Sex and the Media: Its Mea Culpa Time

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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 medias handling of laffaire 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.

Special Report Moving into full self-loathing mode, many journalists offered confessionals. I have an uneasy feeling about how far weve 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 Starrs Lewinsky probe continues, theres always a little further to go.