"I think Marty Heldt did an impressive amount of research and what we set out to do is to see how far we could extend that research," Keating said. "In the end, I don't think he had the full story, but the Web allows people to self-publish whether they have the whole story or not. That seems like a negative thing, but it's an interactive medium. At least there can be some back and forth in a way that's not possible in print."

Heldt's piece and the Democrats.com piece by Robert A. Rogers both conclude that there are serious holes in the Bush military record. Democrats.com goes beyond the evidence to offer some theories about why those holes exist, and where Bush was when he was allegedly AWOL.

Certainly, the Web has served as a petri dish for all sorts of conspiracies, including those about political candidates. Throughout the month of September, a widely-circulated rumor whizzed across the Internet that Dick Cheney would remove himself from the GOP ticket due to some trumped-up heart problem, and that Colin Powell or John McCain would take his place.

This particular story's life seemed to fade pretty quickly. "Given the information that suggests Bush skipped out of a year of his military service, the story has gotten remarkably little attention," Robinson said. "But in politics and journalism, timing is everything. We're in the news business, and in the news business, you publish a story when you get it. If we'd published this story in September, there's no question it would have gotten much more attention." But Robinson sounded a note of fatalism about his story. "No reporter thinks his or her story ever gets the attention it should receive," he quipped.

But these stories are tailor-made to enjoy long lifespans on the Internet. Is it a case of the Internet gone haywire? Or is the print media walking away from a story they can't pin down? The answer, Keating says, is yes to both.

The record shows that Bush gave up flying, seemingly overnight, Keating says. Records show that he did not fly again after leaving for Alabama. That, Keating says, is puzzling. "It brings up the deeper question. A switch does seem to flip where he decides not to fly anymore. I think it's worth asking about why he suddenly decided not to fly again. That's a worthwhile question to ask."

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