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THE Clinton administration has hit back at the American press over its focus on the potential for scandal to overwhelm the President during his second term.

The legal office issued a 331-page tome blaming a "media frenzy" - orchestrated by "Right-wing" think-tanks and abetted by British newspapers - for the leader's troubles. The report claimed that activists in the think-tanks fed "conspiracy theories and innuendo" to receptive US correspondents of London newspapers and, in a "blow-back" effect, the "mainstream" press of America picked up the British reports, which were then covered as "real" stories.

The White House singled out Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of The Sunday Telegraph as a participant in what it said was a well-organised "media food chain" of events.

The correspondent was described as being on the staff of a British "tabloid". The document said that in his reporting of incidents such as the mysterious death of Vincent Foster, a lawyer in the executive mansion who allegedly shot himself, Mr Evans-Pritchard had even accused the dead man of being a spy.

Mr Evans-Pritchard said: "I have never written that. I specifically said I doubted the story. The White House seems to be displaying a standard of accuracy that would not pass muster at any of the newspapers they are attacking."

The report also scorns Richard Scaife, the conservative philanthropist, for using a £485 million fortune to fund the Western Journalism Centre and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper, which have questioned the official versions of episodes such as the Foster shooting. The White House bolstered its argument by re-printing a column by Mike Royko, a usually witty Chicago newspaperman, who wrote that it was always jarring for him to look at the British press and find that its journalists seemed to be "a bunch of scumbags".

He singled out for mention William Rees-Mogg of The Times, saying: "I can't resist calling a scumbag a scumbag, even if he takes high tea and had a hyphenated name." The invective was prompted by a Rees-Mogg article on Whitewater and "corruption" in Arkansas.

The high anxiety being displayed by the White House is understandable. Newsweek has just admitted to a change of heart in its treatment of a claim by Paula Jones that Clinton sexually harassed her at a hotel. It now finds some merit in her case, as does the highly-respected American Lawyer magazine.

In addition, The New Republic has accused the "establishment" Press of America of "passivity" in covering Clinton ethics or scandal stories in 1996, saying that reporters were "culturally sympathetic" to the leader.

15 December 1996: Foster dead . . .and so Clinton goes to bed
6 January 1997: Wife of former Clinton aide seeks divorce
5 January 1997: Cliffhanger as Gingrich faces down his friends

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