Not since Watergate, in my best recollection, has there been fighting among
a president and the reporters who cover him as there has been with President
Clinton. Instead of maintaining his public cool on Monday, Sept. 28, Clinton lost it
all. He went for broke by going for school boyish romps of sticking his
fingers in his ears, wagging his tongue in and out of his mouth, and making
funny faces at the reporter. Clinton was later captured on film shoving his
raised middle finger in the reporter's face.
Sure, reporters and politicians have adversarial roles. In all my years of
working for newspapers, however, I have never come close to this kind of
relationship with any source, even politicians I would refuse to drink with
because I lacked any respect for them as politicians. They attempt to sway
you with the offer of telling "secrets of what's going on inside city council right now," for example. The information they offered was easier to
get for me than having a drink with a person I could not respect. Besides,
why would I trust what they told me?
The reporter at the center of this controversy is Paul Sperry, who dared
quiz Clinton during a press and press-family picnic on the White House's
South Lawn. Sperry is the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for Investor's
Business Daily.
As Clinton approached Sperry and began to shake hands, the following exchange, lasting about ten minutes, evidently took place, according to
various transcripts and reports on several newsgroups and websites.
The exchange between the two began rather innocently.
"When are you going to have your next formal press conference, Mr.
President?" Sperry casually asked Clinton while he was shaking hands and
socializing with reporters and their families.
Clinton: "I don't know. I'll have one."
Sperry: "When?"
The president replied, "Why?"
Sperry: "The American people have a lot of unanswered questions."
Clinton: "Like what!"
Sperry: "Questions about illegal money from China and the campaign-finance
scandal."
Clinton started to become unglued at this point.
"Who are you with?" Clinton demanded to know. "I don't like your accusatory
tone. It sounds like you've already got the story written."
Sperry gave the president his business card and said that the public wanted
answers about the allegations of illegal contributions from China.
Clinton: "I've been all around this country, and you are the first person to
ask me about it. Not one person has brought that up.... You want to know the
only person who has been linked to money from China? Haley Barbour and the
RNC, that's who!"
A red-faced Clinton then began ranting about Waco, Republicans, the FBI, and
gun control.
What happened next is something I haven't heard about since the 1970s when
The Washington Post was banned from covering the Nixon White House because
of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's coverage of Watergate.
"Make sure that guy never gets close to me again!" Clinton ordered one of
his aides after the showdown.
White House press secretary Joe Lockhart classified Sperry a "Class A
sh*thead" to an associate Monday, told Sperry during a Monday night
telephone conversation he would never be invited back to the White House.
"The only regret we have is inviting you -- and we won't make that mistake
again," Lockhart warned Sperry.
|
"Clinton
to reporter: Smile for the Birdie"
