Newsweek has a pretty interesting (although slightly peg-less, given its bare mention of the unmentionable Palin coverage) article on the National Enquirer’s post-Rielle, post-Internet role in the media landscape. But this paragraph is just soo huffy:
Yet even when the mainstream media followed the Enquirer into the muck, it did so tentatively. Recall that in 1998, while this magazine was proceeding cautiously with what would have been the first story about President Bill Clinton’s affair with a White House intern, the less discriminating Matt Drudge hijacked NEWSWEEK’s reporting and broke the most sensational political-sex-scandal scoop in American history.
Though I suppose Drudge has suffered much worse than being labeled “less discriminating.”
Clint Hendler is the managing editor of Mother Jones, and a former deputy editor of CJR.