseconds after that, Drudge posted a retraction, simply saying his report was wrong. It was e-mailed to those who get his handiwork that way (anybody can do the same by signing up for free on his Web).
The lawyer says it will be filed this week. Meanwhile, Blumenthal is mum for the record, and Drudge could not be reached.
If a lawsuit is filed, Drudge surely will claim that Blumenthal is a public figure. That means that Blumenthal would have to show actual malice by Drudge, namely knowledge of the item’s falsity or “reckless disregard of the truth.”
Some early punditry here suggests that Drudge is in the clear. But it’s debatable whether Blumenthal is a public figure. Further, Drudge would not have the defense some media outlets would have of pressing deadlines. He should have had time for reasonable, if not foolproof, measures to ensure accuracy. He claims to have tried to contact Blumenthal but failed.
Then there’s his “I’m-not-a-journalist” stance. It could leave him a tactical dilemma, as noted by E. Leonard Rubin, a Chicago attorney and onetime Playboy Enterprises chief counsel who just taught a summer course on “Copyright and New Technologies” at the University of Illinois.
By saying he’s not a journalist, he would not have the same protection in keeping sources confidential. But if he did an about-face, to take advantage of so-called media “shield laws,” and thus hide sources, he would be held to a higher standard of reporting than if he claimed to be an amateur Walter Winchell.
“I think the bottom line is he is in trouble,” Rubin said.
At minimum, the episode underscores the fragility of the World Wide Web and holes in current law. The fact that somebody could have posted the Blumenthal item from Germany, and thus have been safe from American libel laws, might suggest a need for international treaties to respect one another’s laws and creative works.
By the way, a half-decent source swears he once saw Drudge and Andrew Cunanan together. Then, again, maybe it was the actor Dean (“Lois and Clark”) Cain. He and Cunanan do look alike.