Gather near, ye young reporters, for a tale of glory

To journalists, a story like the one that brought down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is considered a once-in-a-lifetime deal.

The New York Observer’s John Koblin explains how a handful of reporters at the Metro desk – the “Cinderella section" of the New York Times newsroom – obtained the biggest scoop of the year.

According to two people involved in the story, it started on Friday, March 7, when William Rashbaum, a reporter of the old school whose outgoing message refers telephone callers to a pager number, got a tip. The nine-year veteran of the paper’s courts and investigations desks was holding a complaint detailing the arrest of four people associated with a prostitution ring; information in the documents told the story of a john in Room 871 at a hotel somewhere in Washington.

They knew from the tip that Client 9, as the court documents called him, was a “New York official,” one source familiar with the investigation said.

But which one? And what Washington hotel has a Room 871?

Click here for the rest of this truly fascinating story.