Internal Affairs: Looking for Lewinsky, from Netly News (fwd)

[Declan McCullagh]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:41:04 -0800 (PST)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com>
To: politech at vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: Internal Affairs: Looking for Lewinsky, from Netly News

	
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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 at 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.)

   [...]