John Edwards and Rielle Hunter; the affair US media won’t touch

American journalists are at sixes and sevens about how to cover the revelations about the two-times presidential candidate – and, until recently at least, a frontrunner for the position of Barack Obama’s running-mate - John Edwards. As reported yesterday on The First Post, the American scandal sheet the National Enquirer ran an apparently well-sourced story last week about catching Edwards (above left) staying in the same Los Angeles hotel as his alleged mistress, Rielle Hunter (above right), with whom he is also rumoured to have had a lovechild.

With the exception of Fox News, who have independently verified many of the Enquirer’s claims (that Edwards was in the Beverly Hilton room and that when the reporters jumped him as he was leaving he took refuge in a men's lavatory), none of the major news organisations has touched the story. What is more surprising is that even the political blogosphere, which would normally be all over such a tale, has shied away.

This has astonished journalist and satirical film-maker Lee Stranahan, who today has posted a blog on the Huffington Post, attempting to explain why there is still an apparent embargo in the US media. He asks first why Edwards hasn't denied the reports. "Let's go with the assumption that Edwards is innocent for a moment; he didn't have the affair so the baby isn't his. If he didn't do anything wrong then it seems like he'd have good reasons to stop the rumors. A DNA test months ago would have ended all speculation about the paternity of the baby. And if there are rumours and you're innocent, WHY go visit the subject of those rumours at a hotel and leave at 2:45 in the morning? Why hide in the bathroom when reporters catch you leaving?" (Continued below)

Stranahan believes there will soon be "a tsunami-sized scandal for the Democratic Party" and a "typhoon of press coverage is close to breaking", but he is most surprised by the absence of comment on the matter by "the progressive blogosphere", citing TalkingPointMemo.com, DailyKos and FireDogLake. He goes on: "Despite what some people are going to say, this is news. A former Senator and Vice Presidential candidate who was running for President less than six months ago and is now on the shortlist for Vice President has a long affair during the campaign and fathers a child, covers it up, and then is caught at a hotel with the mother of the child. News! Oh - and his wife made regular appearances on the campaign trail and has been diagnosed with cancer."

Stranahan finishes by suggesting that if the story had been about Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential candidate who is being talked up as John McCain's potential running-mate, we would be hearing "peals of laughter" from the Democrats. "Would it have made the progressive blogs? C'mon, of course it would."

Will Stranahan's call to "progressive" bloggers be heeded? Watch this space.