SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: If he knows in his heart that he was guilty of this, I would say he needs to resign. And I do think it's - it's indefensible that the newspaper in Idaho spent a year interviewing 300 people to answer the question, is he gay? JACK CAFFERTY, CNN: If this moron Larry Craig is reelected to the Senate, if he's stupid enough to run again, if he's re-elected, I will eat the Time Warner Center one brick at a time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whether he's gay or not actually is not our business. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: The pundits immediately began debating or denouncing Craig's conduct.

Still, without a shred of truth or evidence to the contrary, The Statesman has engaged in this witch hunt. If you saw the article today, you know why. LARRY CRAIG (R), IDAHO: For eight months leading up to June 11th, my family and I have been relentlessly and viciously harassed by 'The Idaho Statesman'. The senator denied doing anything of the kind, despite his guilty plea, and launched an extraordinary attack on the Boise newspaper. But that changed this week, when the Capitol Hill newspaper 'Roll Call' disclosed that Senator Craig had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in June in an incident in a Minnesota airport restroom stall, where an undercover cop said Craig appeared to be soliciting sex. Was the Idaho Republican gay? And if so, did that kind of information belong in a newspaper? At 'The Idaho Statesman,' reporter Dan Popkey spent eight months investigating allegations about the senator, and in the end he and his editors decided they didn't have enough proof to publish. (END VIDEOTAPE) KURTZ: For 25 years journalists had heard the rumors about Larry Craig. Why it's harder to move the outrage meter. Should news magazines be in the opinion business? And a quarter century of celebrity scandals. Did the media hold the attorney general accountable, or, as the president says, drag his name through the mud? Plus, 'Time' editor Rick Stengel calls for a program of national service. Should the paper have published the allegations about Craig's previous conduct, and why did it spike the story until after the arrest that led to Craig's resignation? And after Jim McGreevey, Mark Foley and David Vitter, is it open season on politicians' private lives? Rough justice? Alberto Gonzales resigns after months of negative stories about misleading testimony and ousted federal prosecutors. This after the Republican senator pleaded guilty to a lewd incident in an airport men's room. Larry Craig accuses 'The Idaho Statesman' of a vicious witch-hunt to prove he had gay sexual encounters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) HOWARD KURTZ, HOST (voice-over): Blaming the press. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. Coverage of the Larry Craig Scandal Gonzales Resigns

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