The Forgotten Anniversary

Usually, television news and the newspapers are sure to have stories on the various anniversaries of political, historical and cultural events. It's easy to write reviews of past events; just contact a few of the principals to get some current quotes and you're good to go.

So, it's rather surprising to me that a major anniversary -- a tenth -- has been passing all year long with nary a peep from the news.

This year is the tenth anniversary of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Boy, you'd think that one would be all over the place, especially as the media went at their coverage hammer-and-tongs back in the day.

But no, it's quietly slipped by and continues to escape major review. Could that have anything to do with the big Democratic primary battle that's been going on all year?

It's also worth reminding people that during the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal another anniversary was also taking place: the twenty-fifth anniversary of Watergate. I can remember then how stories about Nixon, et al, were pushed into the back pages of the newspaper. There seemed an aversion in the press to having echoes of Nixon's disgrace and eventual resignation being bandied about while Clinton was struggling to stay in office.