John Edwards Visits His Mistress as the Main Stream Media Sleeps

There have been rumors for the past couple of years that John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina, and a two time candidate for the office of President, has had an ongoing affair with one of his campaign staffers. Some of these rumored reports also claim that Edwards is the father of the staffer's child, now two years old.

Edwards of course denies the rumors, but still they persist, and events of last week may give these rumors new legs as reporters from the National Enquirer reported following Edwards to the Beverly Hills Hilton hotel where he, using the back entrance and avoiding the main lobby, used a service elevator to visit Rielle Hunter, the staffer in question, and her child. Hunter, according to these reports had reserved two rooms at the hotel, one for herself and her baby and the other, under assumed name, for Edwards.

On leaving Ms. Hunter's room after 2:00 AM Edwards was reported as to have taken the freight elevator directly to the basement parking garage where he was met by reporters from the Enquirer. Reports say a stuttering, red-faced Edwards returned to the elevator which he took to the hotel lobby and proceeded to lock himself in the men's restroom. Here he remained until a hotel security guard found him and agreed to escort him to a waiting car.

Edwards later issued a statement critical of the tabloid's tactics (ambushing him in the parking garage), but, did not deny the confrontation or the reported facts.

To date, this story has only appeared in the National Enquirer. Why, one has to ask has the main stream press avoided reporting the story? There have been no front page headlines in the New York Times or any major National Newspaper, and only brief mention of the story on cable news shows.

The New York Times would defend its' absence of coverage by saying we need more facts to substantiate the story. And yet the Times had absolutely no hesitation to smear John McCain with a front page story concerning his rumored affair with a lobbyist Vicki Iseman which was rumored to have taken place eight years earlier. The Times had no facts,nothing more than rumors (some would say gossip) and in fact had interviewed Ms. Iseman who firmly denied any romantic relationship with McCain, and yet ran the front page story during the peak of the McCain run for the Republican nomination.

Isn't it fair to expect a newspaper like the New York Times to distinguish between factually reported news and rumors for a front page story?

It appears that such distinctions are made only when it fits the political agenda of the newspaper.

The Edwards story may turn out to be completely fabricated, just as the McCain story was. Still, major news media, and especially the New York Times, which prides itself as providing all the news fit to print should not provide one news standard to political candidates it supports and another to those it politically opposes.

The New York Times seems to have lost sight of the high standards of journalism that made it so successful.

It is a shame.