---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:41:04 -0800 (PST)
From: Declan McCullagh
To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: Internal Affairs: Looking for Lewinsky, from Netly News
*******
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1708,00.html
The Netly News (http://netlynews.com/)
January 23, 1998
Internal Affairs: Looking for Lewinsky
by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)
Call it the year the Internet brought down a president. If
President Clinton just can't shake this week's accusation of
peripatetic philandering, let's give the Net some credit.
First, we must acknowledge Matt Drudge, the online rumormonger
who finally exacted his revenge on Clinton for supporting Blumenthal
v. Drudge, a lawsuit with a million-dollar price tag. When Newsweek
spiked an expos of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, it was Drudge who
spread the rumor across the Net and throughout the media on Saturday,
January 17.
[...]
Of course, until yesterday, Clinton's impeachment seemed about as
far-fetched a possibility as our unearthing one of Lewinsky's close
friends on Usenet -- which is exactly what The Netly News was
dispatched to do. Every time there's a major news event, our intrepid
Internet team is called forth to scour DejaNews, troll IRC and
mass-mail anyone who might possibly divulge information on the given
subject.
The Lewinsky search was less revealing than most. We found the
former White House intern's annual salary; her home address in
Portland, Ore.; the amount she and her mother donated to Democratic
campaigns ($1,550 in 1996). Someone informed us, in all seriousness,
that Lewinsky once gave him a goldfish. We also had people ask us if
we'd pay them for information. (Fat chance.)
[...]
