[Jossip.com]- It really is quite a sad state of affairs when the one gossip rag devoted to exposing beloved politico John Edwards for the possibly cheating-on-his-dying-wife is in deep, deep financial trouble. The National Enquirer, which seems to be the only media outlet beating the drum on Edwards’ alleged cheating, is in the shitter.
More accurately, its parent company American Media Inc., which also publishes Star, is the one getting a swirlie in the outhouse. With hundreds of millions of dollars in debt (this is not new), much of AMI’s equity is about to be handed over to its creditors THL Partners and Evercore Partners (this is new) as makes the near impossible struggle to rid itself of endless red ink stains.
Oh, speaking of stains? Nobody is talking about the ones Edwards might be leaving around various hotel rooms as he cavorts with his maybe mistress. And here’s why!
The mainstream media is protecting Edwards. As Jack Shafer notes, fellow politico Larry Craig didn’t receive this same type of defensive treatment. Sure, Craig technically broke the law, which makes any scandal newsworthy enough for even the most pristine of journalism outlets to cover (though that wasn’t the case for the Times and Jeffrey Epstein). So with Edwards, there’s no real crime here, just sweet sweet sex scandal. But that doesn’t mean beltway reporters should be all hands off and stuff. At the very least, if we’re talking about equal treatment here, the Enquirer’s allegations against Edwards — that he has a mistress and a love child — would be vetted.
But the press has remained silent. In doing so, they’re letting three things happen: 1) Allowing the Enquirer’s story to go unchecked, growing into a not-quite-off-the-radar news item that begs to have another news outlet weigh in; 2) Allowing Edwards, if innocent, to be smeared by a gossip rag; 3) Allowing themselves to get beat on their own, ahem, beat.
Even the Huffington Post, which originally help further the Enquirer’s story back in the fall of 2007, is silent. In its place, the Enquirer gets to move its own story ahead, unchallenged, with every titillating detail revealed:
A team of ENQUIRER reporters caught the married ex-senator visiting his mistress and secret love child late Monday night at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles hotel.
As we reported previously, Edwards arrived at the hotel at 9:45 p.m. (PST) Monday, driven by a friend in a BMW, and was seen by ENQUIRER reporter Alan Butterfield.
We can now reveal that the man who drove Edwards was Bob McGovern, the same man who drove Rielle [Hunter] to the hotel from Santa Barbara and rented her room in his name.
[...]
* Edwards’ advisers are “spitting mad and furious” that his late-night escapades have made international headlines because it could derail his chances of becoming Barack Obama’s running mate.
* Edwards has not explained his whereabouts to any members of other news media outlets who have been trying to follow up on the story.
* His mistress, blonde divorcee Rielle, meanwhile, has returned to her home in Santa Barbara, Calif., and sources say she is “in despair” that Edwards might cut off contact with her because their latest rendezvous has been exposed in the media.
Meanwhile, only the independent blogs are left to wonder why the press has awarded Edwards a full-on blackout from this story. If this were a Republican politician, would the treatment be different? Many suspect as much.
