Jones-in' For More? When Paula Jones announced that she would pursue an appeal in her sexual harassment case, an almost audible sigh of relief went up from the national media. As the teary-eyed White Trash Super Model made her stuttered speech into the microphone, news rooms across the country came to life with new hope. The show would, indeed, go on. The response was exactly the opposite after a judge threw out the case: after years of coverage, including a recent barrage of scandalous leaks and suppositions, the mainstream press had lost their will to cover. And that feeling is almost understandable, given the euphoria they bathed in right up until Judge Wright's gavel made its final contact with the block. Feast or famine, they say in the news business, and this winter and spring the press did feast at the Buffet Table of Clinton's Indiscretions. And quite a spread it was (pun intended). Jones was the main course, with a large side of Lewinsky. And then, for dessert, a handful of Willey. Ah, the pickin's were easy, as the tit for tat (or was it tat for tit?) played itself out nightly on the news, and daily on the front pages of virtually every newspaper in the country. Between leaks from the Independent Counsel's office, and the various smear campaigns run from the White House, the stories practically wrote themselves. In fact, temptations were so great, that many journalists dispensed with such inconvenient and time-honored (not to mention time-consuming) traditions as fact-checking. The story was all-important, and if the details were wrong, hey, there was always tomorrow. The most blatant example of this was offered up by the Dallas newspaper, which revealed that a Secret Service agent had stood watch outside the Oval Office while the president got a little "Hail to the Chief." Unfortunately, they had to retract the story later, but what the hell, they got it first! Monica's "blew dress" was another example of fabricated facts, offered up by a literary agent - no doubt hoping to cash in on the intern's indiscretions. And the Paula Jones case headed full-steam towards a summer spectacle, chock- full of sex and abuse of power. Media moguls bought stock in that story, and front page editors drooled at the prospect of a season of salacious headlines. They sent the cream of their muckraking crop to Little Rock, to prepare for the Three Ring Event that was about to unfold. Well, those same men wept openly when the case was dismissed at the 11th hour. Reservations were cancelled. Reporters were sent back to beats with less sex (like the Senate...OK, bad example). And editors began looking for (gasp!) news to cover. You could see it in their faces; bloodshot eyes, with bags like a travel agent going to Europe, and the constant nail-biting. And then, just when it seemed that all hope was lost, that brave soul - not yet guaranteed of a book deal or mini-series - agreed to press on with the appeal. The season may have been saved. The media has new life; there will be only one rerun this summer. Ken Starr, no doubt, also breathed a sigh of relief, as his gave his continual digging new legitimacy, and the Bimbo Trail is likely long. He will get more interviews, and more sensitive information to leak. And the media will have an event to cover. Reservations are being re-made as we speak, and the editors are again wringing their hands with glee. The show will, again, go on. Watch for it in a newspaper near you!