News of 19-year-old Albert Gore III's Sept. 5 drunk driving arrest wasn't reported for a full eight days - until a political gossip column in the Washington Times broke the news blockade yesterday. The media cover-up of Gore Jr.'s latest brush with the law stands in marked contrast to alcohol-related offenses involving the Bush family, stories the press has repeatedly rushed into print over the last two years. As of Saturday morning, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Associated Press and most other big media outlets had declined to cover Gore Jr.'s alcohol-fueled antics, which came to an abrupt halt when he was pulled over by military police just outside the Pentagon. At the family's request, the press also declined to report young Gore's 1996 suspension from the tony Washington, D.C., prep school St. Albans after he was discovered smoking marijuana in the cafeteria. "[Vice President] Gore called leading news organizations around Washington and asked them not to run the story, and all complied," reported Newsweek's Bill Turque in his book "Inventing Al Gore." In stark contrast, alcohol-related incidents involving first daughters Jenna and Barbara Bush have been widely and immediately covered by the mainstream press, as were the recent drug-abuse troubles of first niece Noelle Bush, who was discovered last week with crack in a Florida drug rehab center. Though reporters acquiesced when Mr. Gore secretly asked them not to cover the 1996 drug incident involving his son, the press has ignored repeated public requests from first lady Laura Bush to show the same discretion with her daughters.