As evident in yesterday's afternoon post, deciding how to handle the rapidly spreading assertions about Larry Craig's sexuality had editors stymied well into the night.

"We went round and round on that," Steve Smith said. "It was not an easy call."

"I think in the end we decided that, given the political context, we couldn't ignore it," he said.

One argument against running the story, which I posed yesterday and again this morning, is that it enables unsubstantiated assertions made on blogs and talk radio to become legitimized in the mainstream press.

Sports editor Joe Palmquist shared this concern. "I worry about the precedent a little bit," he said. "There's crap like this all over the place - it never makes the paper."

But the media universe is also changing, and stories that circulate through the blogosphere are no longer reaching only a specific niche audience.

"There seemed to be critical mass on this one," reporter Jim Camden said.

Camden said his preference would have been to lead with the accusation and follow with Craig's response, but Smith insisted the story lead with Craig. The senator's denial "elevated and helped support the story," Smith said.

Lynch under investigation

A B1 brief today about a state patrol investigation of Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch's conduct was somewhat unusual in that it credited KREM-TV with airing the story first. Apparently, we had some of the details of this story in our hands, but for reasons unclear at the time of this writing, it hadn't been budgeted for a story.

"Getting it in the paper was the proper decision," Smith said. "What she's alleging would be a criminal incident," he later added.

"If it had been any other official ... we would have done the same thing," Gary Graham added.

Smith credited KREM's "dogged young reporter" Jared Dillingham for staying on top of the story.

"Part of me is quite pleased and relieved to have KREM on this one," Smith said. "Let them take the grief for a day or two."