Isn’t it a little strange that a former Vice-Presidential nominee and two-time Presidential candidate can be cheating on his wife, who is fighting a battle against terminal cancer, and yet the media doesn’t care?
It seems like the perfect story complete with all the trappings of a soap opera, including a secret love child. So how has John Edwards escaped the media inferno that would usually appear at the first sign of something like this?
Is it because the story came from The National Enquirer? Maybe that would be a valid line to argue, but other Enquirer stories and scandals have gone mainstream in the past.
Is it because Edwards is no longer a public figure? Well, no. He was a Presidential candidate this year. His endorsement sealed the deal for Barack Obama. And some people have even speculated that he would consider a second bid for Vice-President or a run for statewide office in North Carolina. He’s hardly been shy as of late. Heck, the day the Enquirer caught him with his mistress he was in town to meet the mayor of LA at a poverty event.
So why exactly is Rielle Hunter still a relatively unknown name, but everyone knows about Mark Foley and Larry Craig? Both deserved their fates, political ruin, but neither man fathered a child out of wedlock. Neither man was seeking the highest office in the land. They were, essentially, regional politicians of minimal note who were plucked and thrown onto the national stage due to their outrageous behavior.
Edwards is a national figure, and yet the media is treating this story like it doesn’t exist. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe we’re done with the era of sex scandals dominating the news cycle and distracting people from more important matters. If that were the case, I would be fine with the media leaving Edwards alone about all of this. It is a private matter, after all. But the problem is the double-standard.
If Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee had been caught behaving like this, you can be darn sure that CNN anchors would be breaking into their regular programming to eat it up like vultures. But they like Edwards, in the same way they like Obama, and that’s why Edwards is getting a free ride. At least so far, there’s only so much the mainstream media can ignore. We’ll have to wait and see how the story develops over time.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Actually I think it is because he is no longer a public figure. I mean really, who the hell cares about this twit?
July 25th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
The reason the mainstream press isn’t taking this on is because the Enquirer broke it, which means it is highly likely they got it wrong. Yes, the Enquire has broken true stories in the past, but they also have $240 million set aside each year to pay for legal suits, because they get sued a lot for telling lies. And if a major news outlet were to carry the story before it was proven, they could get majorly sued, not to mention lose credibility.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Foley held a national office and was using federal resources to target underage victims. Craig held a national office and pled guilty to his crime. How in the world does that compare to a story about someone that holds no office that so far has no real proof behind it(pictures, videos, tape recordings, hotel records, etc)?
July 25th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Three reasons.
It’s the Enquirer.
After the Clinton - Lewinsky affair, people yawn at this sort of thing.
Also, Republicans make a much bigger deal about morals than Democrats. It seems more hypocritical when they get caught.
If the Republicans want to stop alienating fiscally conservative social moderates like me, they need to stop banging the morality drums. But I guess they’ve done the math and figured guys like me are expendable in the big picture.
July 25th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Maybe Larry Craig fathered the baby of the man that gave birth…oh, he couldn’t do that because he’s a she. It is all so confusing.
Karl Rove doesn’t need this story to smear anyone. Edwards is a non-factor. It is sleazy, it is cheap, but people dying in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Bush/Cheney crimes pale in comparison to your garden variety unfaithful Senator. Mildred and Monica Republican are outraged more people aren’t upset at John Edwards and they urge John McCain to drop more bombs on Iraq.
Pretty sick world when Republicans are such voyeurs and want to peek into people’s bedrooms instead of saving lives. Again, Edwards is being a cad, but Bush is a murderer. Where are your priorities?
July 25th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Um…because he’s Democratic. Isn’t it obvious that the media hides all the mistakes Democratic politicians make (example: Obama giving a speech on America’s 58 states)?
July 25th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Alan Butterfield is the Enquirer reporter claiming to have witnessed Edwards in the hotel for a rendezvous with his alleged mistress.
“For those unfamiliar, Butterfield is a reporter for the National Enquirer-yes, the supermarket tabloid-and is the one who “broke” the gay sex-ring story about Ed Smart and several of his brothers. The story was based on information obtained from unnamed sources. Later it became known that some unnamed sources were paid $10,000 each. In the end, the information proved to be false and two reporters, Kevin Cantera and Michael Vigh of The Salt Lake Tribune, were fired due to their involvement in the fiasco.”
‘Academic freedom, The National Enquirer and U’
from The Daily Utah Chronicle, 10/23/03
July 25th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
As an American I simply want more fair Media period!
July 25th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Give me a break.
July 25th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Answer to the headline: Because it came from the freaking National Enquirer! Not the Wall Street Journal!
July 25th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
John McCain was sleeping with his current wife while still married to his former wife.
Huh.
July 26th, 2008 at 2:29 am
If the names weren’t revealed this would sound like a replay of Newt Gingrich’s or John McCain’s first marriages. A dog is a dog regardless of what political affiliation he has. John has a lot “splaining” to do. What’s the matter with these men? Clinton, Gingrich, Jesse Jackson, McCain, Craig and now Edwards?
July 26th, 2008 at 3:05 am
If the media is so liberal, why has there been zero coverage of respected Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi’s book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, which has been on the best seller lists for almost 2 months?
July 26th, 2008 at 3:08 am
This is crazy, the videos she made are all on YouTube
They’re both clearly in love with each other.
He looks so besotted with “camera girl”
You can see that she gave an interview to EXTRA on their website when this first came out. She has a very colorful history and likes the attention.
All of the information is coming from a “source” close to Rielle.
She wants this to come out, she wants John to admit to the relationship. I don’t blame her. I’m sorry for Elizabeth. She was the brain behind the man. Elizabeth got sick and had to focus on herself rather than him. She lost his attention and he is an insensitive narcissist who is incapable of understanding how to use a condom.
July 26th, 2008 at 4:45 am
If you are a liberal you can get away with anything , we have proven that fact over time haven’t we
July 26th, 2008 at 6:38 am
EXCLUSIVE
I found very scandal video with John Edwards at
http://John-Edwards.notlong.com
July 26th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Just a guess - but maybe it’s because:
1. The woman has said Andrew Young Jr. is the father and he has admitted that he is at great cost to himself as a married man with 3 children.
AND
2. There are no facts contradicting this.
One suggestion - if conservatives spent as much time on ideas as they do on smears, they might stop being a laughingstock.
July 26th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I hope my wife dies soon. I can use the insurance money to pay for my new baby’s college tuition.
July 27th, 2008 at 2:22 am
THE FULL MCCAIN
McCain just blew off speaking with thousands of reporters at the upcoming Unity national convention for journalists all the while complaining he’s not getting nearly enough news coverage. At last count, it looks to be over 10,000 reporters who were snubbed by Mr. McCain. With all those news reporters losing out on a great opportunity to meet with and write about the man, could it be that mainstream media might be looking for something to report, a story to investigate?
Feel free to forward the following “news tip” to them. We can kill three birds with one stone - take the media to task for not giving us coverage on the full McCain, bring attention to an issue affecting many veterans, and give Senator McCain the level of news coverage he craves.
The media fills us full with stories of McCain’s war ‘hero’ history, writes numerous articles on his status as a POW, informs us each and every time one vet speaks out for him, reminds us endlessly about the torture, even going into great detail about the types of torture and the number of years the man was tortured, yet it never enters the minds of mainstream media to ever ask the obvious question “Could the man running for the highest office in the United States of America, a job with incredible stress, possibly suffer from PTSD”?
Google the general web with the words ‘mccain ptsd’ and 577,000 hits will appear. Many of these are articles by veteran groups, most having to do with McCain’s lack of support for veterans and others having to do with the very real possibility he suffers from PTSD.
Now go to Google news section and enter ‘mccain ptsd’. To be fair, google the entire Google News archive. Out of the grand total of 80 news articles that appear, You will find maybe two or three that dare discuss the probability of McCain having PTSD,
As you can see, there is no real mainstream media responsibility on this issue. The press is more than willing to talk about the details of McCain’s torture but not the probable result of the torture.
“Among U.S. servicemen taken captive during the Korean War, as many as nine out of 10 survivors may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental disorders more than 35 years after their release, psychologist Patricia B. Sutker of the New Orleans Veterans Administration Medical Center and her colleagues report in the January AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY.”
McCain has a nine out of ten chance of having PTSD, displays many of the symptoms, yet no one in the mainstream press will question him, a candidate for Commander in Chief who has a history of an out of control temper and refuses to release his military medical records to the general press.
Nine out of ten - Anyone willing to take book on the possibility he does not suffer from ptsd? Call me, I need gas money.
‘Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, can result from wartime trauma such as suffering wounds or witnessing others being hurt. Symptoms include irritability or outbursts of anger, sleep difficulties, trouble concentrating, extreme vigilance and an exaggerated startle response.’
http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSN17282413
http://ptsd.about.com/od/symptomsanddiagnosis/a/PTSDsymptoms.htm
Before the Iraq war many of us begged the media to fully report on the wmd in Iraq, how it got there, who helped to supply Saddam with it and to report on previous administrations’ dealings with Iraq. We were told it was ancient history. The media ‘apologized’ years later for their failure to fully report the war.
Today, we ask the media to help us answer the question ‘Is John McCain emotionally fit for the most stressful job in our country, the President of the United States, our Commander in Chief.”
Media has a choice. They can continue to tip toe around the elephant in the room, put a politician before country, violate the spirit of journalism and ignore the ethics that bind them, or they can do their job. They can give us the full McCain.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Voters-Deserve-The-Full-Mc-by-MsSwin-080724-291.html
July 28th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
They may be waiting for some facts to come in… But it is odd…
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:43 pm
John Edwards is a phoney. He used Elizabeth and his beautiful family to promote himself as a devoted “family-man”….to win votes. If the MSM promoted him in this manner to gain Democratic voted isn’t this misleading their readers if they do not investigated their preferred candidates?…isn’t it unfair to their readers (or listeners)….what has happened to truth and integrity??
August 10th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Are you kidding me? You might want to pay a little attention, Austin Cassidy!
What do you mean ‘the media doesn’t care’?
The John Edwards affair led the national news on CBS last night, they spent a good part of ‘The Situation Room’ on CNN talking about it on Friday, the story led on the national news on NPR just after it broke on Thursday/Friday and it was on the front page of most news websites and newspapers. Also it was talked about ad naseum on most local news outlets.
And although I agree that The National Enquirer is nothing more than a supermarket rag, every now and then they do come up with some good news stories. For example they obtained, before any other news outlet, the famous picture of Gary Hart with a blond woman on his knee that sank his second bid for the White House and they took center stage when it came to the OJ Simpson trial.
You might think about spending a little more time on research the next chance you get to make false accusations like this, but since you fancy yourself a ‘journalist’ on websites such as conservativepulse.com we know that people who post to those sites — p.s., posting to a site in no way makes you a journalist — don’t worry about such a minor issue as facts or the truth.
I hope that you can become more enlightened to reality and try harder in the future to live a better, more truthful life: as we all should.
Thank you.
Chris Fraas
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
A better question might be why is the media ignoring the Ted Stevens scandal?