Boston — Now that the storm has passed could we do a little damage assessment here? The prevailing winds that swirled around Hillary Clinton's words left enough detritus to be worthy of a case study in media meteorological mayhem.
When the story broke I was in Montana watching several hundred white pelicans fly in formation over the Rockies. At the risk of defaming the pelicans, my media colleagues were executing the same skills. They all rose and turned in tandem on the nearest draft of hot air.
It was like watching a force of nature. The Hillary storm was breathtaking in its speed and power.
Let's go to the source -- as we used to say in the news business. When it was the news business. The magazine in which the Clinton interview was printed didn't hit the newsstands until the winds had blown it all out of proportion. Few Americans had actually read the story everyone was analyzing. A single paragraph became the week's reality.
In the premier issue of Talk, the first lady and would-be senator did indeed mull over the aftereffects of Bill's childhood, when he found himself at the center of a conflict between his mother and grandmother. But that gentle mulling was immediately distilled and distorted into two words: "Abuse excuse."
Everyone from Jay Leno -- "She bought it!" -- to the chattering classes on cable TV, breakfasted-lunched-and-dined-out on the notion that Hillary was blaming his ma and grandma for Monica.
The "abuse excuse" was the center of the talkfests now homogenized by subject and polarized by opinion. On "Don Imus" they even compared it to pinning the blame on "secondhand cigar smoke."
Some years ago, I had an editor who liked to say, "If you have a fish in the barrel, shoot it!" But with an AK-47?
Let's take a short trip through the quotes that were gone with the wind:
1. "He's a grown-up. ... He's responsible for his own behavior."
2. "I don't believe in denying things. I believe in working through it."
3. "... this was a sin of weakness."
In my dictionary a sin is not an excuse. For that matter, the impulse to understand human behavior is not the same as the desire to whitewash human misbehavior.
Maybe it's a good thing so few picked up on Hillary's biblical reference: "I was thinking of when Peter betrayed Jesus three times and Jesus knew it but loved him anyway." Take that out of context and the headline would be "Hillary Sez She's Jesus!"
This is no defense of Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the interview, she asked author Lucinda Franks, "Why do I have to talk about things no one else in politics does?" Well, she doesn't. She shouldn't have.
She was the one person -- besides Chelsea -- who got out of the Monica debacle with the public's respect intact because she didn't say a word. Did someone convince her that she could explain why she stayed? The complexity of a relationship -- "You don't just walk away if you love someone, you help them" -- doesn't make it anymore. The sound bites devour subtlety. Speed trumps thoughtfulness. And she should have known that.
Nor am I defending Talk magazine. Naming a magazine "Talk" is like naming a TV show "Print." It's an admission of defeat. It says that the era of the brain and the fingers have given way to the mouth.
The first issue is an idea-free zone, a kind of hip People. The Hillary "get" that put Tina Brown at the eye of the storm suggests that Tina had another title in mind: "Talked About."
The cover girls and boys do say something about where we are. From top to bottom, Talk boasts: "Hillary Opens Up, Gwyneth Goes Bad, George W. Gets Real." Politicians and movie stars are all the same -- people to talk about.
Remember back when Hillary was trashed mercilessly for her interest in the "politics of meaning"? Now we have the media and politics of amusement. Celebrity rules. In Minnesota, the wrestler-turned-governor is about to revisit the ring as umpire. In Ohio, the self-described TV "Ringmaster," Jerry Springer, is thinking about running for the Senate.
Talk, talk, talk. Is it any wonder that in the calm after the storm, Hillary has chosen to go back on a listening tour?
-- Ellen Goodman is a columnist for The Boston Globe.
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