WHO BROKE THE RODHAM PARDON STORY?

By: Allan Wolper The National Enquirer, AP, CNN Duke It Out


Why are so many news organizations applauding the journalism quid pro quo that
The National Enquirer used to snare a scoop about a presidential pardon
that news organizations everywhere attacked as a political quid pro quo?

And: Which news organization should get the credit for disclosing that former
first brother-in-law Hugh Rodham received $200,000 in fees for lobbying the
White House to get a presidential pardon for a rich Republican felon in Florida?

The New York Times gave The National Enquirer a front-page credit
right below the fold for its story last week on how Almon Glenn Braswell wired
$200,000 to Rodham's law firm in Florida two days after he was pardoned.
Braswell, 57, a well-heeled Republican, was convicted in 1983 of mail fraud and
perjury. (After President Bush and the Republican Party learned of his
background, they returned a $175,000 campaign contribution from Braswell.)

The Enquirer without apology said it had paid an undisclosed amount to an
informant who helped reporters John Hanrahan and David Wright to acquire a copy
of the explosive Rodham bank wire. Even Washington Post media writer
Howard Kurtz reported that "the hottest publication in America right now is
The National Enquirer - and no one in the establishment press is
snickering."

But Sandy Johnson, Washington bureau chief of The Associated Press, was livid
because Kurtz wrote that The National Enquirer won the Rodham reporting
sweepstakes even though AP writer John Solomon broke the story. "What happened
to measuring who had a beat by who got it out first?" Johnson asked. "In fact,
CNN beat us by a couple of minutes. And we didn't pay for it. We got our story
the old-fashioned way: We reported it."

David Perel, executive editor of the Enquirer, insisted his paper got
scooped on its own story because the weekly tabloid went to bed Monday, Feb. 19
- four days before its Feb. 23 national publishing date. "Some members of
the press got ahold of our story right after we put it to bed and started
calling us," Perel said. "People had faxes of it and were reading it to me. It
started a panic. People called Hillary Clinton that Monday."

But Johnson said AP got a tip from a source who did not know anything about the
Enquirer story. "We were unaware that any other news organization was
working on the story," she said.

AP reported its scoop on the $200,000 payoff at 5:39 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 22,
a couple of minutes after CNN's story was aired. The Enquirer, meanwhile,
"finally put something out on our Web site on Wednesday night saying we had the
story," Perel said.

Late that evening, AP fleshed out the rest of the Rodham saga - disclosing
that he received a second $200,000 for his role in acquiring a pardon for Carlos
Vignali, a convicted drug dealer. The AP story included a statement from former
President Clinton and his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., as
saying that Hugh Rodham had returned the entire $400,000 after they asked him to
do so.

The Clinton pardon scandal began Jan. 20 during the former president's last
hours in office when word leaked that he had given fugitive billionaire
financier Marc Rich one of 140 pardons and 36 commutations.



Allan Wolper alfyjournal@msn.com is a contributing editor for E&P.



Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.