“I deleated information about my father that was false. It was an accusation made by a convicted criminal. My father, James Druck was never investigated nor charged with any criminal activity.”

Wikipedia and Rielle Hunter are back in the news.

UPDATES to follow at end of story.
UPDATE #1: 11:57 EDT – Rove Has Hands in Edwards’ Pants?
UPDATE #2: 12:17 EDT – Libel laws point to Edwards’ Paternity
UPDATE #3 12:50 EDT – O’Reilly Spinning No-Spin Zone’s Non-coverage
UPDATE NOTE 12:55 EDT in story.
UPDATE #4 14:30 EDT – The John Edwards Scandal in Three Minutes
UPDATE #5 15:06 EDT – New Story: John Edwards Scandal: Lost Nightline Video Footage?

It appears that Reille Hunter, unavailable for comment thus far in the John Edwards scandal, speaking through another means: namely, Wikipedia?

A few weeks ago, Wikipedia was in the news, after a series of online debates at the site had stifled all mention of Rielle Hunter and the Edwards’ affair. [John Edwards Love Child Scandal: Debate at Wikipedia Rages and John Edwards Love Child: Wikipedia Editor Defends Go-Slow Policies On Edwards Entry]. Now, Wikipedia not only has a page devoted to “John Edwards’ extramarital affair” but to “Rielle Hunter‎”

DBKP’s crack research squad alerted us to an interesting edit at the on-line encyclopedia which appears to have been made by Rielle Hunter, or her sister, Melissa, on the “Rielle Hunter” page.

ALSO at DBKP: Click on banner to access 80 DBKP stories and videos on the John Edwards scandal.

They emailed with a Heads Up!

Hunter (or her sister?) editing Rielle Hunter Wikipedia article

With the account name ALJDJDD -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/ALJDJDD

Click on the “diff” link on the contributions page for the edits they made.

This is what the page looked like after the edit, at 05:58, 12 August 2008 (hist) (diff) Rielle Hunter‎

The notation, “(I deleated information about my father that was false. It was an accusation made by a convicted criminal. My father, James Druck was never investigated nor charged with any criminal activity.)” was added on the page. Rielle Hunter was born Lisa Druck.

And this is what the page looked like before the edit: hist) (diff) Rielle Hunter‎

Is Rielle Hunter, like millions of American prior to August 8, keeping up with news of the John Edwards scandal on-line?

[UPDATE NOTE 12:55 EDT - Our research indicates that "a closer look at the change made to the article by that user - in addition to deleting the information about the father, the editor changed the place of marriage to Kip Hunter from New York state to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Not sure if this is true or false."

We will see.]

It would appear that it’s either Rielle Hunter or her sister, Melissa–or an internet ‘troll’. The latter is also a possibility, as anyone who followed the Megan Meier story at DBKP knows.

The appearance of a troll and DBKP’s involvement with that faux blog are detailed in:
“Megan Had it Coming Blog: HOAX!”

DBKP was going to monitor the situation and report later on it; however, with John Edwards giving the go-ahead to the major news organization on August 8 that the John Edwards scandal was now news, we no longer have that luxury.

More on that later.

For now, we’ll only welcome the MSM to the story they felt was not news from October 2007 until August 8, 2008.

by Mondoreb

NOTE: ABC News did feel it was important enough to investigate the Edwards allegation in July. They are to be commended: they confronted Edwards–something not one reporter from the MSM did after October 2007–with their investigation and he, in turn, agreed to his Nightline appearance.

Better late than never–but at least someone in the MSM had the wherewithal to investigate Edwards at some point, as well as confront him about the affair.

UPDATE #1: 11:57 EDT – Rove Has Hands in Edwards’ Pants?

Jayne Lyn Stahl, The Huffington Post thinks it may have been the Progressives’ favorite bogey man behind the Enquirer’s time of its John Edwards story: it was the “thorny hand of Karl Rove” behind the Enquirer’s efforts to uncover John Edwards. “John Edwards and our Rovian Politics“.

Stahl begins with, “If I were one of these conspiracy nuts which, of course, I’m not,” then launches into her theory about a conspiracy sure to make the most ardent UFO zealot proud.

It wasn’t about the affair or the elaborate cover up involving moving a mistress and a hush money trail from the Edwards camp to the principles involved. It wasn’t about Edwards lying, all the while giving stump speeches about “morality” or media cone of silence surrounding the story. It wasn’t that others hadn’t noticed enough details of Enquirer’s story back in December to start investigating on their own.

Nope. To Stahl, it’s “the timing of the Edwards revelation can only be described as Rovian”.

Note to Jane Lyn: the “timing” wouldn’t have seemed nearly as “Rovian” to a non-conspiracy theorist, if the press had bothered to investigate any of the December Enquirer reports. This story would have broken months ago and been a memory today.

But the press didn’t and the story remained for others–and for the record right now: no one at DBKP has ever met Karl Rove–to do the best they could with the resources available.

The timing of the story was actually set by John Edwards himself, when he appeared at the Beverly Hilton on July 21 for another of his LA meetings with Rielle Hunter and their baby. The Enquirer was tipped off in time to set an ambush at that time.

Unless Rove, at some point, put his hand in Edwards’ pants, her theory doesn’t hold any water. We did want to note the story, however: for DBKP’s one-year anniversary (coming up in a few weeks), we have a story on conspiracy theories.

It’ll have to be updated now.

UPDATE #2: 12:17 EDT – Libel laws point to Edwards’ paternity

Robert Stacy McCain, Pajamas Media, echoes our own LBG in “Edwards: It’s the Cover-Up, Stupid“.

What little doubt remained that John Edwards is the father of Rielle Hunter’s baby evaporated Saturday when a lawyer for the former senator’s paramour issued a statement declaring that there would be no DNA test to determine paternity.

Little doubt remained because of a dog that has stubbornly refused to bark since the National Enquirer first reported in December that Edwards had impregnated the divorcee he hired as his campaign videographer.

That silent dog is libel law. Edwards is a famously successful trial lawyer. If the Enquirer’s accusation had been false, the former Democratic presidential candidate would have sued, and a paternity test disproving the charge would have been Exhibit A in his case.

LBG noted this weekend: [Edwards Affair: Edwards Claims Enquirer Love Child Photo a Fake]

If Edwards, a highly successful civil trial attorney, believes the Enquirer published a fake photo of him and a baby, claiming it was his love child, then why hasn’t Edwards publicly threatened to sue the “tabloid trash” pants off the Enquirer?

The curious Edwards’ silence about the story was one thing that pricked our interest in December. A successful trial lawyer gets libeled by a tabloid in the middle of campaigning for Iowa and New Hampshire, yet doesn’t even mention it? For those who claim that Edwards didn’t want to draw any attention to the story during his run for president, there’s one inconvenient fact.

Less than three weeks before the Enquirer published its December portion of the Edwards scandal, Edwards boasted that he’d “stared down the Enquirer”. From John Edwards Scandal: The Myth of the Edwards’ Denials:

As our own LBG put it, in “John Edwards Scandal: Where in the World is John Edwards?“:

The MSM turned a blind eye to the alleged Edwards’ affair so it was a surprise when the story resurfaced in November in the Daily News. On November 29, the Daily News’ Rush and Molloy published “Tabloid’s affair rumor dispelled, says John Edwards”. The article wrote that “John Edwards believes he’s stared down the National Enquirer”.

The article mentioned the Enquirer’s promise to follow-up the initial Edwards affair story on October 10. The Daily News cited an Enquirer insider who admitted “there’s a lot of smoke, but no smoking gun”. The Daily News also quoted Edwards who claimed the story “disappeared because it’s made up”.

That Edwards himself brought up the allegations–general at that time–to brag about the National Equirer blinking, puts the lie to anyone who attempts to label Edwards’ subsequent silence on the matter, “good politics”.

McCain has a concise story on this angle; he’s right to announce “What little doubt remained that John Edwards is the father of Rielle Hunter’s baby evaporated Saturday”.

UPDATE #3 12:50 EDT – O’Reilly Spinning No-Spin Zone’s Non-coverage

A shout out to the Alexandria blog for their shout out:”1000 Papercuts“.

This Web site is asking some of the same questions we’re pondering, and keeping a fairly lengthy log of the actions or inactions of the MSM here. It’s fun reading about MSM reasoning/excuses/whatever you want to call it about why they didn’t cover the Rielle Hunter a.k.a. Lisa Jo Druck & Sen. John Edwards Story.

This reminds us that the John Edwards scandal, as well as the concurrent MSM scandal, is humorous in most ways. Sometimes, we forget that, so here’s a joke from John Edwards-Rielle Hunter Affair: Love Child Scandal Jokes:

Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Rielle.
Rielle who?
You must get all your news from TV and newspapers!
–courtesty: Mother, May I Sleep with Treacher?

Jossip gets in a shot at Bill O’Reilly, and others who have made their apologies in the MSM for not covering the story. Bill O’Reilly the Only Decent Journalist Who Sat on John Edwards’ Scandal While Still Reporting Terrible Truthy Things About Him. The Jossip money quote:

But you know who also claims to have had the story about Edwards’ affair but opted out of reporting on it? A one Bill O’Reilly, who, like Friedman, was doing the kind thing and not making Elizabeth Edwards’ life miserable! Instead, O’Reilly just smeared Edwards as a shitty senator. “And that is the true story,” he said last night. “The Factor painted an accurate picture of John Edwards without harming his family.” Now, is that “accurate” with one “in-” or two?

Cha-ching!

Perhaps, when O’Reilly was recording, he was standing outside the No-Spin Zone

UPDATE #4 14:30 EDT – Aces Feature Video

In the crush of events, we missed the Flopping Aces, “Edwards Affair – In 3 Minutes” which featured our video and which the site made its Featured Post on Sunday. The Aces have been anything but flopping on the Edwards scandal, ridiculing Edwards cover story, as well as the MSM’s blackout of the news until August 8. Our video, for any who may have missed it, below:

UPDATE #5 15:06 EDT – New Story: John Edwards Scandal: Lost Nightline Video Footage?