The metro section of today's New York Times carries an article that runs under the headline, "Clinton Is Unlikely to Join New York Bar." The article contains a sentence that says, "Mr. Clinton admitted to the independent counsel on Friday that he had lied in a 1998 deposition that he gave in the Paula Jones sexual misconduct case."
This description by the Times goes beyond what Mr. Clinton actually admitted to. In his press statement, Mr. Clinton acknowledged "that certain of my responses to questions about Ms. Lewinsky were false." And in the consent decree, Mr. Clinton admitted "that he knowingly gave evasive and misleading answers, in violation of Judge Wright's discovery orders."
But, according to the definition of a lie given by Sissela Bok in her authoritative book on the subject -- and according to the legal definition necessary to meet the standard of the crime of perjury -- a lie is a willful falsehood, the act of knowingly telling an untruth. Perhaps the fact that Mr. Clinton can still get away with claiming he did not lie constitutes a flaw in the agreement negotiated by the independent counsel. Perhaps that fact is what allowed a deal to be reached. But a careful parsing of the statements released Friday -- and any statement by Mr. Clinton requires careful parsing -- makes it clear that while Mr. Clinton admits giving false testimony and admits knowingly giving misleading and evasive answers, he never admits to knowingly giving false testimony.
In other words, Mr. Clinton still hasn't admitted the crime that he was impeached for. It's a subtle point, but an important enough one that it is an error for the Times to write that Clinton admitted "that he had lied." Clinton came close to admitting that, but in fact he avoided admitting it.
"Prostrate" Cancer: Smartertimes.com is operating off the early edition of the Times that hits the streets in New York on Saturday nights. And maybe this error will be fixed in later editions. But for the moment, it lends a kind of Archie Bunker flair to a news article on Mr. Clinton's decision not to grant a pardon to Michael Milken. "Mr. Milken had prostrate cancer then, but has in recent years has enjoyed good health," the Times reports. Never mind the extra "has." Milken had cancer in his prostate, not "prostrate."