The US media have virtually ignored the latest attempt to revive a six-year-old allegation that President Clinton fathered a child with a black woman while he was governor of Arkansas, Joe Carroll writes from Washington.The Drudge Report, an Internet gossip column which published the first reports on the President's relationship with Ms Monica Lewinsky and that her dress would be part of the evidence, claimed last Friday that DNA testing will be used to try and prove that Mr Clinton is the father of a 13-year-old boy from Arkansas called Danny Williams.
The New York Post, owned by Mr Rupert Murdoch, splashed the story in early editions last Sunday under the headline "Clinton paternity bombshell" but it has been ignored by the mainstream US press and news agencies. The London Times, also owned by Mr Murdoch, and the London Independent have carried reports
The Star magazine, one of the sensational supermarket tabloids, is reported by Mr Matt Drudge to have signed a contract with Danny Williams and his mother for a paternity test. The Star's investigative reporter, Mr Richard Gooding, who first revealed that Mr Clinton's political adviser, Mr Dick Morris, was having a relationship with a prostitute, is reported to be arranging the paternity tests.
Danny Williams's DNA genetic sample, which he provided last month, will be compared with the DNA information on President Clinton published in the Starr report. In the report by the Independent Counsel, details are given of the FBI tests on Ms Lewinsky's dress which matched Mr Clinton's DNA.
In the book, Primary Colours, a semi-fictional account of the early stages of Mr Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, and in the recent film of the book, there is an extended reference to the allegation that he fathered a child with a young black woman.
The paternity allegation has resurfaced just as Mr Clinton is facing an impeachment trial in the Senate on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, raising questions on the timing. Attempts are also being made to give publicity to allegations of rape concerning Mr Clinton that are referred to in unpublished documents given by Mr Starr to the Congressional committee which investigated the impeachment charges.