James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times has a great take on the way media outlets are handling unsubstantiated rumors about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan being gay.

Rainey points out most mainstream media are ignoring the story since Kagan and the White House flatly denied the rumors, and no evidence exists that they are true.

But he properly hits some other blogs and fringe media for digging it to it again and again despite the story having no legs.

“In exercising something called news judgment -- so passé to bloggers and others who only nominally occupy the same profession -- the traditional media make some calculations many of the newcomers don't,” the story says. “They try to decide not just what's rumored, but what's true; not just what's interesting, but what's important; not just what the audience wants, but what it needs.”

He later adds: “Newer media opinion makers may trash the traditionalists, but they care -- oh, they care a lot -- about what the mainstream media are doing. So do the U.S. senators who will determine whether to confirm Kagan, currently the U.S. solicitor general, to the Supreme Court.”