Know what's been missing from all the postmortems about the mainstream media not covering the John Edwards scandal? Some input from religious types! Other than Bill O'Reilly! Generally, the devout frown on the cheating-on-your-wife thing, and especially the cheating-on-your-ill-wife thing. And the Catholics, who spend much of their time warning followers about spending eternity in hell, are quick to point out sins. Including those made by the media at large. Hope you've got your holy water in a bottle with a squirt spout top!

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Sometimes we connect dots just for the sake of seeing how many lines we'll need. It's like Soduku, for the weary. So we took two of the biggest items from the news cycle right now — Rielle Hunter and her maybe-love-child with John Edwards, and Ben Stiller's sort-of-offensive-but-really-just-whatever film coming out this weekend, Tropic Thunder — and rigamarolled a game of Six Four Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Without Mr. Bacon. It involves two of the 80s biggest coked-out yuppie nihilist writers (pictured left), and it's fun for the whole family once the kids are put to bed!

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CBS News SVP Paul Friedman says he didn't report on the John Edwards scandal because the network "saw no reason to make his life or the life of his family any worse, until it became well-documented or he admitted it, which is what happened today." Uh huh. The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz says he " came to believe that we should publish a story. But I don't get paid to make those decisions." Riiight. And Politico's Michael Calderone insisted there was no coverage in his space because "it was decided that writing on the rumors — without confirming them — simply validates the Enquirer," which, it's been shown, got much (if not all) of the story right.

But you know who also claims to have had the story about Edwards' affair but opted out of reporting on it? A one Bill O'Reilly, who, like Friedman, was doing the kind thing and not making Elizabeth Edwards' life miserable! Instead, O'Reilly just smeared Edwards as a shitty senator. "And that is the true story," he said last night. "The Factor painted an accurate picture of John Edwards without harming his family." Now, is that "accurate" with one "in-" or two?

"John Edwards, a former United States Senator from North Carolina and Democratic Party presidential candidate, admitted to an extramarital affair, which was initially alleged and published by The National Enquirer, an American supermarket tabloid newspaper. The story had been neglected by some members of the American mainstream media. The Enquirer cited claims by an anonymous source that Edwards had engaged in the affair with Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker hired to work for his presidential campaign, and that the relationship had produced a child." [Wikipedia]

And speaking of McInerey: Another 2,500 copies of his book Story of My Life, whose party girl character is based on Edwards' future mistress Rielle Hunter, are being printed to meet demand. It went out of stock on Amazon.

'Friday night's exclusive "Nightline" interview with former presidential candidate John Edwards, which rocked the media landscape earlier in the day, did little to boost the news program's ratings, although it was able to hold its audience against the Olympics opening ceremony on NBC. Friday's "Nightline" averaged a 2.6 household rating in the preliminary local people meter markets measured by Nielsen Media Research. That was on par with the previous week's household ratings. Also on par was the show's 1.2 rating in adults 25-54. But that in itself isn't a loss as "Nightline" managed to hold its own against the NBC Olympics juggernaut, not losing much in the way of audience as other shows did.' [THR]

"The first time I laid eyes on Rielle Hunter, I could tell she was a story," insists Newsweek's Jonathan Darman, who, to be fair, did publish a "short story about how Edwards had brought this rather unorthodox woman, whom he'd met in a bar, into his campaign to make videos that showed off his unseen side" in the magazine's Periscope section way back when. But Darman doesn't get through the first graph of his post-John Edwards scandal reflection without saying this: "Edwards now admits that he had an extramarital affair with her. But at the time I had no reason to suspect there was anything between them." In hindsight, Darman may claim he knew Hunter was a story — just not what type of story.

And that's pretty much what every other media onlooker is going to claim, — you know, now that they've given themselves permission to address the issue.

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So, have you guys had enough of John Edwards and his his crazy-hippie-blogger mistress, Rielle Hunter yet? No? Us either. Sorry Edwards, it's news, and it has been news since National Enquirer broke the story in December, despite no major media outlet touching the story before Friday.

But now the floodgates are opened and we are allowed to treat this story for what it really is: gossip about a politician's illicit sex scandals. So with that in mind, who wants to watch the web videos Hunter made for Edward's 2004 VP campaign?!

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Rielle Hunter, the confirmed mistress of John Edwards and lunatic web publisher, did not father the ex-senator's love child, if you're to believe his interview last night with ABC News (video). But Edwards is willing to take a paternity test, if only Hunter will participate, and share the results with the media. Know what? Hunter's sister Melissa thinks it'd be a good idea that Edwards take that test, which is a signal that at least part of the Hunter camp thinks — and is willing to say so publicly — Edwards is the father. (Worth nothing: Last month Extra reported that Hunter denied the Enquirer's allegations. Then again, Edwards was doing that up until two weeks ago.)

Edwards blames the whole thing on "narcissism" and on feeling "invincible."

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Despite someone trying their damnedest to keep confirmed homewrecker Rielle Hunter's website out of the public eye, it was really only a matter of time before the proof of this woman's weirdness surfaced. Entitled "Being Is Free," Hunter's site is chock-full of New Age-isms and talk of the zodiac, chakras, and spiritual healers, none of which granted Hunter enough serenity to resist the temptation of a married man with a dying wife. And while the site is offline, we got a look at the whole mess of it.

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And so he's done it: With less than two weeks before the DNC convention (aka D-Day), John Edwards has come clean, at least a little bit, about his extramarital relations with former webmaster Rielle Hunter — though he insists he's not the father of Frances Quinn, Hunter's new daughter.

In an interview with Bob Woodruff on tonight's Nightline, Edwards will admit he cheated on wife Elizabeth in 2006, which was after her cancer went into remission, but because of the timeline of when his affair ended and when Frances was born, he's certain he's not the dad, even without taking a paternity test.

Meanwhile, as recently as two weeks ago, when Edwards was answering reporters' questions about the scandal, he denied an affair ever took place. Liar.

So where does that leave us? Still with former campaign aide Andrew Young (a married father himself) claiming he's the father of Rielle's baby. Which means Edwards may not be the girl's daddy, but that Rielle was basically a groupie that got passed around the Edwards presidential campaign.

So, maybe now the Los Angeles Times and its media colleagues will find a reason to get on the story? Actually, why bother. Edwards breaks the news on a Friday night, and, for that matter, on the day the most-watched bi-annual sporting event is to kick off. Why not just let this revelation get lost in the weekend news cycle?

Since blogs are now the only source of politics-related information that you can rely on, let us introduce you to the goods on John Edwards' baby mama Rielle Hunter's now defunct blog/website/crazy town "Being is Free."

Oh wait, you can't, because the site seems to have not only been shutdown, but has some sort of internet perma-block that prevents caching. Which you wouldn't expect from a website designed in 1999. (Click to enlarge)

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Congratumalations, Los Angeles Times! Just like some NYC tabloids, after weeks of all but ignoring the John Edwards scandal — and explicitly doing so — you've finally made your first public comment on the matter. And then you blogged about it. You're so on top of Web 2.0, and doing your jobs, it's making us dizzy.

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Both of New York's finest newspapers, the Daily News and the Post, hit today with items regarding a former senator named John Edwards and a racy love child scandal the mainstream media doesn't want you to know anything about. Except the News and the Post, um, are the MSM, so this gets confusing! They're both basically saying the same thing — which is to say they're reiterating what the Raleigh News & Observer already told you: the Dems want this matter cleared up before the convention, yo. But it's a moment of significance, because two newspapers the city actually reads are saying this!

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David Perel, the National Enquirer editor whose made it his personal newsstand mission to bring down John Edwards, has insisted he won't let anybody else, especially the mainstream media, dictate how and when his reports of the ex-senator's love scandal come out. Which is why he waited until yesterday to release the first photo of Edwards and his love child Frances Quinn Hunter.

This is sort of an empty promise, since the MSM has basically left the story alone, meaning there's nobody trying to beat the Enquirer's scoops. There's one exception though: the Raleigh News & Observer.

They've been trying to ask Edwards about the scandal, with little success. But that's not keeping them from advancing their own side of things; the paper hits today with news that Edwards better sort out his scandal if he expects to keep a date with the Democratic National Committee, whose convention is just two weeks away.

Oh, speaking of the DNC? Seems that's the one thing that Perel will let dictate his news breaking.

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Mickey Kaus, your prayers have been answered. After weeks (months, actually) of reporting on the John Edwards mistress scandal, the National Enquirer's editor David Perel has finally printed the "spy photo" of the former senator holding his alleged love child Frances Quinn Hunter, daughter of Rielle Hunter.

This is, of course, damning proof that the Edwards scandal is real! Or at least it should be. Common wisdom suggests that now that there are photos — pixelated, out of focus, and blurry — of Edwards holding his daughter, the MSM who have so far mostly ignored the story will jump on it. That's the thing with television news, at least: Without a picture (or video), a story is pretty limp. But now they can splash the Enquirer's pages all over your television screen! Though there's no guarantee they will.

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