Finally, Edwards confirms (part of) Enquirer's story; MSM hops on board; but do they have stomach for more?

Now comes the tricky part. For two weeks following his "Yakety Sax Benny Hill chase" with National Enquirer reporters -- that brilliantly apt description came from Newsbusters, not me -- John Edwards clearly was a hunted man. And while much of the mainstream media sat on the sidelines (my employer McClatchy as usual chose to play the contrarian and did reports like this one and this one), the story was kept alive by dedicated bloggers and ...

... YAWN.

Look, I began my journalism career on the Internet. Much of it is online to this day. But let's be real here. Most bloggers and talk radio people only have time and resources to react to other people's journalistic enterprise. Up until now, that enterprise was provided almost solely by the National Enquirer (though we were starting to hear reports that most major newspapers were sniffing around the Edwards camp).

And while it's all well and good to congratulate ourselves on a job well done, the reality is that Edwards blinked only when it was clear that members of the MSM had in fact been doing their work behind the scenes. I don't know if that is why Edwards wanted to speak with ABC's Bob Woodruff but it's safe to assume that ABC was one of several news organizations quietly working the story.

And though Woodruff was persistent, he was only able to confirm one small corner of the Edwards story: that he did have sex with that woman. Everything else -- the love baby, the cover-up payments, the pixelly photo in the Enquirer -- denied, denied and denied.

It is an unfortunate reality but Edwards has simply set himself up for more investigation.

As I argue in the article I posted on Thursday, whether he wants to admit it or not, John Edwards remains in the public eye. He won't be going to the Democratic Convention this month, but he and his wife expect to have some influence on the public healthcare debate. That is an issue much larger than himself, and for that reason, if for no other reason, he needs to cooperate completely with any investigations, including a DNA test, to get this behind him. Good luck with that.

More on this: Why Elizabeth Edwards should use this story as a "teachable moment"

Comments

[Bill]

I don't really care if John Edwards gets his feet held to the fire. He's fair game. That said, if the fact that he "remains in the public eye" and expects "to have some influence on the public healthcare debate" constitutes justification for eviscerating him in the mainstream media, then John McCain deserves the same sentence. He's admitted he slept around on his first wife, while she was in poor health, to boot. McCain, to put it exceedingly mildly, remains in the public eye and hopes to have some influence on healthcare policy. So McCain must surely warrant the same Scarlet Letter as Edwards.

[DKC]

According to some news organizations who are now researching this mess, Edwards still doesn't have his story straight on the affair's timeline. "Oh what a tangled web (nod to internet here) we weave when first we practice to deceive."

[Andy]

I think it's kind of funny that so many self-appointed contrarian media (Fox News, the blogosphere) argue endlessly that the "mainstream media" are now irrelevant, but devote a ridiculous amount of their time to deconstructing what the MSM is doing. And of course, if Traditional Media pick up on something that originated on the Internet, bloggers practically crap themselves with glee.