davidvoegtle.net

Why the press is ignoring the Edwards “love child” story. – By Jack Shafer – Slate Magazine: “But if Edwards had an affair and lied about it, shouldn’t he suffer scrutiny akin to that of Craig? At least three-dozen daily newspapers in the United States published the Craig news the day after the Roll Call scoop, according to Nexis, but this morning not a single U.S. daily mentioned the Enquirer piece.”

The problem with this line of reasoning is that in the Larry Craig case there was an actual credible public record and a very credible witness: the police report of the incident and the officer himself. In the Edwards case we don’t have a similar credible record.

It would be, frankly, irresponsible of the media to play up the Edwards story at this point given the thinness of the record beyond the National Enquirer’s own reporting (which is, at best, hit and miss as far as credibility goes). Additionally, the National Enquirer has a vested interest in stirring up this story, possibly beyond what any actual facts gathered by the paper will support (increased circulation being an obvious one).

The rest of the media is rightly being cautious with this story.