If I was like Drudge, I'd scream out that the media is investigating potential marital infidelity of the governors in Texas and Colorado. I'd also neglect to mention that those media "investigations" have turned up nothing of substance.
In Texas, Rick Perry's rumored philandering, with a man no less, had Austin in a tizzy. But by all indications (and there are a lot of them), it wasn't true. The Austin Chronicle writes about it.
For the record, Naked City looked into the Perry rumors when they first surfaced some weeks ago - inevitably accompanied by the warning, "The divorce papers are being filed today!" - and found no evidence of any truth to any of them, whatsoever. Amid much finger-pointing about who was the original source (and which political party he or she belongs to), nobody will go on the record. The governor's office (perhaps understandably) refuses any and all comment beyond a one-sentence statement from Perry spokesperson Kathy Walt: "These are false, malicious, and hurtful rumors, and the Chronicle's own investigation acknowledges that fact."
We also know that numerous other reporters, from here to New York, have looked into the rumors, with, as far as we know, an identical lack of results. Nor do we expect anything we say here to have any effect on the rumors, which have become entirely self-replicating as they echo through the blogosphere.
This Austin Chronicle piece is, by my reckoning, the first time the rumor has been discussed in print. The press has been remarkably resistant of writing about the rumors. The Colorado rumors (much less juicy than the Texas ones, but similarly untrue) are getting the similar cold shoulder from the media establishment.
Good. They are to be commended.
Of course, that contrasts starkly with the treatment Kerry's bogus infidelity story received. While the major news outlets resisted the temptation to jump on that bandwagon, Drudge, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and others made sure the story was widely disseminated, despite the absence of most truth.