So, who's going to break the story?

The Kerry intern story has been “out,” or at least online since last Thursday. As of this writing, no major American news outlet has reported on it, although every single political reporter in the country was aware of the accusations within minutes of Drudge’s first post (if not sooner). The story’s been printed as far up the media food chain as the Guardian in London (which is pretty darn close to the top), but an eerie silence still prevails over the major American media.

Now, somebody is going to print this thing and/or talk about it on television sooner or later. Today’s parlor game is: who, and when?

A prediction: Fox News will not be the first. Fred Barnes made a very oblique reference to the story on Brit Hume’s show Thursday evening (if you hadn’t seen Drudge, you’d have had no idea what he was talking about), and a vast silence immediately decended on the round table. Everybody at FNC knows very well that Kerry’s people are just waiting to pounce on the opportunity to dismiss the story as “right-wing slime,” and the words “Fox News” might as well be synonymous with “George W. Bush” in the eyes of much of the rest of the media.

With Fox out of the picture (at least until the story breaks elsewhere), who’s going to take the bait? According to one overseas tabloid report, Kerry’s alleged paramour gave a tell-all interview to an unidentified American broadcast network. Is that network willing to go with the story? And if not, can they afford to be scooped by another outlet, say a mid-major newspaper like the Miami Herald (hello, Gary Hart)?

Place your bets, folks. Place your bets…

UPDATE: The alleged intern and her family are flatly denying reports of the alleged affair (hat tip to Instapundit for the link and my first-ever Instalanche).