Online NewsHour: Clinton In The Classroom -- August 27, 1998

SCANDAL 101

August 27, 1998

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Transcript

The massive media coverage of President Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky, and its more revealing details, has presented America's educators with a difficult task: How to discuss the issue in the classroom.

A RealAudio version of this segment on media coverage.
NEWSHOUR LINKS:
August 26, 1998:
Newspaper editors discuss the issue of resignation.
August 17, 1998:
President Clinton addresses the nation on the Lewinsky matter.
August 17, 1998:
An analysis of the media's coverage of the Starr investigation.
August 13, 1998:
What impact will the Starr investigation have on the institution of of the presidency ?
July 30, 1998:
Should Clinton address the public about the Lewinsky matter?
July 28, 1998:
Ken Starr makes an immunity deal with Monica Lewinsky.
July 27, 1998:
Ken Starr subpoenas the president to testify in front of his grand jury
July 21, 1998:
A roundtable discussion on Chief Justice Rehnquist's decision not to interfere with the subpoenas of secret service agents.
July 15, 1998:
Can the Justice Dept. force secret service agents to testify?
July 1, 1998:
A report on the question of executive privilege and the Starr investigation.
Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the Starr Investigation.
OUTSIDE LINKS
The Washington Post.
The White House

JIM LEHRER: How President Clinton's problems are being treated in the classroom. Jeffrey Kaye of KCET-Los Angeles reports.
A new challenge for social studies teachers.
JEFFREY KAYE: Hollywood is not normally known for its restraint. But that's not the case in classes in the neighborhood's Le Conte Middle School. Social studies classes typically discuss current events, but the sexual nature of the scandal in Washington poses challenges for teachers.
CONRAD LOVO: (speaking to class) Do you think President Clinton has broken the public's trust right now?
CLASS IN UNISON: Yes.
JEFFREY KAYE: Conrad Lovo has no qualms about discussing the President and Monica Lewinsky with his eighth grade history class as long as the lesson is about government and politics, not about sex.
STUDENT: I think he still should be our president because he did a lot of good stuff to the USA, and it's none of our business. It's his private life, so he didn't have to—
CONRAD LOVO: Do you think that because he is so powerful, he is the president, he has a right to do that?
STUDENT: No.
JEFFREY KAYE: Lovo says that on the subject of Monica Lewinsky, there's an unstated boundary that he's not going to cross.
CONRAD LOVO: We have not gone into details, we have not, you know, we try to avoid as far as we can, the sexual aspect of things.
JEFFREY KAYE: You don't talk about oral sex?
CONRAD LOVO: Because—no, because it's something that is not, at this age level, I don't think they're mature enough to identify with it yet. Kids are talking about it outside of the classroom, but it's not something that I want to be the one who is going to be telling them about it or discussing such issues in the classroom.
Should the Lewinsky matter be discussed in classrooms?
JEFFREY KAYE: Teachers say that discussion with children about the Clinton/Lewinsky affair should be appropriate for their age. Sixth grade teacher Roberta Castillo says she would not bring up the subject in her classes.
ROBERTA CASTILLO: I have two groups of kids, and both classes tend to giggle a lot whenever you mention anything sexual, and this is a very sexual nature. I think it would be wonderful to be able to talk about it with the kids, and maybe even have a debate pros and cons. And I would definitely do that maybe if I were in high school, but based on my 6th grade experience, I don't think it's something that I would consider doing with my 6th grade class right now.
JEFFREY KAYE: Because they're just going to get the giggles.
ROBERTA CASTILLO: And I probably won't get much out of them.
JEFFREY KAYE: But producers of Channel One news cannot ignore such a major story. Channel One is a 12-minute commercial news program transmitted by satellite each weekday to more than 8 million students in 12,000 U.S. schools.
ANCHOR: There has never been a day like this at the White House.
JEFFREY KAYE: Like the rest of the media, the staff at Channel One News has every opportunity to report on the titillating details of the Clinton/Lewinsky affair. But, instead, Channel One has covered the story without mentioning the word "sex. Andrew Hill is Channel One's president of programming.
JEFFREY KAYE: You report on a relationship, but you don't report on a sexual relationship.
ANDREW HILL: That's correct.
JEFFREY KAYE: Why is that?
ANDREW HILL: Because we think that basically the issues that are involved within that relationship are probably appropriately of a private nature between the parties involved. We broadcast to an audience of eleven to eighteen-year-olds and really don't think it's appropriate for us to delve into issues that parents and their children may not have gotten into in the privacy of their own home. It's not our job to create an audience of young people going home and asking their parents questions that their parents simply aren't prepared to answer.
JEFFREY KAYE: Channel One has stressed its commitment to rumor-free coverage of the scandal.
MONICA NOVOTNY: In the last few months, there have been plenty of rumors and allegations floating around, but Channel One News decided not to report anything that wasn't in the public record. As a result, we've probably covered this less than any other news organization out there.
SPOKESMAN: The Clinton and Monica Lewinsky story--over the weekend, all the talkers were out on the talk shows.
JEFFREY KAYE: This past Monday morning, Channel One executives weighed their options for that day's coverage the Lewinsky matter.
ANDREW HILL: I don't think there's really anything to go with. You know, the stuff that was out is really under a new bar of Internet garbage that's—there's nowhere to go with it.
JEFFREY KAYE: They decided against doing a story that day. Previous segments have focused on governmental and legal aspects of the story.
The Clinton/Lewinsky matter as a teaching vehicle.
ANDREW HILL: It was an easy choice, I think, to turn it into a civics lesson. We're in a school. We're in an educational environment, and there are a lot of things that are important to this story that I think a lot of viewers aren't really informed about to the degree that they should be about the grand jury and what its powers are and how it operates. And actually this Clinton/Lewinsky story becomes an interesting teaching vehicle.
MONICA NOVOTNY: Why if the information from a source is true won't they go on the record?
JACKIE JUDD: There are a lot of reasons that people won't go on the record.
ANDREW HILL: One of the things that we covered last week was a piece on leaks and what they mean. It doesn't mean you don't believe the information, but it does specifically mean that it's probably coming from someone with an agenda.
JEFFREY KAYE: In Conrad Lovo's classroom, students see the Clinton/Lewinsky story as more of a lesson in morality than in civics.
A lesson in morality?
JEFFREY KAYE: What do you think the most important issue is that's coming out of all this?
STUDENT: He lied in court, then they said that he tried to cover up the evidence.
STUDENT: He's supposed to be a role model for the people, and not only he lied to his family, but in the court and to everyone else. And I think what he did was very wrong.
JEFFREY KAYE: These eighth graders also said that the classroom lesson should include discussion about the sexual nature of the affair and not be limited to civics.
STUDENT: We deserve to know about what's going on with the president, not like just adults need to know about it, kids needs to know about it too, because we have to live in a world where he controls most of it.
JEFFREY KAYE: Outside the classroom, teens we spoke to said the sexual aspect of the scandal makes it a personal, not a political matter.
TEEN: If he want to commit adultery, let him. That's his bad.
TEEN: I'd say it's like it's not our business really, and if he's going to have sexual relations with, you know, anybody, it's between him and his family. And I think they're making way too big of a deal over it.
JEFFREY KAYE: These teens on the street and in class agreed the nation's political attention should be re-focused on government.

Program
Support
From: