TOBY SHAPSHAK: Standing up to cyberbullies
Monica Lewinsky went from being an unknown to the most harassed person online. But she’s fighting back
Monica Lewinsky relates the story about the time a 27-year-old tried to pick her up with the "charming but unsuccessful" line that he "could make me feel 22 again". After a pause, she said: "I’m possibly the only person over 40 who doesn’t want to be 22 again." In 1998 Lewinsky was revealed to be "that woman" who had an affair with then US president Bill Clinton. The story was notable in journalism because it broke online, not in the traditional print publications. The then almost unknown Drudge Report published what was the scoop of the century after Newsweek erred on the side of caution and declined to run it. It marked a tipping point in journalism, with "digital first" becoming the medium for breaking news. "It was a click that you could say reverberated around the whole world," Lewinsky said at last week’s Login conference in Vilnius, Lithuania. The affair and ensuing Starr investigation almost got Clinton impeached. It made Lewinsky, in her first job out of university, a house...
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