Over the last several weeks I’ve been making phone calls here and there, tracking the slow progress of the National Enquirer’s allegations against Democratic heavyweight John Edwards (namely that he has fathered a child with Rielle Hunter, a high paid former campaign consultant, and engineered hush money and an elaborate cover up of said child) from the tabloid to other quarters of the press.
Today, the Enquirer raised the stakes by publishing a very blurry (suspiciously blurry?) photo of what they claim is Edwards and Child.
The Charlotte Observer, the largest paper in Edward’s home state, has probably given more ink to the tale than any other paper in the country. Last Thursday, they reported that Edwards had pointedly declined to take questions from reporters, again and again, after appearing at a AARP event in DC. On Friday, the paper also got a hold of Hunter’s child’s birth certificate, where the space for the father’s name was left blank.
I just got off the phone with Lisa Zagaroli, the Observer’s Washington correspondent.
“Did you see the Enquirer today?” she asked. “We are in the middle of this right now.”
As Drudge would say (what an unusually apt phrase!) DEVELOPING.
You guys are on top of things there at CJR!
It only took you a little more than two weeks to hop on the story!
Well done!
Some toothless "watchdogs" we have here policing the world of "professional journalism" for us. All that goes on at CJR is a little "here and there" touch-tone dialing.
A presidential candidate (and Edwards is indeed still one - his campaign is merely "suspended" and he has not released his delgates) has a love baby after dragging his terminally ill wife out on tour and parading her around to rack up votes, and CJR sits on its hands.
Like this sort of nonchalance would occur if a GOP candidate turned up with a baby mamma.
Posted by padikiller on Thu 7 Aug 2008 at 04:27 PM