US press treating Al Gore sexual assault story like a fantasy

Almost a month ago, the National Enquirer broke the news that a massage therapist in Portland, Oregon claimed she had been sexually assaulted by Al Gore, vice-president to Clinton when he was in the White House and Nobel prize winner in 2006. 

She claims that, while giving him a massage, he forced her to touch his pubic region and forcibly embraced and kissed her, pinning her to the bed and molesting her until she managed to escape. 

Several weeks later, she reported the incident to the police but then decided to pursue the case in the civil courts. She made a full statement to the police in 2009 but they refused to pursue the matter, citing "insufficient evidence". About a month ago, she approached the police again, asking for a copy of their report which she provided to the Enquirer. Portland police have now reopened the case. 

According to this report in The Nation, most media outlets have not bothered to follow the story or to ask an expert for their opinion. Instead, they have trotted out excuses in Gore's defence, treating the story as though they had a choice between defending Gore’s integrity or indulging in a base appetite for celebrity scandal, as if there wasn’t a possibility that a real 54-year-old woman had suffered a violent assault.