“I didn’t get into journalism to write about Brett Favre’s private parts,” harrumphs Howard Kurtz today in his last Washington Post column, and most mainstream reporters would agree. “But our ability to spike such tawdry tales ended many seasons ago.” Now blogs can drive the news cycle, which is both a good and a bad thing. “The danger, as sleazy stories ooze from the depths of the Web, is that traditional news outlets find themselves spreading unsubstantiated garbage.” But often, these allegations are proving to be true.
Deadspin broke the Favre story in a way no paper ever would: It revealed its source and published her private correspondence without her consent, it paid to get its hands on Favre’s lewd texts, and published them without additional verification. But maybe that all amounts to “an admittedly distasteful public service. A professional athlete hitting on a team employee is news, regardless of who breaks it, and those of us in the so-called respectable press had better get used to it.” (More Brett Favre stories.)
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Ghostery 
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