Sex and the Media: It’s Mea Culpa Time

For the media, the dismissal of Paula Jones' case against the President means the untimely death of a story that had a good two months left to run. And already, this has prompted another round of soul-searching over the quality of the nation's sex-scandal coverage. Delegates at the 75th annual convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors seemed to spend Wednesday vying with each other to hand out the worst grade for the media’s handling of l’affaire Lewinsky. “A barely passing C minus,” said Leonard Downie Jr., executive editor of the Washington Post. A failing F, countered University of Virginia press-watcher Larry Sabato. And Jonathan Wolman of the Associated Press gave the media an X -- as in X-rated.

Moving into full self-loathing mode, many journalists offered confessionals. “I have an uneasy feeling about how far we’ve gone,” said Downie -- who will no doubt be grateful that his long, dark Paula Jones journey has been brought to a halt. But as long as Ken Starr’s Lewinsky probe continues, there’s always a little further to go.