European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 20, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                J Friday May 20, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17 we Sydney h. Schanberg How far exactly is the mainstream press going to go in the sex detection business judging from the Road we be been on since the Gary Hart Case in 1987, the answer probably is As far As we can travel through the muck. The latest Case we Are told is different because its not about presidential candidates fooling around outside their marriages but about a charge of sexual harassment by a government employee. Whether its different a that is whether Job harassment was involved a will be decided in a Federal court because Paula Corbin Jones a former clerk at the Arkansas Industrial development commission filed a $700,000 civil lawsuit May 6 in the . District court in Little Rock. The suit in explicit language says that in 1991 president Clinton then the Arkansas governor had a bodyguard bring Jones to his hotel room at a conference where she was working and he was a speaker. She says that he then made sexual advances and that she rebuffed them. For rejecting him she says she was later punished on the Job by her superiors. Now that its in a Public forum the press will say its a Story that has to be covered and therefore there a no need for a conscience squirming debate about the acceptable level of reporters intrusion into the lives of Public figures. But that Sall too easy. Its also much too easy to justify the coverage by saying that you can to Blanket the Story of Anita Hill and then give Short shrift to Paula Jones. That a part of the conservatives argument. They re enjoying the spectacle of the ideological tables having been turned on the liberals who championed Hill when she made sexual harassment accusations against a conservative supreme court nominee Clarence Thomas. In truth liberals did Jerk their Knees then Over the harassment Issue perhaps because they saw it As a scandal with the potential to derail Thomas nomination when the Issue of his obvious Lack of Juris tie qualifications could not. But those should be matters for politicians and lobbyists not editors and reporters. Our Issue is to define or at least Lay out guidelines for the role we feel is ethical and appropriate for us. Just because Shock journalists have announced that there Are no rules of restraint anymore on privacy a in Short that anything goes a does not require the rest of the press to go along with this. For years we be been hearing from sheep like voices in the press that the social rules and therefore the coverage rules have changed. No explanation from the by eaters As to Why just mindless statements that things Are different from what they were under Roosevelt Eisenhower Kennedy Etc. We re allowed to Snoop anywhere now they say put our eyeballs to any Keyhole stand outside any bedroom window. This Litany has been Jabb ered so often Over the last decade that it would appear to have become pretty much the consensus now. Well if we re going to sound like sheep and move Herdlick As they do we  be surprised if people begin addressing us in barnyard language. Vow. I do know the difficulty that editors face should they choose to separate from the Herd. If a rival paper  network is running big witly a salacious Story some readers or viewers might desert you if you re not carrying r giving it Only minor play. Yes m a a a Media companies like All businesses cannot survive unit or is we understand that less they make a profit but have we really decided that the Only Way to flourish is to become cheap we re always talking about the character issues of others especially when we re going through their dirty line but what about our own we influence Public policy too. Can we pass the purity tests we administer to presidents senators and others not Likely. By All Means cover Paula Jones lawsuit against Bill Clinton. But keep it in context. Before he was elected Clinton a extramarital conduct was paraded out under the Klieg lights and he said a i have acknowledged wrongdoing. I have acknowledged causing pain in my  so the voters heard about most of his defects decided this Wasny to the determining Factor and elected him president. I do not take lightly the matter of sexual harassment but is this the lawsuit on which we wish to bring Down a presidency this reporter is anything but a Clinton Groupie but something is out of proportion Here. Would Paula Jones be in court if she weren to certain that the press Herd was right outside drooling to cover the Case. A c a a v. Back in 1987, when reporters on a stakeout caught presidential candidate Gary Hart spending the night with a woman other than his wife a newspaper editor Michael Gartner who was soon to be chief of Abc news Camcy the coverage  democracy a finest hours and a just a wonderful thing for  rubbish this Isnit about candidate nabbing As a consummate demonstration of democracy a winnowing process. It is about the press and How we wish to conduct ourselves in the National discourse. It must not be about what other people might want us to do such As titillate them with Juicy details of this or that Public figure s private life. It is about who we wish to be. Do we want to stake out try Sling spots do we want to be the unofficial sex police reporters and editors have to decide these things a no one else can decide for them. Bleating will do us no Good. C nowadays some societal standards must be much attention continues to be Given to the bizarre successes of the nation of islam a Khalid Muhammad speaking on College campuses with special attention being Given to his speech at Howard University a few weeks ago. That of course is because of the anomaly first spotted in the wild 1960s, of Young Blacks giving Adul Atory attention to anti jewish ranting a an anomaly Given jewish prominence in he struggle for civil rights in the postwar years. Most recently the Macneil Lehrer people devoted time to a kind of focus group of a half dozen Young Blacks invited to express themselves on the general question followed by a seminar of elders invited to do the same thing. A member of the senior group who had been president of Howard University at which Muhammad had Given out his bile for Over one hour spoke about How wrong the Public impression is that the racism of the nation of islam has captured the imagination of Young Blacks. He leans heavily on the attendance figures at the lecture in question. There were 1,000 people in the audience but Only 30 of these he said were students of Howard University. On the other hand the Junior group a gait examined by Charlayne Hunter was striking in its truculent be. It Wasny to Clear whether the subjects had been screened searching for Black students Seething with resentments but certainly such were fore fathered including one Young Man who said quite openly that he sympathized with the Black Man who fired at passengers in a Long Island train killing a half dozen. A second student said that he did not condone what had been done but perfectly Well understood Why it had been done. On this Point still another student expressed her resentment that the Case had been associated with race. She wanted to know How it was that John Wayne Gacy recently executed for killing 30-Odd Young men and boys Hadnot been similarly diagnosed As suffering from a White disease. The answer to this question struck the listener As rather obvious namely that the Black Man whose diaries were examined confessed in them a hatred for the White race. No complementary diaries were found in the surroundings of the killer Gacy. William f. Buckley this Point was not pressed on the Young people by the examiner. Nor was sufficient attention Given to the most obvious commentary on the racism complained of by every member of the focus group and cited As a reason for attention Given to Muhammad a statement that he Quot loved the gunman. / racism want a problem in Britain a generation ago yet something or other a stated the Moor murderers a Young couple who amused themselves by torturing to death several Young children. Racism was not responsible for the death of a half million in Rwanda. And whatever were the tensions in the Germany of the 1920s Between jews and non jews they were hardly accountable for Hitler. There is an element of Candor missing in the endless pathological explorations of such As listen to such As Muhammad and their talk of jew papers and jew radios and killer Whites. One has a feeling that there is a fear of giving offence. Those schooled in psychotherapy May be trained for All i know never to confront their patients. But when one convenes a half dozen Black students privileged beyond the average White let alone the average Black by being students at College and living in the most indulgent country in the history of the world and when one fails to speak m Plain a language about the barbarism of the Schav for of some of those they defend and indeed imitate one is letting Down  further example of such As this is the introductions Given to each of the members of the focus group. One woman student was matter of factly introduced As the Mother of three children a male student As the father of four. One had the sense of it that the Moderator would have committed suicide before disclosing whether the children were bom out of Wedlock though the general problem a social disorientation a cannot be faced without Frank inquiry into this question so very Basic to an understanding of the social pathology being explored. It certainly does not follow that because a Young Man fathers four children without marrying the Mother of any one of them he will conclude that Colin Ferguson was justified in killing a half dozen White commuters or that he is being manipulated by a jewish Media. But it does Tell us that he has Basic problems and that enthusiasm for such As the nation of islam May be a derivative problem. In which Case the kids should be examined not by kindly moderators of pcs but by objective students of aberrant behaviour. Ltd Universal press