By now half the world knows that the story about President Clinton and the allegations of having sex with a young White House intern was published by an Internet reporter, Matt Drudge, while Newsweek got cold feet about publishing its original story researched by Michael Isikoff. "Newsweek kills story on White House intern: 23-Year-old, sex relationship with President," announced a Saturday night headline on the Web-based Drudge Report.
"The Drudge Report has learned that reporter Michael Isikoff developed the story of his career - only to have it spiked by top Newsweek suits hours before publication," the report stated. The story first appeared on the Web, 72 hours before it was published by most mainstream media. Drudge's Web site (at www.drudgereport.com) had a quarter of a million hits within hours of posting the article.
Although Drudge had scooped Isikoff (not for the first time), Isikoff rebounded by using the Internet himself, when Newsweek posted his report on its Newsweek Interactive site on America Online - four days after deciding not to run the story. The magazine said the story had never been spiked, simply put on hold while reporters gathered more information.
For Drudge (31), the gossipmonger, journalist and Internet maverick, it was revenge. His 18month-old Drudge Report had become an irritant to the traditional media, and had been criticised for his ethics and low journalism standards. The California-based Internet editor admits he gets his facts right only "80 per cent of the time". "Sometimes if you're really wrong, it makes you more famous," he once said.
He currently faces a $30-million libel suit after he repeated unfounded allegations that White House communications aide Sidney Blumenthal was a wife-beater. He was forced to retract that story within 24 hours, admitting he had been tricked by politicians to "broadcast dirty laundry".
His reporting has escalated the debate about how to regulate information released into cyberspace, and even the Electronic Freedom Foundation has decided to keep a safe distance.
For Drudge, the Clinton/Lewinsky story was even more sweet; not only was it an attack on the credibility of the President but it also undermined the journalistic establishment which he holds in disdain.
The Drudge Report offers its 85,000 subscribers information gleaned from everything from obscure press agencies to police scanners and White House insiders; it has quirky headlines and humorous asides. The sheer volume of Clinton smears that Drudge has been prepared to distribute has left him feted by conservatives.
While some view him as part of the American tradition of free speech, others view him as dangerous to journalism. Speaking about the Internet and his critics, Drudge says: "They just don't know what to do with it. But they're going to have to start accepting it.
"I think the Internet's going to lead the way on this," he said on the day the story appeared in the Washington Post. By then, of course, his prophecy had already fulfilled itself, since it was already three days since the Drudge Report had informed the world that Newsweek had "killed" the story.
The Clinton/Lewinsky story was his greatest victory because in this case his perceived weakness - his eagerness to put stories on the Web regardless of whether their authenticity had been established - was also his greatest strength.
The Drudge Report, we were told repeatedly this past week, could signify an important new trend in US journalism. On the other hand it might mark a return to an earlier tradition, albeit in electronic form, of the highly partisan journalism that was the hallmark of American media in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Internet forced the story to develop at light speed. Compare this with Watergate, where it was two years between the break-in and President Nixon's resignation. At the time, the editor of the Washington Post, Ben Bradlee, could get Woodward and Bernstein to find another source without fear that a partisan journalist would publish elsewhere.
Newsweek's president, Richard Smith said: "I wasn't prepared to air an allegation that a young White House intern had an affair with the President without more independent reporting on her." But now it is unlikely that he will have that luxury ever again.
The Web offered hard news, minute by minute, on sites such as MSNBC. Meanwhile a range of unofficial and fan sites offered the chance of vote for or against Clinton or Lewinsky, as well as parodies, jokes, conspiracy theories, merchandise, T-shirts and even nude photographs of Lewinsky, which probably owed more to Photoshop than reality.
Some sites were so busy it was difficult to log onto them. Even the Web site of Monica Lewinsky's old university was swamped by reporters and ordinary Internet users looking for more information about her.
What was evident throughout was that the new media offered little in the way of greater credibility, higher standards, or better stories. Matt Drudge's best source continues to be the old media, and his scoop owed everything to Michael Isikoff's legwork. What the Internet offered was speed. It was the speed of the Internet that pushed the story along and forced it to balloon into the final shape it took.
Michael Foley is at: mfoley@irish-times.ie