This is not the first time. Remember Drudge breaking the Monica story? Before that the press had it, but refused to publish it.
Go further back to the original JFK years. The affairs that the LSM covered up, the buyoffs of Senator (maybe pre Senate) JFK shacking up with a Soviet spy, etc.
Then there the application of Dem power:
One story I heard repeated recently, was that rare time Teddy Kennedy got in to some trouble in Boston.
President JFK summoned the publisher of the Boston Globe to the oval office.
The end result was that the story was below the fold (can't see it on the newstands...) in much smaller type and # of
columns than how a real newspaper would treat such a story.
It's probably not the 1000th time..!!!