How should the mainstream media respond to lone-wolf cyber-reporting on the Internet? Not by lowering journalistic standards.

This column was written Jan. 31 — 10 days after the Monica Lewinsky “scandal” broke. It appeared in the April 1998 issue of The American Journalism Review.

I was interviewed on the topic of ethics in online journalism on Minnesota Public Radio’s “Future Tense: A Journal of the Digital Age” on July 26 and 27, 1998.

By J.D. Lasica

NEWSWEEK KILLS STORY ON WHITE HOUSE INTERN BLOCKBUSTER REPORT: 23-YEAR OLD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN, SEX RELATIONSHIP WITH PRESIDENT**World Exclusive**

**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**

That e-mail, sent to 50,000 subscribers on Jan. 18, launched us into a new era in journalism, one that is befuddling mainstream newsrooms as they struggle to sort out their relationship with the Internet — and as they redefine their own news standards. A few observations:

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