DEL.ICIO.USANGELA TUCK
Edwards affair was a tough call for mainstream media
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Since we media types are experts at Monday-morning quarterbacking, it’s fair that critics are taking aim at the so-called mainstream press and its failure to report on the John Edwards affair, first written about in the National Enquirer last October.
Howard Wolfson, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton, even went so far as to suggest that Clinton would now be the Democratic nominee for president had Edwards’ extramarital affair been exposed sooner.
Who’s to say if that is true, but it does raise serious questions about how aggressively those covering Edwards’ campaign chased information revealed in the Enquirer’s story. In postmortems of their coverage, several newspapers, including The Charlotte Observer, The News & Observer in Raleigh and The New York Times, said they looked into the rumors but couldn’t substantiate them. That, coupled with Edwards’ denial of the affair and a campaign aide’s admission that he was the father of Rielle Hunter’s baby, put reporters chasing the story in a tough spot.
Do you report the rumors along with Edwards’ denials just so you’re on record with the story? Or do you ignore a story that has circulated on blogs and been the focus of a national tabloid for months?
Shortly before Edwards’ confession last Friday, I asked AJC national editor Bill Steiden why we hadn’t run anything in the print edition on the Edwards story. Steiden said he and other editors discussed running a wire story that summarized The Charlotte Observer’s report that no father was listed on the birth certificate of Hunter’s child and that Edwards continued to deny the Enquirer’s reports. At the time, Steiden said he and other editors didn’t feel there was enough substance to the story.
AJC political writer Jim Galloway posted the story on his Political Insider blog on Aug. 7. His post, which contained a link to the Observer’s article on how the rumors could hurt Edwards’ role at the Democratic National Convention, generated 70 comments from readers.
Galloway has never liked reporting on alleged affairs but felt the convention angle was a legitimate one.
The first report in the AJC print edition was on Aug. 9’s front page. There’s no reason to regret that decision, since Edwards has no real ties here in Georgia and there was no proof of the affair. But I do wonder how we would have handled the story had it involved a politician from Georgia.
In an Aug. 1 editorial headlined “Oversized Elephant in the Journalistic Room,” The Charlotte Observer argued that the newspaper has a responsibility to do everything it can to verify information.”One reason mainstream media did not report the story earlier is that the truth has been hard to determine,” said the editorial. “Blogs are quick to criticize such reluctance as a failure of the mainstream media, but the thing that distinguishes good newspapers is that they make every attempt to verify details of such a story before publishing.”
It’s easy to criticize the media now that Edwards has come clean. But readers should keep in mind that if reporters published every rumor they heard, there would be no room for information that is confirmed and on the record.
In Edwards’ case, however, it’s clear that he should have felt more heat from reporters tracking the story. You can’t live part of your life in a fishbowl while concealing the fact that you had an affair and that people close to your campaign are funneling what appears to be hush money to your former mistress.
Changes to @issue: As of Monday, the AJC will publish two opinion pages instead of three as the company continues its efforts to streamline the print edition.
On Saturdays, the @issue page will feature columns from around the metro area submitted by staff and guest columnists, including Rick Badie’s popular Gwinnett column. That means the weekly public editor column and reader letters will no longer appear on this page. Which brings me to one last bit of news: After almost four years, I will be ending my rotation as public editor and moving to a new job at the AJC. Serving in this role has been a rewarding experience, thanks to the many readers who have engaged me in discussions about the AJC. In the weeks ahead you’ll meet the new public editor, whose column will resume on a different day of the week.
Unlike some newspapers, which have eliminated the position entirely because of cuts in the newsroom, editors at the AJC believe it’s important to have an editor who is listening to readers and working with them and our staff to make sure our work is high-quality, fair, accurate and relevant.
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