Even amid the grossly overpublicized possible sex scandal President Clinton reminded us the State of the Union address was about the state of the nation, not the state of his sex life, and people seemed to agree.

NBC’s The Today Show reported that the Presidents’ approval rating jumped to 68 percent after the speech. CNN reported similar results after it polled 488 people after the speech. Seventy-eight percent said they were confident in Clinton’s ability to govern, and 48 percent said they were very confident.

The polls showed people’s reaction or confidence in the speech, but what is disturbing is that although the speech had so many viewers, most probably tuned in for the wrong reasons.

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Most watched to hear any remarks about the alleged sex scandal with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, not about the current state of the budget or about the continuing crisis with Iraq.

The news media obviously was looking for the same, since many of Wednesday’s headlines focused on Clinton not commenting about the scandal. The Chicago Tribune headline stated, Clinton speech ducks scandal.

The idea that the nation’s budget could be balanced for the first time in 30 years is a topic much more newsworthy than a possible scandal.

With this latest scandal, the news media has sunk to the level of supermarket tabloids. With another possible war brewing with Iraq, many papers and television shows opted to run lengthy scandal analysis epics full of speculation and assumption of fact while ignoring many pertinent issues concerning the welfare of the nation.

Media that did choose to talk about the Iraq crisis view the threat of conflict as a political smoke screen, designed to take the public eye of the alleged affair, much like the current movie Wag the Dog.

It is interesting the media have given this most recent scandal so much coverage though the scandals of Paula Jones or Gennifer Flowers nearly have disappeared.

The media also should remember these issues are separate. A conflict with Iraq, if initiated, will be the result of months of planning and development, not a quick-fire method of diverting attention.

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Whether or not Clinton is guilty of wrongdoing will be determined in time, and if guilty, he should be punished. But the media has tried to turn this issue into a Watergate-type story, and needs to return to covering important issues, like the ones described in the State of the Union address.