French Watergate with a difference

There is talk of a French Watergate, but with at least one difference: the would-be Woodwards and Bernsteins behind the biggest scandal to hit Sarkosy work on the Web instead of at a newspaper.

In an intensifying drama over accusations of political corruption, a news Web site called Mediapart this week published its most incendiary article yet, accusing Sarkozy of receiving illegal donations from he 87-year-old heiress to the L’Oréal fortune Bettencourt, during his 2007 election campaign.

Sarkozy has issued vehement denials. They said that the source of the accusations, a former accountant to Bettencourt, had partly recanted in testimony to the police. Aides to Sarkozy have lashed out at Mediapart. Xavier Bertrand, the leader of his right-leaning political party, the UMP: the Union for a Popular Movement, accused the site of “fascist methods” on French radio last week.

Mediapart, however, has stuck by its article, reveling in its ability to set the news agenda in France, where its reports for weeks have provided the grist for the front pages of the next day’s newspapers. It is one of several news and investigative journalism Web sites that are flourishing in France, even as the printed press sinks deeper into crisis.

While Sarkozy’s approval ratings had been steadily declining even before the scandal, the polemic has boosted Mediapart.

Founded two years ago by Edwy Plenel, a former editor of Le Monde, and other former print journalists, Mediapart has pursued a business strategy as iconoclastic as its approach to news. Unlike the majority of news sites on the Web, it charges readers for access. Over the last month, fueled by the newfound notoriety, subscriptions have surged by 20 percent, to 30,000.

“Two years ago, everyone looked at us as if we were crazy, saying news on the Web is free,” Bonnet said. “We did everything in reverse.”