We Report, You Decide

By Kevin Robinson in News on Oct 20, 2006 1:30PM

If you're in the know (like Chicagoist here), you might have heard the blogosphere blowing up yesterday amidst rumors that Jerry Weller was the next local politico to go down in the Congressional Pages sex scandal. But now the latsest (unofficial) word out of Illinois' 11th District is that a report that a page had been hit on by a Congressman had spun wildly out of control in the overheated election coverage. It got so bad that some bloggers were announcing that Weller was holed up somewhere preparing to resign, and that his campaign webpage had been taken down. (Not true.)

Yesterday evening, after a few beers, we watched the blogosphere's next big thing unravel. Some people are accusing lefty bloggers. Others Democratic operatives. Although Chicagoist doesn't like Weller's politics, we also understand that you can't run around breathlessly declaring the downfall of people if you want to have any credibility. Especially when there is no evidence.

Chicagoist is sad to say that none of this stuns us. We know how it is: everyone wants to break the big story, and having a blogger do it, as opposed to a "real journalist", only makes it sexier. And while we have published our share of rumors, it's never been at the expense of someone's integrity. Maybe letting the air out of the next big thing is the only thing as sexy as breaking the next big story.