Digby's Hullabaloo

DC Confidential

by digby

HOWIE KURTZ: Well, just when it appeared that the Clinton story might finally be dying down after the former president’s unprecedented appearance on the cover of “Time” and “Newsweek”, a new pardon controversy erupted. This one courtesy of “The National Enquirer”… getting the scoop just weeks after rocking the establishment press by breaking the story of what it called Jesse Jackson’s love child.

[…]

KURTZ: Well, joining us now from Florida is Steve Coz, Editor- in-Chief of “The National Enquirer”. And here in Washington, Michael Isikoff, investigative reporter for “Newsweek” magazine and author of “Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter’s Story”. Steve Coz, first the Jesse Jackson scoop. Now the Hugh Rodham story. Is the “Enquirer” becoming, forgive me, a more serious newspaper? Or has the establishment press gotten a bit slow? STEVE COZ, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER: I think it’s a combination of both. We’ve obviously changed our focus a bit. We are heading more into politics. At the same time, when we were chasing down the pardon story that we ran, we didn’t come across any other news organization out there beating the same trail. We were surprised.[…]
BERNARD KALB, CO-HOST: Mike, investigative journalism of this sort is your field. Now, this is one that somehow got past you. MICHAEL ISIKOFF, INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT, NEWSWEEK: Well, we try to catch as many as we can, but we miss quite a few. Look, it was a slam-dunk story. They had the wire transfer. If Steve says he got it without paying money for it, you know, my hat off to him. My hat off to him anyway, because the story held up and it’s solid and it’s something that, you know, any mainstream news organization, from “The New York Times” to “The Washington Post” to “Newsweek” to CNN, would have gone with in a minute once they had the facts.[…]

KALB: What was appealing, just follow-up, what was appealing? The potential for a journalistic scandal or, as you suggested before, there’s a kind of convergence? You’re walking in the direction of mainstream journalism now.COZ: Yeah, we’re walking in the direction of mainstream journalism in that mainstream journalism spends a lot of time and energy covering Washington. And between that and Bill Clinton, Washington politicians are now celebrities. Bill Clinton is heads- and-shoulders, you know, the largest celebrity in Washington, despite being the ex-president. He’s achieved a Hollywood status, as have other politicians in Washington. They’ve become familiar to the population. They want to know about them and it sells “Enquirers”.

Yes, once upon a time, not all that long ago, the Enquirer was being applauded by all the insiders for its investigative journalism even establishment “media critics.” But times seemed to have have changed since those halcyon days. For some reason, nobody’s following the ongoing tabloid saga of George and Laura, which has been glaring at everybody in the nation’s grocery store lines for months. I wonder why not? Are they suddenly not credible anymore? Even as the story is breaking into the more establishment entertainment sites?

Inquiring minds want to know.

*Needless to say, I am not seriously endorsing the Enquirer tabloid style. I merely point this out to remind everyone of the reprehensible performance of the media during the Clinton years and recommend that you fasten your seatbelts — the Modo column this week-end shows which way the wind is blowing.

The good news is that while the public does seem to enjoy this crap, they don’t take it very seriously — at least if Clinton’s poll ratings were any guide. So, this may just be the price the Democrats have to pay for the privilege of cleaning up after the GOP time and time again.