In a story with no shortage of lurid details, news that Monica Lewinsky may have kept a dress stained from sex with President Clinton was in a class by itself. For fans of the prurient, it offered the tale of a woman so smitten by a sexual encounter that she vowed to keep the most unseemly of souvenirs. For the prosecution-minded, it promised hard DNA evidence. And for those hoping to see the powerful humbled, it introduced a pulse-racing new phrase: presidential semen. "Monica's Love Dress," as the New York Post dubbed it, fast became a staple of water-cooler talk and late-night comedy. Politically Incorrect's Bill Maher said a survey of newspaper readers found it "the news story they least want explained by a pie chart."
But despite its high nervous-giggle factor, the dress was always a legitimate subject for journalistic inquiry. Physical evidence of this kind is used frequently in prosecuting crimes. And the media that ran the story generally had what appears to be credible sources attesting that Lewinsky had at least boasted of the existence of such a dress. Nevertheless, the dress story provides a window on the tough judgment calls about facts, and sources of facts, that must be made in reporting difficult-to-confirm stories in today's lightning-paced media environment. And it shows the occasional slipups that occur as a story reverberates through today's journalistic echo chamber, changing slightly each time it is repeated.
The dress made its first appearance in cyberspace. On Jan. 21, Matt Drudge reported on his Internet Drudge Report that Linda Tripp had told investigators Lewinsky allegedly confided she "kept a garment with Clinton's dried semen on it--a garment she allegedly said she would never wash." Drudge declines to characterize his sources. But he says his initial report was "very valid," and he stands by his account that the dress exists. "I know it to be a black cocktail dress," Drudge says.
The next day Drudge appeared on NBC's Today show. In his introduction Matt Lauer called the Drudge Report "a media gossip page known for below-the-Beltway reporting." Lauer asked Drudge about his story. Drudge said Tripp "has told this to investigators." Asked if he had confirmation, Drudge responded, "Not outside of what I've just heard, but I don't think anybody does at this point." The Today show had just given NBC News' imprimatur and a national platform to Drudge to report on the President. "I wouldn't call what he does reporting," objects University of Virginia professor and media critic Larry Sabato. But Columbia Journalism School dean Tom Goldstein says it is wrong to dismiss Drudge as dispensing mere cybergossip unworthy of respectable news organizations. "Matt Drudge in this case is a legitimate news source," says Goldstein. "He's part of the story."
The following day, Jan. 23, ABC became the first major news outlet to break the dress story based on its own sources. Jackie Judd reported that "Lewinsky says she saved, apparently as a kind of souvenir, a navy blue dress with the President's semen stain on it." In a tantalizing choice of words, Judd attributed the story to "someone with specific knowledge" of the events. Last week ABC spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said the network is "satisfied with the sources," but declined to characterize them further.