It’s a Girl!
Frances Quinn Hunter

[NOTE: Updates throughout the day will be posted to this article.]
UPDATE: 10:50 EDT July 30 2008
UPDATE 2: 11:16 EDT
UPDATE 3: 11: 25 EDT
UPDATE 4: 13:00 EDT
UPDATE 5 and Final to this article: 13:25 EDT July 30 2008

The National Enquirer turned up the heat on a scandal the Mainstream press has refused to investigate.

The Enquirer’s latest salvo in the on-going “John Edwards Love Child Scandal” will a report that Rielle Hunter, the mother of Edwards’ love child, is being paid $15,000 a month in “hush money”.

The money is being funneled to Hunter by a wealthy colleague who was closely tied to the Edwards’ campaign. This same man is also shoveling cash to Edwards’ pal and former aide Andrew Young – who tried to take the heat off the ex-Senator by claiming he is the father of Rielle’s baby.

And The ENQUIRER is also exclusively revealing that Rielle’s baby is a girl named Frances Quinn Hunter and was born at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

“A super-rich pal – who was closely involved with the campaign finances – is helping John. It’s likely this man doesn’t know all the dirty details of John’s extramarital affair, but is acting out of loyalty and is not asking a lot of questions – only writing the checks,” revealed a source very close to the situation.

One other revelation in the latest update is that Edwards is also reportedly “shoveling cash to Edwards’ pal and former aide Andrew Young – who tried to take the heat off the ex-Senator by claiming he is the father of Rielle’s baby.”

The results of the National Enquirer’s year-long investigation, which had seven reporters assigned to the story, are revealed on the tabloid’s website.

The Enquirer’s latest update also reminds readers of last week’s confrontation between Edwards and the Enquirer’s reporters as he left the Beverly Hilton at 2:40 in the morning.

“Edwards, 55, was confronted by ENQUIRER reporters, but refused to answer questions and instead hid in a public men’s restroom until security escorted him off hotel grounds.”

The mainstream press has maintained a remarkable ‘cone of silence’ around the Edwards’ story. The excuses heard are usually along the lines of “It’s the Enquirer”–which doesn’t address the issue of why no Mainstream Media reporters have asked Edwards any questions about the affair.

It also doesn’t address the issue of why major “news” organization didn’t report the independent corroboration of FoxNews, who last week interviewed one of the security guards at the Beverly Hilton and confirmed Edwards’ running from the Enquirer’s reporters.

The news blackout began to be slowly lifted in the last week, as Slate, The Times, Independent, and a few American newspapers reported the Edwards-reporters standoff in the Beverly Hilton.

Hush money and back-channel payments made by political figures in any cover-up schemes usually get any reporter’s blood hot for more info.

We’ll see if the latest news excites any interest in the MSM.

UPDATE #1: 10:50 EDT July 30 2008:

Ryan Tate, of Gawker, makes several good points in Edwards Mistress’ Hush Money: $15,000/Month:

There’s been no confirmation of any of this yet from reputable newspapers, like the one that told us about the secret scientist who knew where Saddam Hussein hid his chemical and biological weapons, or from the one that said Puff Daddy was in on the plot to gun down Tupac Shakur. So, gosh, who knows if it can be trusted! But if you still want some salacious details on this hush money stuff — or word from Radar on how the mistress is trying to negotiate her share of this feeding frenzy — it’s yours after the jump.

Exactly. The new MSM motto seems to be–at least on the John Edwards story: “We won’t give our readers any scandal news on John Edwards or do any investigations, but if the Enquirer does it for us and publishes the pictures, then we’ll tell you about it.”

As Tate points out, “The publications are also hungry for photos even though pictures of Edwards in or near a hotel will prove precisely nothing scandalous, in and of themselves. Talk about missing the point.”

UPDATE #2: 11:16 EDT July 30, 2008:

Don Surber [Lewinsky II] recalls one rule the MSM used to observe–in affairs other than the present John Edwards scandal:

It is a story not because I give a wet willy what Edwards does with his willy, but because of the cover-up.

I am old-fashioned. The lesson of Watergate is that the cover-up is worse than the crime.

Then, why is Surber mentioning it at his blog at the Daily Mail?

“The difference between me and too many of my colleagues in the Mainstream Media is that I apply this rule to liberal, conservative and moderate alike.”

Newsbusters’ PJ Gladnick continues his monitoring of the media’s reaction to the affair, NBC Comedians Crash MSM Wall of Silence to Tell John Edwards Jokes

It’s a strange dichotomy. While NBC News continues to maintain a wall of silence regarding the alleged John Edwards scandal, the comedians on that network are having a field day joking about it. On Monday night Jay Leno told the following John Edwards joke:

John Edwards asks Kobe Bryant, ‘What’s a good jewelry store?’

One point that should be made: the media blackout around the story since December of last year is not only a failure to report the news. It’s also a failure to investigate the allegations.

A few of the details in the John Edwards affair were fairly easy to check. Any of them would have led a normally-inquisitive reporter to dig deeper. Many of the details of the Enquirer’s allegations were harder to check, but bloggers–with far less resources than almost all MSM outlets–were able to do this. One example was the house that Rielle Hunter was staying in a short distance from the Edwards campaign headquarters when the Enquirer broke the December portion of its story.

This airy dismissal of its responsibilities in the Edwards affair further undermines remaining confidence in the mainstream press, both as an “objective” news source and–on some stories–as a “news source”, period.

UPDATE #3: 11: 25 EDT July 30, 2008

Gateway Pundit’s National Enquirer Continues to Scoop MSM- Edwards’ Baby Named “Frances Quinn Hunter” agrees:

Liberal media?… What liberal media?
The The National Enquirer has scooped the liberal media… again.

The National Enquirer continues to do the reporting the liberal mainstream media refuses to do.
It’s that bad.

Verily, verily: it is that bad and it’s so sad.

UPDATE #4: 13:00 EDT July 30 2008

UPDATE #4: 13:00 EDT July 30 2008:

Gawker’s Alex Pareene–who’s written several good commentaries on the convoluted contortions of most of the major news outlets in the story have underwent–in email yesterday called the non-coverage by the mainstream press, “bizarre”.

“..it’s bizarre and also not too surprising to see everyone remain so quiet on a story just because they don’t want it to be true.”

Pareene also made a prediction of sorts–with a sigh:

“That’ll change soon, I’m sure. Once GMA or Today pays Rielle enough for an on-screen interview (or someone tracks down John’s child support money) we’ll get some coverage and a LOT of self-flagellating media “oh no culture of scandal” moaning.”

UPDATE #5 13:25 EDT July 30 2008:

Susan Duclos at Wake Up America! reports about the LA Times and their cover story for the memo that their bloggers refrain from writing about Edwards and the ever-widening scandal [Bloggasm, LA Times Blog Editor, the National Enquirer and John Edwards]:

Today, Simon from Bloggasm, reports that he spoke with Tony Pierce, the LA Times blog editor to ask him about that email.

I spoke to Pierce for a few minutes on the phone today. He said the decision to send the email came after several senior editors at the Times met that day.

“The Opinion LA blog had already written about the rumors from the National Enquirer,” he explained. “We knew some of the other blogs wanted to write about it or were thinking about writing about it. And at that point we were like, ‘you know, we already have our metro desk working on a story and before we just kind of write a whole bunch of stuff about the National Enquirer article, why don’t we give our metro desk a chance to see what they can find.’ That’s when they said, ‘OK Tony, why don’t you write this letter to your bloggers.”

Read the entire post, it’s enlightening for those attempting to argue that the MSM is non-biased and fair–as well as competent–in their reporting.

Susan (we still think of her as “Spree”) has a good question about the LA Times’ competence:
“Considering Fox managed to get a hotel security guard to speak to them and confirm a portion of the story, does this mean the LA Times research crew didn’t really try or were incapable of doing what Fox had no problem doing?”

As well as one last resigned observation:

“I guess we will see if the MSM continues to enforce their news blackout on these allegations or if they will actually try to do their job and research, question and report on their findings.”

by Mondoreb