We can handle sex-gate so why can't the press?

Real Estate Weekly, Feb 18, 1998 by Thomas F. Campenni

As I write this, Bill, Monica, Ken, Paula and a cast of thousands are turning the White House into the Plato's Retreat of the decade. The slippery slope of journalism is trying to determine just the right set of words for sex acts that should not be connected to the business of the nation. It was bad enough when "Entertainment Tonight" covered the Simpson trial as if it were another episode of "Matlock." Now the presidency has been reduced to "The Further Adventures of Slick Willy."

While the White House becomes Animal House and Washington turns into Sodom, the American people give their president a 68 percent positive approval rating. Here we have an administration that has more ongoing criminal investigations than the Mafia and the citizens believe that it's doing a great job. What is going on here?

If I had to venture a guess I would say the country is growing up. As we baby boomers age, the absolutes of youth turn into the subtleties of middle age. No one person even the president - can be all good or all bad. All of us, even the guy in charge, are not saints. As the adults we have become, we realize that someone can be very effective in his work and be a philandering spouse we wouldn't want as our marital partner.

Many people believe that our innocence was lost with Vietnam and Watergate. I think innocence is an incorrect word to use in this context. We weren't so much innocent as naive. It was the naivete of youth that drove the politics of the late Sixties and Seventies, which thought that purity of motive was enough. This, of course, resulted in the resignation of Nixon, the repudiation of Ford and the insufferability of Carter.

When we first found out about sex, we believed it was only for the young. Somehow our parents "did it" only enough times to result in us and our siblings being conceived. As we become our parents, we realize that this is no more true than the other misconceptions of youth. The adults that inhabit our childhood are two-dimensional figures, without inconsistencies or fallacies. In the stridency of adolescence, adults become figures to loathe as clowns and buffoons.

Watergate was seen not for what it truly was, but for what it represented to a generation of young adults. Just as they realized their parents were not perfect, they came to the realization that neither were their political leaders. With millions of baby boomers observing the imperfections of life (and coping only as the young can) a culture of absolutes evolves.

Twenty-five years later the same generation that enacted those very laws see the futility of regulating personal behavior. They understand fully that Bill Clinton did smoke pot and lied about inhaling. They know that Ms. Flowers was telling the truth, as are, possibly, Paula and Monica. They also understand that Hillary had only the slightest chance of ever making $100,000 trading futures, and that Whitewater was sleazy.

As mature adults, the baby boomers choose to ignore these faults in an imperfect world. They would rather elect a fellow boomer than a robust member of an older generation.

The press must also embrace adulthood. The circus that has become news is inexcusable. When Castro and the Pope, Iraq and Saddam, and the State of the Union is only seen in the light of a 23-year-old intern, the public is being ill served. The press has a duty to inform the public of these matters and follow the story wherever it may lead, but not cover it like some tawdry sex show.

Lastly, rid the country of the curse of the independent counsel law. It has become a corruption of the intent of Congress. The Counsel, once appointed, answers to no one. The Founder Fathers gave us ample protection against an imperial presidency by dividing the government and giving to the legislature the ultimate weapon of impeachment. We are a government of politics and politicians - not moralists and saints. The baby boomers now understand this.

When will the media and the Congress? (The author is a real estate consultant advising owners, condominiums and co-ops. He welcomes responses in writing at P.O. Box 724, Old Greenwich, CT 00870 or by calling 203-637-5621).