Monday, Aug. 31, 1998
Some Special Timing
By Walter Isaacson, Managing Editor
There's something different about the issue you're holding in your hands. After President Clinton's historic testimony and defiant confession speech on Monday, we decided to speed up our schedule so that the magazine would be out this Thursday rather than next Monday.
The main reason was simple: we wanted you to get our reporting on how and why Clinton made his amazing pirouette while it was still fresh and timely, instead of waiting until next week. In putting out a weekly magazine, our goal is both to be newsy and to put events into thoughtful perspective. Sometimes we feel that these interests can best be served by adjusting our schedule, and Monday's important events clearly made this one of those times.
Such a change is unusual for us, but not unprecedented. In the past we have made similar arrangements because of presidential debates and superpower summits, and for national elections we have closed an issue on Wednesday nights rather than wait for the weekend. Clinton's testimony and speech, coming after seven months of national squirming about an anguishing investigation, provided another defining moment that warranted being flexible about our schedule.
Our aim was not to be part of some rush to judgment. People are going to have to make their own judgments about what this means for Clinton and our country by sorting through what they know, think and feel. We'll be covering the ongoing fallout over the next few weeks and months. Instead of prejudging or predicting what that verdict will be, we wanted to put forth all the facts as we now know them, provide inside reporting about how the Clintons and others came to make their momentous decisions, and offer some well-reasoned analysis by our own reporters and respected thinkers that would shed light on the issues involved. That way, we felt, we might offer a smart harbor amid the gales of punditry now in full force.
Our Washington bureau, led by Michael Duffy, spent Tuesday and Wednesday getting briefed on what Clinton said, why he said it and the internal debates leading up to his testimony. As reporting came in from both Washington and around the country, we became even more excited about getting this issue to you this week rather than next. The whole process was, indeed, energizing, and we hope you'll find that passion reflected in these pages.
Walter Isaacson, Managing Editor