Praising the Press p.

By: Debra Gersh

President Clinton at NAA meeting lauds reporting on issues
PRESIDENT CLINTON HAD kind words for America's newspapers, which he credited with keeping important human concerns at the center of political debate.
The president, speaking April 25 at a rare Sunday general session of an annual publishers' meeting, also praised detailed reporting on social topics.
"As all of you know, I believe very strongly that over the last 10 to 12 years, the political system, which includes both parties, in many important ways failed our people," Clinton told the Newspaper Association of America conference in Boston.
"And oftentimes, it was newspapers of our country who continued to put the human concerns of people back at the center stage of public debate?reporting on the stagnation of living standards that created so much anxiety for the middle class and so much despair for the poor," he noted.
"I think, in particular, of the incredible series run by the Philadelphia Inquirer, called "America: What Went Wrong?" and the detail in which that series documented what happened to the middle class in America, as most families worked harder for lower wages and had more insecurity in the fundamentals of their lives.
"But many other papers?perhaps all of them all across the country?issued various reports on other problems that were neglected for too long," the president continued, detailing such issues as the deficit, the way the wealth of the 1980s was reaped by only a small group of people, health care, schools, welfare, drug abuse, crime and unemployment.
"When the political system seemed brain-dead and deadlocked, with so many people locked into yesterday's rhetoric and yesterday's policies, many in the newspapers helped to give the American people not only the information they need, but the sense that with that information, something profound could be done to change the course of our nation's history.
"We can't forget amidst all the gamesmanship of American political life, which is a high form of entertainment, that there are real people with real stories, and they are what all of our efforts are ultimately about."
During a wide-ranging speech interrupted many times by the publishers' applause, Clinton restated the Thomas Jefferson quote about preferring newspapers without government, which he had noted in an address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors earlier this spring.
The president took the opportunity during a question-and-answer period to remark on gossip reporting.
While stressing that coverage cannot be generalized, Clinton said he is "stunned from time to time at the stuff I read about things in the national government that are pure gossip."
While gossip sometimes gets into print too easily, he said, "by and large, there are still high standards of professionalism and fact [checking] required" before something is printed.
The worst offenders, the president added, are "the tabloids or . . . media basically that have to live and breathe with political gossip."
Clinton also was asked about his position on telecommunications, an issue of special interest to the NAA, which has been lobbying against proposals to lift restrictions on the regional Bell operating companies.
Noting that telecommunications is one of five issues his technology working group is looking at, the president said he did not have an answer.
The question "certainly rang my bell," he said to much laughter, realizing his unintentional pun and promising to get on top of the issue.
During a panel discussion the next day at the Associated Press annual meeting, AP White House correspondent Ron Fournier said he no longer has the same access to President Clinton as he did to Gov. Clinton.
Fournier noted that in Little Rock, he could simply pull Clinton aside for comment or an impromptu news conference.
The president can be overly sensitive and has lashed out at reporters, Fournier added, but he had a good relationship with the press in Arkansas.