An Independant Truth

With the recent development surrounding John Edwards, it is easy to forget that this is not exactly “NEW” news. For decades, the National Enquirer has been considered trash journalism at its finest. This is not a sudden development, Enquirer editors have been aware of educated Americans distaste for their brand of reporting for awhile now. With headlines that read ” The Ghost of Elvis is the father of my love child ” it is understandable why that impression is held by many through out the nation. With unquestionably the biggest scoop in the world of politics within their grasps it would be totally appropriate if they took a moment to celebrate a victory. But, was this scoop the result of a National Enquirer vs. The World approach to reporting or did they merely take advantage of their peers pre-concieved ideals regarding the quality of their reporting and its resulting arrogance.

In 2006 the National Enquirer first started reporting and looking into the allegations that Sen. Edwards was having an affair with a campaign aide. But none within the ” excepted ” media tried to explore it further. They asked Sen. Edwards he denied it end of story, besides it was the Enquirer right ? In 2007 while campaigning during the Democratic nominee race, the story surfaced again. This time though two other newspaper from the senators own state reported it too. Once again the ” excepted ” media asked and was told that it was all just ” tabloid garbage ” and that was that, I mean after all it is just the Enquirer, right ?

Now, was it just the Enquirer, or were other forces at work here ? If the producers and editors of all the more ” excepted ” media outlets  want to get angry because someone somewhere is calling them biased in their reporting. Just maybe they will look back on this and understand why. They had every opportunity to break this story but not a one of them did, and they can only blame themselves for the self imposed scotomas that caused them to not go with the story when it originally surfaced in 2006.

Now I do not want anyone walking away from this opinion thinking he is standing up for the Enquirer. Nothing could be further from the truth, I still firmly believe that they and others like them that pray on the emotions and stupidity of the un-educated among us, as still being garbage reporting. This is intended to be a lesson I think, One that teaches us the dangers of blind loyalty to one’s party and or readers, or networks. Democrat refusal to  believe was because from the word go they held firm to their belief that it was a republican attempt at negative attacks. Republicans didn’t believe it because no one within the GOP never even considered it, probably out of respect for his wife’s battle with cancer. But the media as we have come to know it, has no excuse for at least not scratching the surface because given the apparent ease in which the reporters for the Enquirer were able to catch sen.Edwards. The ” excepted ” media would not have had to scratch to far. Who knows though,maybe this will serve as a wake up call for the press in regards to simply repeating what any particular candidate or candidate’s representative says. But,I also must realize that it is an industry that lives and dies by the ratings so I’ll not be surprised if it doesn’t because after all it was only the Enquirer, Right ?