June 01, 2004

The Other Intern

Alexandra Polier, the woman who in February was falsely rumored to have had an affair with John Kerry, has broken her long silence with a piece in New York magazine this week- and since she’s a journalist herself, they let her write it and do all the reporting.

Yes, it’s a fascinating account, of a woman screwed over by the worst excesses of the tabloids, the internet, and Matt Drudge. But there’s one very huge hole in the piece: Polier depicts the episode as American journalism as its worst, while in fact the mainstream media, for once, actually did everything right in handling the story.

The Kerry/Polier (non)story broke on the Drudge Report on Thursday, February 12. While it was discussed there, on talk radio, and on blogs that day and the few days after, the mainstream media completely ignored the story for an entire weekend- not even the New York Post or Fox News Channel reported on the story until the following Monday, when Kerry himself went on Don Imus’ radio show and issued an official denial.

At that point, Kerry’s acknowledgement (and denial of) the rumors made them a story that the papers and networks felt safe covering. But prior to that, columnists and television panelists- even the most anti-Kerry- practically tapdanced around the topic. On Brit Hume’s Fox show, Morton Kondracke referred to Kerry’s repeated Bush/National Guard references as “a preemptive strike against what’s to come,” while not venturing into specifics. Andrew Sullivan, that day, described going on Howard Kurtz’s CNN show, which "was a little surreal. We had to discuss why we won't mention the story that we weren't discussing.”

So really, with few-to-no exceptions, the mainstream media (for a change) did its job, and actually avoided the temptation of throwing a ratings-grabbing political sex story into round-the-clock coverage. Not that such restraint was much comfort to Miss Polier, I'm sure, as non-journalist Matt Drudge was still giving it 24-hour play.

Then again, the A-Rod-to-the-Yankees trade happened that same day as well, so perhaps the NewYorkEliteMediaOfCocktailParties were all just distracted.

At any rate, my favorite part of the Polier piece was seeing the exposure of rodent-like political operative Chris Lehane as the likely source of the leak. Hopefully this will finish off his career for good, if Kerry’s nomination didn’t do so already.

Posted by Stephen Silver at June 1, 2004 10:04 PM
Comments

I heard that Kerry interview on Imus... he didn't deny it in his own words, he said that there was no story there, and then let Imus den it for him... granted I don't think it is a story, but his denial was a bit too political for me, and I actually like the guy.

Posted by: Dan Sichel at June 2, 2004 02:14 AM
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