And, like Patterico, I think I believe him. Ron Rosenmaum claimed he ran into a well-connected person who know for a fact that the Los Angeles Times is sitting on a major sex scandal involving a presidential front-runner whose campaign has shown signs of dwindling. Well, Matt Welch is an Assistant Editorial Pages Editor for the LA Times. He says he’s never heard of the story:

I can tell you the following — I have never, ever, ever, never, ever, ever, ever heard anything about this. And I spent last week in Washington DC, worked in the LAT bureau, went to parties with LAT muckety-mucks, and gossiped with dozens of people who cover presidential politics; none of whom ever so much as mentioned anything about it. Rosenbaum’s single, anonymous source is most certainly wrong, at least about the “everyone knows” part. He also most certainly is wrong that the same “everyone” apparently “doesn’t know what to do with it” — seasoned political journalists are not helpless bystanders in the face of juicy rumors, they are specifically trained to go out and investigate them, and report when relevant.

As for Rosenbaum’s agonizing over “reporting” such a thing, I don’t have much respect for it. Either report or don’t; save us the handwringing about stooping to “Web 2.0? whateverthehell.

You can quote me on all of that.

Patterico writes:

This doesn’t mean the rumor isn’t true, but it’s the way to bet.

True.