The tabloid story that everybody's talking about -- but almost no one is writing about -- has created an interesting debate on the Internet about the dueling roles of old/new media and what constitutes legitimate news.

The item prompting this debate concerns allegations of a former presidential candidate's alleged affair, an alleged "love child" and a recent secret rendezvous in a Hollywood hotel.

Scandalous, no?

Well, yes and no. The "news" is being breathlessly discussed that way on the internet, but not much in the mainstream media. When does a story in the blogosphere become hot enough to make the jump to the MSM?

The short answer is: When there are facts to report. Until then, a rumor is a rumor is a rumor.

And tabloids, though sometimes right, are generally considered prurient entertainment, not reliable journalism. There is a difference in standards, even if mainstream journalism sometimes falls short of perfection.

The blogosphere is another creature altogether -- a mixture of the highest and lowest levels of discourse, a village square where the planet's brightest lights and dimmest creatures commingle in a random loop of spontaneous ignition. Content, often begun as a conversation among neighbors, is freewheeling and unrated. Journagossip.

As we've witnessed several times in recent years, what happens in the blogosphere can eventually reach a tipping point and jump the invisible barrier to the MSM. Mickey Kaus, a respected journalist and blogger, has created a theory of "undernews" around the phenomenon -- news that simmers in the blogosphere until someone high on the mainstream food chain decides to take a bite of the apple.

The cycle looks something like this: First, the "news" is essentially gossip, based loosely on unnamed sources. Then the news is the story of the gossip. (Ah, the dull thrill of irony.) Then the story is the nonreporting of the story. And, voila, the "news" is News! What began in the tabloid world as gossip has gained legitimacy by virtue of the media covering itself.

As here.

Sort of.

I'm trying to write this column without repeating the actual allegations because they're unproved, but also because I don't care. Of greater concern than the tragedy of human frailty, which is not news, is the driving force behind the story -- schadenfreude -- the pleasure in others' misery. Continued...