John Edwards: Why Big Media won’t touch a tabloid sex scandal

If you rely on “Respectable Newspapers” to keep you informed, said Ken Layne in AOL News, you’re missing out. Former Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards is “the alleged star of a creepy sex scandal” spiced up with elements of political power, betrayal, cash transfers, vanishing evidence, a fall guy, a saintly wife dying of cancer, a late-night hotel rendezvous in Beverly Hills, even a “love child.” So why do the mainstream media seem determined to cover it up?

That’s an easy one, said the Crush Liberalism blog. The media are hopelessly and shamelessly biased in favor of liberals. The New York Times will happily publish a “smear job” on John McCain, a Republican, but it won’t touch “the John Edwards lovechild story,” even though it is “more corroborated."

Consider the source, said Neel Shah in Radar Online. It was the National Enquirer that reported last week that its reporters and a photographer had ambushed Edwards in the wee hours of the morning as he slinked out a hotel where his “rumored mistress,” Rielle Hunter, was staying. If the story’s so air-tight, where are the pictures?

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“The accusations may or may not be true,” said Jeffrey Weiss in The Dallas Morning News’ Religion Blog. “That's not the point.” Mainstream newspapers are investigating, but they have “different standards of credibility.” They don’t pay sources for information, and, unlike the Enquirer, they won't publish anything they can't nail down with at least two sources.

The high-minded mainstream U.S. press is missing out on more than juicy gossip, said Sarah Baxter in the London Times. This is a real political blockbuster. Edwards has dismissed the story as “tabloid trash,” but it is almost certain to kill his once solid hope of being picked as Barack Obama’s running mate or attorney general.