How did CNN, that oasis of "serious journalism" which always attacks a story facts-first, approach the Bush-cocaine flap in August 1999? First, in early August, the network teased the reader with talk of "rumors" about Bush on "Larry King Live." Then, it surfaced on several weekends as rumor-floating on "The Capital Gang" and as a media ethics discussion on "Reliable Sources."

Then it arrived on the news shows, but always presented in play-dumb terms as an unmanned missile, a question anonymously "dogging" Bush. (What rich irony!) CNN only had a candidate who refused to answer a question, beyond saying he'd pass a government background check. Wolf Blitzer and the president of CNN didn't send reporters anywhere to investigate. There were no lectures about getting ahead of the facts. The dominant expectation of CNN for days and days was that Bush must answer the charge. He had to deny something no one had credibly accused him of doing.

How low could it go? On its old all-female chat show, "CNN & Company," Chicago Tribune reporter Ellen Warren upped the ante, speculating that Bush was into heroin, not just cocaine: "No, the questions aren't going to go away. And if George Bush used cocaine or mainlined heroin, somebody did it with him, somebody saw it, and reporters will find out about it."

CNN not only presented and fed the rumors, it then accused others of having done it. Blitzer reported that while Democrats were "not going to out and start making those kinds of accusations" of cocaine use directly, they're happy "that at least some of the Republicans on the far right, some of the more right-wing Republicans, are doing in effect their work for them." He said this without giggling.

But the richest irony in the contrast is this: Obama has admitted in his biography to using cocaine in high school and college. CNN doesn't care. While they scour the globe to rebut madrassa stories, they're not asking him about this settled truth. Serious journalism, indeed.

As usual, CNN devotes its "serious" journalism to very partisan goals: defeating Republicans and making the path straight and flowery for Democrats. Now that's just reporting the facts.