"Last weekend, there were two extraordinary dramas playing out in Washington." So begins Newsweek's story about President Clinton and the 21-year-old intern. But there was a third extraordinary drama playing out: Newsweek's own agony about whether the story was firm enough to go with. The editors ultimately decided it wasn't and pulled it from last week's issue--only to post it on America Online midweek after Internet scoopmeister Matt Drudge had reported both the story and Newsweek's decision to spike it, and the tale had spread on the Web until it finally surfaced in Wednesday's Washington Post and Los Angeles Times.
Newsweek...