It seemed like May madness had hit--at least as far as sexual harassment wasconcerned.

Hoards of previously unreconstructed misogynists supported a working-classfemale who charged a powerful man with grimy sexual misconduct. NewRepublic editor and PBS pundit Fred Barnes, who once derided Anita Hill as"delusional," claimed that Arkansas state employee Paula Jones' accusationsagainst Bill Clinton were "credible." (McLaughlin Group, 5/8/94) RushLimbaugh, who'd previously boasted of a sign on his office door that read,"Sexual harassment at this work station will not be reported.... It will begraded," evinced sympathy for a woman who said she'd been harassed.

At the same time, liberal pundits often trivialized the accusation againstthe president. In an offhand comment that conflated consensual sex and sexharassment, columnist Mary McGrory remarked (NBC's Meet the Press, 5/8/94),"This debate was held two years ago in New Hampshire, where people knewthis president was not a model husband." Clarence Page of the ChicagoTribune(5/8/84)called sexual harassment "a vehicle for witchhunts"--apparently forgetting who killed whom in Salem.

Newsweek's Joe Klein lamented on CBS's Face the Nation (5/8/94) that "we'regoing to end up with government by goody-goodies." He went on to claim thathistorically, presidents with "interesting sexual histories" have madebetter leaders. Klein also seems to have a problem distinguishing sex fromassault--isn't that what feminists are accused of?

One might have thought spring lunacy had taken over--especially when RushLimbaugh started criticizing feminists for being too quiet about sexualharassment.

But in fact, plenty of conservatives stuck to their traditional, dismissiveline. William Safire (5/9/94) called sex harassment statutes "looseygoosey"; the New York Post's Ray Kerrison (5/11/94) wrote a column headed"Anita and Paula: Sisters in Sleaze."

Talk show host John McLaughlin (5/8/94) moaned about a "rush tojudgment...against the male" in sex harassment cases, then rushed in withhis own verdict: Paula Jones' suit was "largely bogus." "You can sueanybody for anything," whined McLaughlin. He should know: He's been accusedof sexual harassment by several female employees, settling a suit out ofcourt with one in 1989.

And feminists, contrary to media assumption, were not so silent. On his TVshow, Limbaugh (5/4/94) lined up Jones and Hill in mirror image, andclaimed that NOW, which "organized marches for Anita Hill," was "justyawning" about Paula Jones. Neither claim was true. NOW, which never held ademonstration for Hill, issued a statement on the day Jones' suit wasfiled, stating, "Every Paula Jones deserves to be heard, no matter how oldshe is and how long ago the incident occurred.

Feminists, wrote USA Today columnist Joe Urschel (5/10/94), "have notrushed to [Jones'] defense in ideological lockstep as they did with Hill."At least Urschel interviewed leaders of women's organizations for hisstory. (One corrected the record in a letter the next day.) The New YorkTimes' Maureen Dowd (5/8/94) cited no leaders of women's groups as sheasserted vaguely that "some women" who supported Hill "are wishing theycould cut the ground from underneath Paula Jones."

U.S. News & World Report provided phony fodder for the pundits when theyprinted a claim by Jones lawyer David Traylor that his client had beenrefused help by the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. In fact, NLDEFhadn't been approached on the case, and did send technical help once Jones'team got around to asking--which is more assistance than NLDEF ever gave toAnita Hill. Traylor admits now he was referring to a call made to anArkansas chapter of NOW, a separate organization, but no one at U.S. Newshad checked the facts.

In the absence of a hearing--or many facts at all--the Paula Jones debatetook place almost entirely in the realm of politics andpersonalities. Participants were brought into TV studios to take sides onthe basis of political loyalties.

The silenced reality is that sex harassment comes all too often as asurprise. Most perpetrators aren't recognizable creeps, but men who womendared to think might interact with us as equals. According to the NationalCouncil for Research on Women, at least half of all women will experiencesexual harassment at some point in their lives.

But primetime left it to the afternoon talkshows to ponder the real tollharassment takes in U.S. life. Partisan debates fit better into snappysoundbites. Maybe they sell more papers, too.

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