Many folks having been wondering why the “mainstream media,” as we’ll affectionately refer to the news organizations slashing their budgets, haven’t picked up on the John Edwards-mistress-love child story, which the National Enquirer has been pursuing for months. A handful of media operatives (who are in the business of reporting this sort of thing) we spoke to about the situation believe the Enquirer’s reports, but won’t be writing about it anytime soon.
If you ask NBC political director Chuck Todd, he’ll tell you: “I think a lot of news organizations are reminding themselves that Edwards is a private citizen and no longer running for any office. Should he end up being nominated for some public position, many news organizations may start looking into these allegations. But for now, he’s a private citizen.”
Is that really good enough? Had Larry Craig no longer been serving as a senator, would we really have not seen that story overwhelm the cable news cycle? Doubtful.
Also: Edwards is still in the news cycle, as a vice presidential candidate. Todd’s own employer has reported on the possibility Barack Obama will choose Edwards as his running mate. The media, including NBC, has used a much lower standard for deciding what’s news than the possibility of who might be second in command. (Isn’t the Edwards scandal enough for news networks to debate the idea that maybe he won’t be selected as VP?)
So we went to the one guy who might have an inkling as to why the Enquirer is running with the story when nobody else is: David Perel. CONTINUED »
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! CONTINUED »
Sen. Jon Edwards isn’t the only high-profiler to be accused of cheating by a tabloid. Today, Star firmly places Matthew Broderick, husband of future reality TV show franchise and mole-free Sarah Jessica Parker, in that section of the Venn Diagram. Supposedly a 25-year-old red headed lass is the object of Broderick’s affection, and they began a tryst earlier this year after meeting at a bar, and continued things while SJP was shooting Sex and the City. That Broderick’s mistress calls him “Matty Cakes” adds a whole layer of authenticity to the report.
John Edwards may not be running for president, but he’s still in the running to be America’s Next Top Attorney General. Which means that little story about his love child, with campaign staffer Rielle Hunter, is still on! [NYDN] The National Enquirer reports Hunter, who claimed the father was fellow campaign staffer Andrew Young, has given birth to the baby and, naturally, wants Edwards and she to submit to a DNA test to prove, once and for all, that American Media wastes money as a matter of policy.
Tricky pronouns might have done John Edwards in on MSNBC this morning. After Edwards told the hosts at Morning Joe that whoever got his vote would get his endorsement, they were trying desperately to get Edwards to tell them who he voted for in North Carolina’s primary. He attempted to play coy, until he accidentally spilled the beans by saying, “I just voted for him Tuesday.”
Derogatory insults aimed at presidential candidates aren’t just for women. This week, The Note founder Time scribe Halperin called Barack Obama a “pussy” (or surmised that’s what John Edwards thought of him) on Barbara Walters’ Sirius satellite radio show. Now Halperin says he’s sorry about the remark; he “used a word I shouldn’t have.”
When John Edwards announced his commitment to helping the impoverished, including homeless veterans, it gave Bill O’Reilly an opportunity to offend America’s patriots.
On The O’Reilly Factor this week, the Fox News anchor insisted there weren’t any homeless vets living under bridges, or scraping money together just to feed themselves. Well, okay, there are a few, O’Reilly admitted, but they’re “addicted or mentally ill, it has nothing to do with the economy. [...] The only thing sleeping under bridges is [Edwards'] brain … We’re still looking for all the vets under the bridges, so if you find one, let me know.”
Funny logic, there. And also, a challenge.
So documentarian Robert Greenwald summoned a half dozen homeless vets and brought them to Fox News’ studios to show O’Reilly that there are, in fact, people just like them who aren’t on smack, or lunatics. Greenwald also packed a petition, with 17,000 signatures, asking O’Reilly to apologize.
You know where this is going. Rather than admit his folly, O’Reilly refused to make good on his bet, and instead producer Jesse Waters downstairs to meet with the group rather than appearing himself. Naturally, cameras were rolling the whole time. CONTINUED »
REALITY IS CALLING, EDWARDS FINALLY PICKS UP THE PHONE The son of a mill worker won’t be president any time soon. John Edwards has acknowledged the unpopularity of white males and dropped out of the race. He has not endorsed a candidate, but we’re betting he’ll go with Barack Obama as a bitch-slap to the Clintons. [AP]
Tyra Banks is fierce and as such she always asks the tough questions. With John Edwards on her couch, she forgoes softballs about Elizabeth Edwards’s health or how this campaign is destroying his young children’s emotional well-being. Instead, she goes straight for the meaty stuff, like what’s it for John Edwards to be an underdog because he is white and male?
“It feels like you have to fight for everything,” Edwards says.
Wow, how different from being female or black in this country.
After last night’s Democratic presidential debate, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer “rebuffed a suggestion that he had adopted a more lenient stance after critics charged he was too restrictive at previous debates.” Why all the hub-bub? Because Blitzer moderated a veritible free-for-fall among Clinton, Obama, and Edwards. The New York Times Brian Stetler called his style “exceedingly lenient.” TVNewser’s Steve Krakauer reports he “allowed candidates to interrupt each other and follow up to each other’s answers” while “cheers and clapping from the crowd [erupted] throughout every answer.”
We watched the debates from the treadmill at the gym on closed caption, so our experience was more like:
What she sai–
said wasnt tru.
We acounnnt for every cingle $
that we pre– propose.
Now this I think is one ov
of
the things that’s
happend
during the curse of this campaign.
DON’T STOP BELIEVING Despite poll numbers, results of the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary, his wife’s cancer and his young children, John Edwards is staying in this election. At what point does optimism become self-delusion? [NYT]
Famous blogger and personal friend, Chris Beam, appeared on The Colbert Report last night. The best part is when they Photoshop Chris’s beard onto John Edwards. You can’t hire and compensate writers fairly for comedy like that.
That crazy and crazily influential butter lady has made a butter bust of Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton and John Edwards should just withdraw now. [Caucus]
… just how coincidental it is that the National Enqurier – owned by American Media Inc., which Clinton family friend Ron Burkle is looking to buy – pieces together a “secret love child” story about John Edwards just in time for the Iowa primary.
If the 2008 Campaign were a Shakespearean play, John Edwards would be one of the side characters you don’t care about, but know you will be tested on later because he acts as a foil or something.
Anyway, as is our duty, the woman The National Enquirer claims John Edwards was inside is pregnant and has relocated to Chapel Hill. The baby is John’s, according to sources at The National Enquirer.
In case you forgot, getting some chick knocked up while you’re cheating on your cancer-ridden wife is considered bad form.
Andrew Young, an ex-key official in Edwards’s campaign with a young family of his own, says he’s Rielle Hunter’s baby-daddy. The Edwards campaign seems like one big party, a losing party, but still a party.
[Photo Credit: fubuki on Flickr]
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