Has the Internet abandoned its role as the leading incubator of political rumor?

Judging from the Net's nonchalant treatment of a steamy story alleging recent infidelity by a presidential candidate, the answer could be yes.

In its Jan. 4, 2000, issue, the National Enquirer has a story about a woman who claims to have had an 18-month affair with one of the leading contenders. (Although the Enquirer named both names, Slate will not do so. We want to be able to tell the story of the story without being accused--reasonably--of just using that as an excuse for telling the story itself.) Ms. X, described by the Enquirer as a "stunning Playboy model," claims to have had eight sexual encounters with the candidate in at least two states between December 1997 and June 1999.

Ms. X's story has little apparent credibility. The Enquirer itself concludes--19 paragraphs into its story--that "while her story may have the appearance of truth, it's false--although [she] vehemently defends it."

Rarely has the falsity or unverifiability of a spicy political rumor been an impediment to its widespread distribution on the Web. But Matt Drudge has taken very little interest in the tale of the candidate's alleged affair. And it's next to impossible to find Ms. X's story mentioned anywhere on the Net. Even two sites devoted to full-time bashing of the candidate have thus far been silent about the Enquirer story.

One of the major candidate anxieties of the 2000 presidential race has been that the unchecked proliferation of political rumor on the Internet would force mainstream media outlets to cover stories that were unchecked, or even irresponsible. For example, this summer the Wall Street Journal and other venerable media outposts ran stories on mere allegations of cocaine use by George W. Bush--without any corroboration--largely because the stories had become so widespread on the Internet.

And it's not hard to imagine Ms. X's story being picked up by, say, the Drudge Report, a British tabloid, and then the Washington Times--a time-tested spin cycle for dirty political rumors, particularly when they are damaging to Bill Clinton.

So far, though, there's been silence. One minimizing factor might be the fact that the story appeared in the publicity netherworld between Christmas and New Year's. And Ms. X's story seems to have less supporting evidence than, say, Gennifer Flowers' 1992 tale about Clinton, which was backed, however sketchily, by tape-recorded telephone conversations (a technology that would later revisit the Clinton presidency).

But clearly some of the Web's indifference to the Ms. X story is attributable to the gulf between the Web and the tabloids. The Enquirer's Web site has posted the cover of the issue containing Ms. X's allegations, with a big coverline hyping the "smear," but the Web site doesn't offer a click-through to the story itself.

The Enquirer's print circulation is a little over 2 million; it is part of American Media, a tabloid chain with annual revenues of approximately $300 million. In mid-1999 it was bought by the New York investment firm Evercore Partners.