As for Adweek's once-scarlet reputation, she added, laughing, "We still print hot rumors, only now they're true."

"We don't print rumors," he said.

At the same time, several popular and racy magazines have printed rumors about four or five other unidentified women.

The articles repeat, almost verbatim, accusations that first appeared on Sunday in Sing Tao Daily, a newspaper in Hong Kong, where the press often prints rumors about the mainland.

Among Iraqi journalists, Al Hawza was known for printing wild rumors, especially anti-American ones.

"This is an absurd hypothetical with no basis in fact, and it's regrettable that there are newspapers that would print groundless, baseless rumors," said the spokeswoman, Anne Marie Corbalis.

Jay Ambrose, an opinion columnist for the Boston Herald, summarized their sentiment by writing, "One of the first rules of decent, principles-abiding journalism is that you don't print rumors.

Hell, they print rumors all the time.

If you can't print facts, don't print rumors unless you clearly identify them as such.

The stated reason was that by printing false anti-American rumors, the Shiite weekly, Al Hawza, stirred up hatred, undermined stability and indirectly incited violence.