John Edwards and Rielle Hunter: a case of press snobbery

Alexander Cockburn, in his weekly column from America for The First Post, addresses the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter story today, and asks why the American mainstream media is keeping its distance.

"Of course," he writes, "there might be compassion for the very popular Liz Edwards, but that's not enough to explain the dogged silence. The New York Times and the Washington Post are quite prepared to investigate possible sexual shenanigans ­ as the Times's floating of the John McCain-Vicki Iseman imbroglio made clear.

"The most convincing explanation, it seems to me, is simple snobbery. The mainstream press reckons that any acknowledgement that papers like the Enquirer get credible scoops is distressing to their dignity and increasingly threadbare 'credibility'."

FIRST POSTED JULY 31, 2008