Spring Break
Partisan bickering
Drudge dropped the ball when he reported unsubstantiated claims about Kerry
By: Collins Ezeanyim
Issue date: 2/24/04 Section: Opinion
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The Fox News Channel deserves congratulations. That is not a typo. The conservative news network upheld its journalistic integrity - whatever little it had to begin with - by not reporting on a Web rumor that Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts had had an affair.
It began when online muckraker Matt Drudge posted a story on his Web site, drudgereport.com, on Feb. 12. The report concerned what Drudge called a "frantic behind-the-scenes drama" unfolding around Kerry due to media probes of his supposed infidelity with an intern. Drudge said Time magazine, The Associated Press, The Hill, The Washington Post and ABC News were investigating the rumor with the interesting tidbit that Kerry may have made the woman flee to Africa to avoid any leak of their relationship.
The same story also included an alleged quote by Gen. Wesley Clark, "Kerry will implode over an intern issue." The woman's father was quoted in the British tabloid, The Sun, as calling Kerry a "sleazeball."
The conservative media was quick to pick up on the story. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity both reported about it on their popular radio programs.
However, Fox News apparently told Hannity not to mention the Kerry
rumors on his TV show "Hannity and Colmes," according to conservative news Web site chronwatch.com.
Since then, any indication that the rumor had a basis in reality unraveled when the woman in question, Alexandra Polier, said in a statement that she had never had a relationship with Kerry, according to USA Today.
Furthermore, her father claimed that he had been misquoted by The Sun and even intended to vote for Kerry. The Clark quote also doesn't make sense considering he dropped out of the race the next day and went on to endorse Kerry.
Drudge posting the rumor and submitting it as truth is an indication that partisan politics during this election year will have the potential to be quite ugly, especially when it involves the Internet. Fortunately, the American people now know that such mudslinging will be balanced by cautioned and restrained reporting by major media outlets.
At the very least, Drudge should have had the consideration of coming up with an original scandal. A story on a prominent Democrat having an affair with an intern is woefully unimaginative.
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