Testing amniotic fluid? The media might have launched into a Sarah Palin feeding frenzy no matter what. But surely the fact that many--and maybe all!--of the National Enquirer's craziest charges about John Edwards were right is playing a major role here. Likewise Eliot Spitzer's astounding self-destruction. There's a sense in newsrooms these days that you simply can't discount a good rumor anymore, however wild....
--Michael Crowley