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James Ledbetter and Katharine Mieszkowski

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Newt's Hypocrisy

By Katharine Mieszkowski
Posted Thursday, Aug. 12, 1999, at 5:54 PM ET

Dear Jim:

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Can it be that our exercise in stunt online writing is nearing its conclusion already? And just now when we'd gotten to the topic of Newt Gingrich's sex life, a subject that surely deserves a full week of breakfasts, if anyone can stomach it.

Newt's hypocrisy is truly flabbergasting. But the thing that always kills me about these politician-dallies-with-comely-staffer stories isn't the adultery or even the hypocrisy, it's how these affairs undermine the work of the other women (and men) who hold the same jobs as the old guys' paramours.

I'm still waiting for the masses of former White House interns to file some kind of class action lawsuit. Couldn't they get damages for their lost future earnings? After all, their once prestigious job title--White House intern--has been transformed into the world's easiest one-liner. It's got to be no fun having a lurid joke embedded in your résumé.

A final note on the dim fate of the San Francisco Examiner. A column in today's soon-to-be-Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle suggests that we shouldn't be digging the Hearst-owned Examiner's grave so fast. But the same story fails to unearth a single credible potential buyer. As you asked yesterday: Isn't there someone in San Francisco who has the cash and hubris to lose millions year after year on a daily?

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How about one of those IPO'd cyber-moguls? After all, they're experts in losing millions. But here's how the CEO of CBS MarketWatch, Larry Kramer, reacted to the Chronicle columnist's suggestion that he should buy the Examiner: "How stupid do I look? I reach 10 times that many people now." Sigh. So much for cross-media synergies.

Jim, I've enjoyed your musings about murdered birds, dead presidents, deceased cooking show hosts, and dying newspapers. I wish you luck in all future poker games, and many newsy breakfasts.

Yours,
Katharine