The Old, Legacy, “Drive-By” MSM Mainstream Media and the John Edwards Affair.

You don’t know whether to laugh, cry or cheer.

Me, I'm cheering because it's another great example of why the MSM is dying with such speed.

The story is not John Edwards any more. In fact shortly after the National Inquirer broke the story is stopped being about John Edwards and morphed into a Sherlock Holmes story: “Silver Blaze.” There is a famous dialog between Gregory (the Scotland Yard detective)and Sherlock Holmes:

Gregory: "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
Holmes: "That was the curious incident."

That is the perfect reflection of the MSM in the Affair Edwards.

The MSM’s silence about this affair leads Roger Simon to conclude:

..one of the few remaining reporters at the Los Angeles Times had this to say: Several newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, had been pursuing the story prior to Friday. Oh, really? As I recall some nitwit editor over there was telling his bloggers not to report the story but to “Keep rockin’” (how sophisticated). No matter. There won’t be anybody left working at the LAT in a few years anyway. In fact, the absurd see-no-evil reaction to the Edwards Affair will be seen as a benchmark in know-nothing journalism by the MSM and one of the last nails in their coffin. Too bad most of their soon-to-be unemployed reporters are not good enough to get jobs at the National Enquirer.

And he's not exactly gentle with Elizabeth Edwards:

We all have sympathy for Elizabeth Edwards, but her statement on the Daily Kos is pretty bizarre. Let’s hope she’s lying, because if she isn’t, as Lee Stranahan points out, she was willing to let her husband run for President after she knew he just had an affair - putting at risk the Democratic Party and all that Two Americas palaver they espoused. Talk about arrogance and stupidity or both. Of course, if she knows it’s all BS and she’s still covering up for her husband, well, we’re all entitled to our personal Stockholm Syndromes.

I have the feeling that if you're married to a very wealthy, slick lawyer you may have to be prepared to forgive a lot of sexual escapades for that fancy lifestyle.

The NY Slimes covers itself Reticence of Mainstream Media Becomes a Story Itself. and tries to explain why it refused to touch the Edwards story after they wrote a hit piece on McCain that had more holes than swiss cheese.

The New York Times looked into the Enquirer reports last fall, though none too aggressively, editors said.

Bill Keller, the executive editor, said in an e-mail message that Mr. Edwards’s dark-horse status and the “added hold-your-nose quality about The Enquirer” contributed to the lack of interest by The Times and the mainstream media generally.

Reading the NY Slimes requires you to leave your brains at the door.

I wonder what looking into the Enquirer report means? Asking John Edwards and accepting his denial? What this comment means is that the Times didn’t want to report on something they had no interest in. They also state that this was not a story because Edwards was a political “has been.” That was questionable although it’s probably true now, but Larry Craig, David Vitters and Mark Foley were “never was,” yet their sexual peccadilloes were fodder for the MSM for months.

Glenn Reynolds

WELL, YES: Reticence of Mainstream Media Becomes a Story Itself.
Meanwhile, the New York Times -- where the above appears -- showed no such reticence in running a front-page story on McCain -- as the (London) Times noted: "The New York Times has not deigned to touch the story, although it recently ran thousands of words on a relationship between McCain and a female lobbyist, which appeared to be based more on innuendo than fact." And the L.A. Times -- where Tony Pierce cautioned in-house bloggers to avoid the Edwards story -- had no problem publishing what Larry Lessig called "a baseless smear" against Judge Kozinski. And just this past week, the Washington Post ran a front-page story charging McCain with improper donations, but then had to publish a correction making clear that it was all wrong.

Readers will be forgiven for concluding that there are different standards for left and right. They will not be forgiven for concluding the opposite, since only an idiot would think that at this point . . .

Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspracy puts in his oar: CNN WEBSITE GIVES EDWARDS AFFAIR HIGHER BILLING THAN THE RUSSIA-GEORGIA FIGHTING.

And sure enough, the resident idiots that Reynolds was referring to respond.

UPDATE: Tim Rutten at the LA Times (perhaps looking for a job at the Enquirer)

But what's really significant here is the cone of silence the nation's major newspapers -- including The Times -- and the cable and broadcast networks dropped over this story when it first appeared in the tabloid during the presidential primary campaign. Next, the Enquirer reported that the unmarried Hunter was pregnant. Still no mainstream media interest. Indeed, never in recent journalistic history have so many tough reporters so closely resembled sheep as those members of the campaign press corps who meekly accepted Edwards' categorical dismissal of the Enquirer's allegations. Late last month, Edwards came to Los Angeles, and Enquirer reporters trailed him to the Beverly Hilton hotel, where he met Hunter and her daughter in their room.

The Enquirer went with the story, and when no major newspaper or broadcast outlet even reported the existence of the tabloid story, bloggers and online commentators redoubled their demands that the mainstream media explain their silence. The tabloid followed with a story alleging payments of hush money to Hunter and, this week, with a photo of Edwards holding an infant in what appears to be a room at the Beverly Hilton. As pressure mounted on major newspapers to take some aspect of the unfolding scandal into account, editors and ombudsmen issued statements saying it would be unfair to publish anything until the Enquirer's stories had been "confirmed."

Well, there's confirming and then there's confirming.

That sort of stuff won't get you invited to interview at the NY Slimes, Tim.

Ed Driscoll piles on: