Tabloid story "largely unaddressed by major news organizations until Edwards' admission"

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Mainstream media finally jump on Edwards' affair
'It's good to see public acknowledgment that our story was accurate all along,' says the National Enquirer's editor. But what took so long?
By Matea Gold, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 8, 2008

NEW YORK -- The mainstream media's near-silence about a tabloid report that former presidential candidate John Edwards had an extramarital affair with a campaign worker ended abruptly Friday when the cable news networks immediately pounced on the story, broken by the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer last year but largely unaddressed by major news organizations until Edwards' admission. Fox News, CNN and MSNBC all ran extensive coverage of the scandal throughout the afternoon, while the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the Washington Post immediately posted stories about the controversy on their websites.

While several newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, were trying to pursue the story of Edwards' affair, the sudden burst of attention Friday after he confirmed that he had a relationship with Rielle Hunter, who produced documentaries for his campaign website, was a marked contrast from the way news organizations tiptoed around the original reports....

***

The Enquirer's stories caused waves in the blogosphere but got little bounce from major print publications or television networks, which largely steered clear of the allegations....

Edwards' confession appeared timed for minimal exposure, coming on a Friday night when many viewers would be watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics. But the news immediately triggered a wave of anger and disappointment on Internet message boards, along with pointed condemnation of the press. "Probably the biggest question about this whole mess is why the mainstream media protected Edwards by ignoring the story for the past 8 months," read one typical comment on ABC News' website.

In fact, several news executives said their organizations had been pursuing the story but had not yet confirmed enough to run their own piece.

Sam Feist, CNN's political director, said reporters for the cable network had been trying to nail down the allegations since the fall and had been in California and North Carolina in recent weeks working on the story. But with Edwards vehemently denying the affair and another campaign worker claiming to be the father of Hunter's child, the network felt it needed persuasive information before running its own report, Feist said. "In a story like this, these are significant allegations," he said. "I think it's entirely appropriate for a news organization to wait to report a story until they have information that they're comfortable with reporting."...

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-edwardsmedia9-2008aug09,0,7588585.story

[ErinBerin84]

1. all of this faux self-examination by the media heads is really nauseating.

They are just pissed that they got scooped...they could be investigating the John McCain story as well, if they think that this is such a moral issue of relevance, which HAS been addressed by a serious news outlet and had serious elements of the story besides the alleged affair, but no- John McCain's denial is good enough for them in that instance.

[MonteLukast]

2. Hmmm.... Because, I don't know, they're the NATIONAL ENQUIRER? (nm)