Slightly off topic…
… but it is odd that this story is not major news.
The first Enquirer story raised odd questions about the behavior of Edwards and some of his staff. He was eventually asked at a news conference if he was having an affair. He vehemently denied it, a few mainstream news outlets reported the denial, and that was that.
Fair enough, but he’s still mentioned as a vice presidential possibility. But now, this new story has been up on Drudge since yesterday afternoon but isn’t turning up on Google News at any mainstream daily. This is the most outre part of it; the slightly odd punctuation and boldface are the Enquirer’s:
Edwards went out of the hotel briefly with Rielle, they were observed by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER and then went back to her room, where he stayed until attempting to sneak out of the hotel unseen at 2:40 a.m. (PST). But when he emerged alone from an elevator into the hotel basement he was greeted by several reporters from the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.
Senior NATIONAL ENQUIRER Reporter Alexander Hitchen asked Edwards why he was visiting Rielle and whether he was ready to confirm that he was the father of her baby.
Shocked to see a reporter, and without saying anything, Edwards ran up the stairs leading from the hotel basement to the lobby. But, spotting a photographer, he doubled back into the basement. As he emerged from the stairwell, reporter Butterfield questioned him about his hookup with Rielle.
Edwards did not answer and then ran into a nearby restroom.
I bring it up because this may be an example of the Ick Factor in action.
The Ick Factor, you will recall, is Hitsville’s formulation that, despite all the talk about the tabloid world we live in, some people, Roman Polanski, R. Kelly and, possibly, John Edwards among them, manage to operate in the face of overwhelming evidence of deplorable behavior, simply because the press doesn’t have the stomach to report the facts of their cases.
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Far be it for to cast aspersions on that pillar of virtue, but did you not notice the publication in question? I’m only surprised that the carrier of his love-child isn’t a space alien.
And how does having an affair (and a straight, intra-racial one at that) fall under the “Ick factor?”
The Enquirer may be a rag, but it’s not a space-aliens rag; that was the bailiwick of the late Weekly World News.
Mickey Kaus… was right?
Mickey. Kaus. was ri–
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The only “ick factor” I see here is in the quickness to dig into the private life of a public figure. Righteous indignation, the urge to shout “sinner!”, the willingness to act as a common gossip in the mass media–all of these are among the most embarrassing traits of the American character.
The National Enquirer doesn’t actually get that much stuff wrong, and many of the details in the story speak for themselves.
Again, I’m more interested in the journalistic aspects of this. There’s obvious news value here.
That said, people who humiliate their wives in this way deserve what they get. And there are obvious character and security issues involved.