One hopes the news instincts of US journalism students are stronger than those of former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who was put on the spot by hack hopefuls at Northwestern University. President Bill Clinton could have spared the country the ordeal of the six-year, $50-million probe conducted by Starr simply by saying, "There was this activity, I shouldn't have done it, let's get it behind us as reasonably as we can," Mr Starr told them.