Media Feeding Frenzies: Press Behavior During Two Clinton Scandals

Abstract

Specifically, this article describes and tests the conclusions of Larry Sabato, who in his book, Feeding Frenzy, suggests that journalists of all varieties begin to act like sharks when they smell the blood of a political scandal.1 This article describes Sabato's con cept and examines the Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones cases against Sabato's explana tion of frenzy. The Gary Hart/Donna Rice frenzy offers an occasional point of comparison in light of the research Sabato has already done. In gathering data to describe and analyze the Flowers and Jones frenzies, only arti cles from the New York Times and the Washington Post were examined.2 These newspapers were chosen because they set the standard for the news media in terms of what is suitable to report.3 Therefore, any reference to number of refers to articles that men tion at least twice the names of Donna Rice, Gennifer Flowers, or Paula Jones.