New media and the social purdah

So, President Bill Clinton of the United States in all likelihood did invite Paula Jones to come into his office and in all likelihood did demand oral sex from her. She claims so, and the mainline American media, which earlier pooh-poohed the idea as a right-wing plot against a liberal president, is now coming around to take a second look at the evidence, which is apparently convincing. The law will take its course, as P.V. Narasimha Rao was fond of saying, in the United States, as elsewhere. Sex scandals are a regular feature of the media-eat-politician scenario that is developing the world over. What is different is that, earlier, news of peccadillos either never got printed by knowing newsmen (as with Kennedy and Marilyn or Nehru and Edwina), or even if it got out, the readership or viewership (in the case of television) was limited to a society which was already at ease with the kind of revelation a muckraking journalist comes up with—trysts with film stars, prostitutes, and Mata Haris.

What is different with Mr Clinton and Ms Jones is, firstly, the explicitness of the charge made on a sitting president, including the ability to identify bodily specifics. Secondly, it is the willingness of the media to carry the charges in all their barebone details. Thirdly, and this is what concerns us, is the ability and willingness of globalising and homogenising media (print, radio and television) to transfer this news to the far corners.