Bill Clinton: “Well, let me first of all say, the grade that they gave me is not as important to me as the grade, sort of objective…”

“Well, let me first of all say, the grade that they gave me is not as important to me as the grade, sort of objective criteria, that many of the journals here went through: just how much did we get done last year as compared with previous first-year Presidencies. And all the objective analysis concluded that we had the best first year in a generation, in 30 years or more, just in terms of the volume and significance and the difficulty of legislative achievements and advances. So I felt quite good about that, and that's how I measured my own. Secondly, if I could grade the press, I wouldn't, especially not now. [Laughter] But let me just say--let me make three points very quickly about it, either in general or on Whitewater. If you have any doubts about it, then that's good because you ought to be having doubts about things like this. But I want to make three points. One is, you can't generalize about the press today. You probably never could generalize about the press. But believe me, it is far harder to generalize about it than ever before. There is no way you can do that. Secondly, I think it is--the press, at least in this town, is very different from most of the press outside this town in terms of how they work and what's important and all of that. But they are under more competitive and other pressures today than ever before. I said last night at the radio and TV correspondents dinner that the Founding Fathers had two points of untrammeled freedom in our set-up. One was given to the Supreme Court and the lower Federal courts; that is, they had lifetime jobs. And they got that because somebody had to make a final decision. They have limited power but ultimate freedom. So they have to be careful not to abuse their freedom. The other was the press, because nobody could think of any practical way to limit the press. And in fact, the limits have become less, not more, with the weakening of the libel laws over time. And I just think that always, any kind of unrestricted freedom imposes great responsibility on people. And what happens here is, when you've got, for example, you've got all these different new outlets; you've got all these channels; you've got all this time to fill; you have all this competition now from the tabloids; you have the highly politically motivated outlets posing as news media, but not really, trying to affect what the news media do. It is more difficult to be responsible now than ever before. It is a bigger challenge than ever before. The third thing I would say is, while I am in no position to comment on this, you ought to read what Garrison Keillor said last night at the radio and television correspondents dinner. It was a stunning speech. I have never heard anyone speak that way to a group of media people. He obviously was from the heart, and he said some very thoughtful things. And if you really care about the issue, I would urge you to read what he said. I could not add anything to what he said last night.”