Press: When Reporters Make News

After dishing the dirt on Thomas and Hill, journalists have to deal with allegations about themselves

Nina Totenberg, the respected legal-affairs correspondent for National Public Radio, was co-anchor for PBS coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Clarence Thomas. Her commentary, though a bit preachy, sounded authoritative. Totenberg had a more than normal interest in the outcome. Several committee members were demanding an inquiry into the leak that had provided Totenberg and New York Newsday's Timothy Phelps with the scoop that Anita Hill had accused Thomas of sexual harassment, which led to the hearings she was covering. Moreover, Totenberg said one reason she took the charges against Thomas seriously was that she herself had once been...

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