Editorial Cartoon

EDITORIAL BOARD

John Harp                Ed De La Garza 
Michelle Norton     Jim Parsons 
 

Meet the press

White House aide Sidney Blumenthal, recently deposed in the Senate impeachment trial, has been exposed as the source of negative comments concerning Monica Lewinsky.

Christopher Hitchens, a freelance columnist, filed an affidavit Saturday describing a March 19 lunch with Blumenthal in which Blumenthal referred to Lewinsky as a stalker on numerous occasions, going so far as to label President Clinton the "victim."

Moreover, Hitchens' affidavit said Blumenthal had made the same comments to other members of the journalistic community. That information contradicts Blumenthal's sworn deposition to Senate and House managers -- meaning that Blumenthal lied.

That's not surprising, considering the Clinton scandal's track record. The president lied. Lewinsky lied. Vernon Jordan lied. Everybody lied.

What is surprising is that no one pointed out this information about Blumenthal before, particularly if Hitchens' statement that Blumenthal told the same story to other journalists is accurate.

While Blumenthal was being deposed, reporters stood around outside the Capitol suggesting that some people thought White House staff -- like Blumenthal -- had been the source of Clinton-generated derogatory comments about Lewinsky.

Some would say what Hitchens did was wrong because he exposed Blumenthal as a source, something that good and trustworthy journalists should not do. They invoke the phrase often used in conjunction with investigative types like Woodward and Bernstein: "I'll go to jail before I give up my source."

That's fine. It is the right attitude for journalists to take -- when their sources are confidential and when their sources are not lying to the Senate.

But in this case, it seems the members of the press are the only ones who can clear the air. If it is true that Blumenthal gave various journalists derogatory statements about Lewinsky and then lied about having done so, the journalists -- like Hitchens -- should not be afraid to say so.

After all, it is impossible to fairly report any story and withhold important information at the same time. Unfortunately, one can't help but wonder -- if what Hitchens says is true -- how much more information is being suppressed by journalists whose job it is to see to it that all the facts are reported.