Word: donnas
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...story, Gary Hart's downfall happily combined both. But since hypocrisy is as endemic in the press as it is in politics, the press defended its behavior by stressing the importance of the story. Importance did not require a competition to see who could get the sexiest picture of Donna Rice with Hart, which the scandal tabloid National Enquirer...
Senator Hart, too, sought to deflect responsibility, first claiming that his only mistake was not realizing that his meetings with Donna Rice could be "misconstrued," then blaming the media for the mess he was in. Even Jim Bakker, who by profession alone should have an intimate acquaintance with the theological concept of sin, resisted simply confessing his dalliance with Jessica Hahn. Instead, Bakker insisted that his troubles were all part of a "diabolical plot" by rival preachers...
...contrition and remorse, as he did during last week's lull after the storm. "I take full responsibility for what I did and the big mistakes I made," he said. Although Hart had quit the race "angry and defiant" over headlines about the weekend he spent with Miami Model Donna Rice, he was now less willing to shift the blame: "The news media made mistakes, but it was wrong of me to make it seem like it was all their fault. I brought this on myself...
...surveillance and said it raised "searching questions" about journalistic responsibility. Much of the public seemed to agree. The Miami Herald's own opinion survey showed that 63% of its readers felt that press coverage of Hart's personal life had been excessive. Reporters looking for Hart's alleged paramour Donna Rice at her rented suburban Miami condominium early last week discovered instead a band of angry neighbors. "Oh, you press!" snapped one woman. "You're always getting into everybody...
Many journalists faulted the Herald for not being more cautious with such an explosive story. "They rushed the story into print," says George Cotliar, managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. "I think I would have waited for a day to see what Donna Rice had to say." The Sunday story, in fact, was printed before the Herald even learned Rice's name. But Howard Simons, former managing editor of the Washington Post and now head of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, defends the Herald's actions: "If they'd waited a day, they wouldn't have known anything...