Here's an update on an old topic.
<<Political Insider
GSA: Clinton Aides Did Not Vandalize White House
By Charles Babington
washingtonpost.com staff writer
Friday, May 18, 2001; 12:31 PM
It's official: President Clinton's aides didn't vandalize the White House, scrawl lewd notes or steal presidential trinkets as they departed and the Bush administration moved in, as some critics had charged.
The General Services Administration, which investigated the alleged misdeeds, said the rumors were unfounded. "The condition of the real property was consistent with what we would expect to encounter when tenants vacate office space after an extended occupancy," said a GSA statement.
Many news organizations, including The Washington Post, reported on the alleged vandalism shortly after President Bush took office in January. The Post and other outlets soon raised doubts about the claims, and also reported on Bush's statement that the allegations were false.
"I think it was this calculated effort to plant a damaging story," said Alex S. Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, the Kansas City Star reported today. "There was a sort of fertile ground for believing anything bad.">>
washingtonpost.com |
