U.S. newspapers tread lightly in rumor on Kerry infidelity

The story is being shushed around the family dinner table — and in newspaper city rooms — but all the neighbors are talking about it.

What the neighbors are talking about are rumors of marital infidelity by Democratic White House front-runner John Kerry, and they have learned about them from the Internet, talk radio and the foreign press.

There has no been confirmation of the infidelity rumors, nor any admission by the parties directly involved. Mr. Kerry himself said there was nothing for him to talk about on a radio show Friday.

But the foreign press, U.S. tabloids and the Internet are writing and talking about it anyway. American newspapers are getting it into print by writing about not talking about it.

“White House hopeful John Kerry’s campaign plunged into crisis last night amid sex scandal rumors,” reported the Daily Record of Glasgow, Scotland. “U.S. website The Drudge Report, which revealed former President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, claimed married Kerry had a similar relationship with an intern.”

A headline in Canada’s Calgary Sun declared “Democrat denies any Kerry-ing On,” while Australia’s Melbourne Herald Sun, quoting a remark by the father of the woman in question, trumpeted “Sleazeball hit on my daughter.”

The Times of India reports the “Presidential contender and favourite John Kerry brushed aside reports of an extramarital affair and said his campaign was not vulnerable.”

Even if American newspapers, anxious not to be tarred as “sensationalistic,” are merely clearing their throats, the tabloids and Web pages have extended the “story hour” at the kiddie table overtime through a half-dozen news cycles with still no proof.

“Despite his outward unconcern, Kerry’s campaign was rattled by the rumor, which first appeared Thursday and was widely discussed on conservative talk radio,” said the New York Daily News.

“Campaign operatives worked hard over the past two days to silence the whispers, strenuously reminding reporters that no one was making any clear allegations,” the Daily News said.

The New York Post posed questions to the Kerry campaign, with no response, about whether the candidate knew the woman or whether he had invited her to Washington to discuss his campaign.

“Rumors about Kerry’s personal life have been swirling for days, sparking intense discussions among his own supporters at a time when he seems close to locking up the Democratic nomination to challenge President Bush,” the New York Post reported.

The Drudge Report on Thursday did not say Mr. Kerry had an affair, but that “a serious investigation of the woman and the nature of her relationship with Sen. John Kerry has been under way at Time Magazine, ABC News, The Washington Post, The Hill, and the Associated Press, where the woman in question once worked.”

The woman, identified by several British and European newspapers as Alex Polier, went to Kenya after a reporter asked whether she had a two-year relationship with the senator from Massachusetts.

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