Clinton–Lewinsky scandal
Bill Clinton, also known as William Jefferson Clinton served as the 42 nd president of the United States. The American politician was involved in a sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky, who was an intern at the White House. The sex scandal, which was characterized by a sexual relationship that took place between 1995 and 1997, was a major issue in the United States considering that Bill Clinton was the president (Williams & Delli Carpini, 2000). Although Clinton disputed the fact that he had not had any sexual relations with Lewinsky through a televised speech in the beginning of 1998, Miss Lewinsky confirmed that she had several sexual encounters with the president. The confirmation from Lewinsky resulted to further investigations on the scandal to determine facts regarding the sexual relationship that existed.
How the Media Portrayed Bill Clinton
The fact that Bill Clinton was the current president of the United States during the time of the scandal, the media engaged in a wide coverage of the story. The mainstream press in the United States focused on covering the issue and analyzed various aspects associated with the scandal despite the fact that Clinton had denied the allegations. The media portrayed the politician as an individual that should have not engaged in such a scandal considering the position, he held in a country that was regarded as one of the most powerful in the world (Lawrence & Bennett, 2001). In that case, the media debated and scrutinized the issue to ascertain the facts behind the sex scandal. The local and international media perceived the issue as crucial considering that it involved the president of the US.
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Outcome of the Scandal
The major outcome of the scandal involved the impeachment of the president and facing other charges. Considering the fact that Clinton denied having ever engaging in sexual relations with Lewinsky, he faced charges of perjury since Miss Lewinsky confirmed the sexual relationship. During the impeachment process, Clinton was charged with contempt of court, which resulted from the provision of misleading information concerning Monica Lewinsky (Yioutas & Segvic, 2003). Additionally, Clinton faced another major impact that involved a five-year suspension of his license to practice law and was barred from making any presentation of a cases in the Supreme Court of the United State. Although Clinton did not resign following the scandal, there was a major political impact, which was attributed to the political and social exposure resulting from the sex scandal.
Effect of the Scandal
The Clinton–Lewinsky scandal had a major effect on the political and social welfare of president Clinton. The first major political effect of the scandal involved a reduction of democratic votes, which was an aspect that was attributed to deflated enthusiasm in Clinton's Democratic political party (Dahl, 2016). The scandal resulted in a situation where the political party become somewhat unstable considering the fact that they were not in a position to ensure that the issue remained private. Another major effect of the scandal involved the unveiling of collateral scandals resulting from a publicized campaign that sought to embarrass politicians that were involved in different scandals. The supporters of President Clinton maintained that impeaching the president was a hypocritical move that was conducted by individuals that had same levels of scandal. The views of the supporters contradicted with those against the president leading to the debates over the issue.
References
Dahl, D. (2016). Imagining the Monica Lewinsky Scandal on Social Media. In Scandal in a Digital Age (pp. 69-74). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Lawrence, R. G., & Bennett, W. L. (2001). Rethinking media politics and public opinion: Reactions to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Political Science Quarterly , 116 (3), 425-446.
Williams, B. A., & Delli Carpini, M. X. (2000). Unchained reaction: The collapse of media gatekeeping and the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. Journalism , 1 (1), 61-85.
Yioutas, J., & Segvic, I. (2003). Revisiting the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal: The convergence of agenda setting and framing. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly , 80 (3), 567-582.
