All The President's Women
The latest book about President Clinton receiving rave reviews is not in the words of Monica Lewinsky or George Stephanopoulos, but journalist Michael Isikoff, who began following the president's sex scandal in 1994.
Isikoff's book, Uncovering Clinton, goes in chronological order through the reporter's investigation, starting with his work at the Washington Post, where he began looking into Paula Jones' allegation that the president had sexually harassed her. By the time Isikoff had moved to his current post at Newsweek, the scandal surrounding the White House began to take on a life of its own.
Isikoff was thrust into an uncomfortable spotlight as the story unfolded, leading him from Jones to Cathleen Willey, to Linda Tripp and finally Monica Lewinsky. He struggled with writing about President Clinton's alleged sexual indiscretions, trying to keep his reports away from the context of scandal mongering.
"It's important to understand that both at The Washington Post and at Newsweek, you know, my editors and colleagues always supported the idea of reporting this story," Isikoff told CBS News. "As I say in the book, editors always want to know this stuff. It's whether they should share what they know with the public, where the real debates begin, and that presents very, very troubling issues, very difficult issues, and there are no easy answers here."
In his book, Isikoff tells how he argued with editors about which clues in the puzzle were valid as hard-hitting news stories. Several times, information he had garnered was not approved, and online gossip columnist Matt Drudge scooped him.
As Isikoff became more entrenched in the story, he felt he was becoming a part of it, against his will. When he became aware that the president knew he was one of the people investigating the story, he felt the need to take extra precautions in his work.
"...I never felt threatened, but I did not want to influence the events I was trying to report. Inevitably, I did, and unavoidably I did, doing what you know, I and my editors agreed was my job -- to monitor the stuff, check it out, see whether or not there was something that ought to be shared with the public," he says.
However, he feels that his work did have an effect. "The mere fact that I was making inquiries, inevitably, did influence the outcome of the players," he says.
Isikoff says the premise of his story was not whether " the president had a few extramarital affairs or committed adultery, but was there a pattern of reckless behavior," but, as he puts it, "Was that reckless behavior going to influence the course of the Clinton presidency?"
While Isikoff has some concerns that readers may dread another book about President Clinton, he says he has been happy with readers' comments. "Almost everybody who actually picks up the book and reads it, you know, at least the feedback I'm getting s, 'Great read.' And the reviews have been good," he says.