Hmmmm.... a few notes. First, I don't think anything that the Drudge
report described amounts to bribery in any legal sense. Second, this
sort of thing goes on all the time --- it's what large PR firms get
paid for. One of the books I've read on the rise and fall of Mike
Milken describes the conception and execution of a campaign like this
in great detail --- the PR drones even wrote op-ed pieces to appear
under other peoples' by-lines. It wasn't a great success for Milken
because getting convicted of illegal gamesmanship is a little hard to
hide --- but if you can avoid that kind of public embarassment, it
actually works a fair portion of the time.
rst