War, famine, pestilence; but about John Edwards...

Our own Tim Rutten was among the many holding forth over the last few days on how the handling of the John Edwards adultery story -- before the confession by the onetime Democratic presidential contender -- will not be remembered as a shining example of the Mainstream Media justifying its existence (to put it mildly).

Elsewhere, Clark Hoyt looked at why his newspaper -- the New York Times -- punted on pursuing the story, while the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz more broadly examined the MSM's hands-off approach (his lead: "The whispered allegations about John Edwards were an open secret that was debated in every newsroom and reported by almost none.").

Blogger Mickey Kaus long had castigated the MSM for taking a pass on the matter; he is well worth reading now that the National Enquirer has been vindicated. And Jennifer Rubin makes her case for Commentarymagazine.com that the non-coverage -- prior to Edwards' confession -- exemplifies MSM failings that include a liberal bias.

Post-confession, of course, there's been an avalanche of Edwards-related coverage. And that helped produce two especially notable asides.

One was the lament from Howard Wolfson, the former Hillary Clinton aide, that had the affair been exposed before the Iowa caucuses in early January, his former boss would be the one preparing for a coronation at the Democratic National Convention (our colleagues at the Swamp have more on this "what if" scenario).

The second was the exchange below on the Fox New Channel, as anchor Greg Jarrett (no doubt later winning plaudits from his producers) gamely resisted the earnest efforts by U.S. News and World Report columinst Bonnie Erbe to segue from Edwards' to the war between Russia and the Republic of Georgia. The result: must-see TV.

-- Don Frederick 

Comments

[mucker]

What about Edwards? So what about Edwards. It's cheap, tawdry and evasive of the real news. What about former LA DA Bugliosi, the man who put Charles Manson away making a case in his book "prosecuting the president " for prosecuting Bush for murder. And Ron Suskind's book alleging that CIA agents are on tape describing the orders to forge a letter re" Iraq and WMD? Edwards is a distraction to the real news.

[SteveL]

Those Democrats who are saying that Edwards' personal behavior isn't newsworthy, sang a very different tune about McCain's first marriage, Bennett's gambling, Gingrich's marital problems, and Giuliani's marital problems. In each of those cases, Democrats jumped all over the story and did their damnedest to exploit it for political reasons.

[Terri]

SteveL read the news more often please and not just the juicy bits. The Democrats have not been lenient with Edwards and have asked him to come clean. However, why are we even bothering with Edwards, he is not running for any office and he is not even serving in any office. And this is old news. Get over yourselves. He has explained and apologized to the people that matter .

The upcoming elections are of more importance and we should be focusing on that instead of people's torrid affairs. But then again your brains are so small you can only manage such trivial issues.

[Robert Lewis]

Andrew Young of the John Edwards story: The arrests for worthless checks, DWI, burglary, criminal mischief, the federal tax lien

webofdeception.com

[g TAYLOR]

I PAID TAXES ON EVERY DOLLAR i MADE. HOW CAN THE EWARDS CAMPAIGN HIDE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN PAYOFS WITHOUT RESPONSIBILITY?

[Tim 88]

The fact that Foxnews has a lefty like Bonnie Erbe speaks volumes to their balance.

She seems to be trying very hard to change the subject she was invited to talk about. She is saying the media ignored it before and should continue ignoring it.