Extinguished Journalist

Edward Klein and his new gossip book The Truth About Hillary show us how mangled the definition of "journalism" has become.

The dust jacket of the book describes Klein as a "distinguished journalist." It notes that he was once the foreign editor at Newsweek and the editor of The New York Times Magazine. It does not describe the job he has held for the last 14 years: gossip columnist for Parade, under a pseudonym—Walter Scott.

In his book about Hillary Clinton, Klein paints a nasty picture of the former first lady, who is now a U.S. senator many see as aiming at the White House in 2008, which would make her America's first woman president. The Truth About Hillary focuses heavily on sexual issues. Lesbianism is a recurring theme. One chapter, titled "A Night to Remember" and based entirely on unnamed sources, is given over to an account of how, on a Bermuda vacation, Bill Clinton "raped" Hillary, leaving behind a bedroom that looked "like World War III . . . pillows and busted-up furniture all over the place." The chapter goes on to purport that the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea, was conceived on that night.

Critics of all stripes have dismissed the book as innuendo and anonymous character assassination. Major figures from both political parties have called it malodorous. The New York Times wrote a news story about the hullabaloo; distancing the paper from Klein, the piece noticeably failed to mention that he once worked there.

Some in the news business were chagrined that they had in the past believed Klein was a serious journalist. Klein himself insists he's a serious journalist. In an interview with National Review Online, a website generally hospitable to criticism of Hillary Clinton, Klein was asked:

"Are you nervous putting out a product that seems to be based on a lot of anonymous sources?" Klein replied: "Were Woodward and Bernstein?"

Then he was asked: "Why should anyone trust or believe your portrait of Hillary Clinton?" His reply: "Because it is written by a journalist with impeccable credentials. . . . My record is impeccable."

Klein has in fact written some untawdry articles in his career, but that was many years ago. Let's say that was the Good Ed. The Cheesy Ed has taken over now. Look at the stuff he writes pseudonymously in his day job, the weekly column in Parade, the insert stuffed into Sunday newspapers all over the country along with the funnies.

The column is a list of reader questions and Ed's answers about Hollywood people and other celebrities. It's called Walter Scott's Personality Parade.

A few excerpts will give you an idea of Walter's gravitas:

Q: I'm against killing animals for fur. Does Jennifer Lopez use real fur in her Sweetface fashion line?

A: She isn't called JenniFUR for nothing.

Q: How many more seasons will Larry David do Curb Your Enthusiasm? Does he have other TV projects in the works?

A: We phoned Larry in L.A. and posed your questions to him. "Tell your letter-writer that my answer to both questions is 'I don't know,' " said the comedian, 57. And this time Larry wasn't kidding.

Q: What can you tell me about the little lost dog in the MasterCard commercials?

A: That's Toby, a 2 1/2-year-old Boston Terrier. Director Scott Hicks told us he selected Toby . . . because "he had a Charlie Chaplin quality."

Q: Why is it that celebrities like Whitney Houston and Robert Downey Jr. aren't satisfied with fame and turn to drugs?

A: Fame is a kind of addiction that makes one feel great for a while but soon wears off, so some turn to other stimuli.

Q: I heard that soft-porn star Krista Allen is pregnant with George Clooney's child. True or false?

A: False. That rumor spread after Allen, 31, who disrobed for the lead in Cinemax's sexy Emmanuelle series, left the L.A. production of Orgasms over a disagreement with the director. (He then reportedly started the pregnancy tale.)

Note: The Walter Scott job is reported to pay $300,000 a year.

All right, now for the serious entries in Ed's curriculum vitae. He became foreign editor at Newsweek and later assistant managing editor. In 1977, he went over to The New York Times as editor of its Sunday magazine. That job ended a decade later, not by his choice. Since then, he has written celebrity profiles for Vanity Fair, morphed into Walter Scott at Parade, and produced four gossipy, thinly sourced, and financially successful books about the Kennedy family.