The senator and the Times

John McCain and a short, seamy history of presidential sex

In flagrante delicto

• Estes Kefauver drunkenly demanded liquor and women

• The press corps looked the other way

A cultural shift

• Media didn’t ask, didn’t tell about JFK

• Revelations about Judith Exner (right) presaged a shift

• Vietnam and Watergate made press more skeptical

Gary Hart

• Leading candidate for Democratic nomination in 1988

• Affair with Donna Rice exposed by Miami Herald

• Hart dropped out, public angry with media

Gennifer Flowers• Lounge singer takes

on the gatekeepers and wins

• Sells her story to The Star, holds news conference

• Mainstream media forced to report a story they had ignored

Meet the press

• On “60 Minutes,” Bill Clinton admits having “caused pain in my marriage”

• Public shrugs it off

When is sex newsworthy?

• Washington Post, Time killed story of Dole affair

• An American hero who was going to lose anyway

• Is that an acceptable standard?

The gates fall for good

• Prosecutor Ken Starr sought to trap Clinton on perjury charges

• Starr found reporters to be a willing audience

• Then as now, highly partisan environment

Overruling the editors

• Newsweek holds story of Clinton-Lewinsky affair

• Were the editors seeking to verify it — or kill it?

• We’ll never know, because Matt Drudge broke the story

Media, politicians rebuked

• Clinton’s approval rating rose to highest of his presidency

• Republicans defeated in midterm elections

A non-sex non-story

• Drudge alleges a Kerry affair

• U.S. media are wary, ignoring story or reporting denials

• Gatekeeping role is damaged but not destroyed

Bill Keller

• “We believe in a journalism of verification rather than assertion”

Bill Keller

• “We believe in a journalism of verification rather than assertion”

• Did the Times live up to that standard?

Anonymous sources

• “The use of unidentified sources is reserved for situations in which the newspaper could not otherwise print information it considers reliable and newsworthy”

— New York Times policyon confidential sources

Anonymous sources

• “Confidential sources must have direct knowledge of the information they are giving us — or they must be the authorized representatives of an authority, known to us, who has such knowledge”

— New York Times policyon confidential sources

Anonymous sources

• “We do not grant anonymity to people who are engaged in speculation, unless the very act of speculating is newsworthy and can be clearly labeled for what it is”

— New York Times policyon confidential sources

Additional questions

• Is John McCain’s sex life the media’s business — and ours?

Additional questions

• What do you make of the Times’ decision to hold the story since December?

Additional questions

• Do you think the Washington Post story is better than the Times’? Why?