John Edwards Scandal: Sister Asks Edwards to Stop Bad-mouthing Rielle Hunter – UPDATED

Edwards Casts Aspersions at More than the Enquirer during ABC Interview

Edwards to Big Media: “Gotcha!
Okay, you can talk about it now.”

[hat tip: dossier]

John Edwards has now officially been put on notice.

The family of Rielle Hunter wants Edwards to put up or shut up.

UPDATES to follow at the end of story, throughout August 9, 2008.
UPDATE #1 – 1345 EDT August 9 2008 – Class Action?
UPDATE #2 – 14:55 EDT – Better Psychics
UPDATE #3 – 15:35 -AP Tries to Explain to Readers Why were Kept in the dark Until Edwards gave his approval & The Readers Speak
UPDATE #4: 15:48 EDT – NE’s Perel Fires Back at Edwards
UPDATE #5: 16:25 EDT – Mainstream Media PR “news” departments work overtime
UPDATE #6 – 16:58 EDT – John Bedwards & “family”
UPDATE #7 17:22 EDT – Critiques and Double Standards
8th and Final UPDATE: 18:18 EDT – Edwards Timeline

During his televised interview, the ex-presidential candidate painted everyone, including his unnamed mistress Rielle Hunter, as somehow sinister. Edwards, caught leaving the Beverly Hilton after a meeting with the Enquirer’s reporters on July 22, also took shots at unnamed “supermarket tabloids.”

The Enquirer published its response to Edwards by labeling his interview a “confession”. [JOHN EDWARDS ADMITS AFFAIR!]

As far as being the father of Hunter’s love child, you might as well go all the way now, Johnny Boy.

Submit to a DNA test.

Now, ABC News is reporting that the Mistress’ Family Challenges Edwards to Take DNA Test.

Hunter’s sister, Melissa, has been reported by ABC News in an Enquirer-type sub-headline as saying, “‘Stop Bad-Mouthing My Sister’”.

ALSO at DBKP: Click on banner to access over 70 DBKP stories and videos on the John Edwards scandal.

ABC also quoted Hunter’s sister as saying, “Somebody must stand up and defend my sister.

“I wish that those involved would refrain from bad-mouthing my sister,”–not naming Edwards, in the same way he avoided naming Rielle Hunter in his ABC appearance.

“Ironically, now, its John Edwards who’s the one making allegations,” wrote one reader, “without offering any more proof than his word–and he’s shown how much we can all trust that.”

UPDATE #1: 1345 EDT Class Action against Edwards?

Ted Frank at Overlawyered wonders, “Where’s a trial lawyer when you need one?” [Yes, I’m being facetious]:

Where’s the trial lawyer bringing a class action on behalf of all of the people who were defrauded when they gave money to John Edwards’s presidential campaign? It’s certainly a much more plausible claim of causation, reliance, and financial injury than the typical class action.

If Frank were the prosecutor in the court of public opinion, Edwards’ interview would get 30 days in the electric chair.

“Alas, ABC didn’t ask the right follow-up questions, such as how Edwards thought meeting Hunter in a hotel room would help keep the story quiet.”

Frank has other penetrating questions for Edwards. We’ll let him present them.

UPDATE #2 – Edwards Needs Better Psychics

Never-tiring Simon Scowl, of Deceiver, who’s seemingly been everywhere, has 5 questions [Five Questions About the Edwards Scandal, Now That It’s No Longer “Alleged”, among which is:

Now that the media are finally talking about the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter affair — and boy oh boy, are they ever talking about it — here are five questions I’m curious about:

1. What happened to Rielle’s website? beingisfree.org was her nutty New Age site, which was created in 2004 and disappeared with no explanation at some point between April 2007, when it was last updated, and the discovery of the deletion that October. It was even blocked at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, whose stated goal is to preserve the Internet’s history. “Universal access to human knowledge” is their motto. Unless it’s knowledge about Rielle Hunter, apparently.
   (Update: Have they changed their minds about this noble knowledge-preserving goal in the last few days? Fortunate Son thinks so.)
   Then, about a week four days after the Enquirer’s first story, another cached copy of Being Is Free was discovered at the IAWM’s Egyptian counterpart. But as soon as people started talking about it, that copy was blocked too. This can’t be a coincidence. Was it done by yet another one of John Edwards’ friends, completely without his knowledge? If so, why does this steady stream of rainwater in my ear smell like asparagus?

Simon also wonders, "why is John Edwards hanging out with psychics?"

Apparently, Edwards might want to invest a bit of his money in a better class of fortune-teller: the ones he's hanging with should've tipped him that his cover up efforts, as well as his "Supermarket Tabloid Credibility Card" defense, were losers.

UPDATE #3 - The Readers Give the Early Verdict

Readers are rendering their own judgment on Edwards allegations.

DBKP Reader, BA, in a comment to John Edwards Scandal: Edwards Statement, Interview Admits Little:

His fate will be decided by the only jury available for this type of things, the American public. Mr. Edwards was making his plea for clemency. People who get caught always do.

Sherry Richmond points out--and we agree--that cheating isn't political party-specific in a comment to John Edwards: Looking for Rielle Hunter's Baby News, VP Love After Obama Endorsement:

McCain cheated on his 1st wife while dating his current wife, Cindy (the Druggie Zombie), then married her the day after his divorce was final. (So much for Republican family values.) Look up the cover article in Newsweek on Cindy McCain from a few weeks back.

Don’t blame cheating liberals or Democrats. Just look at McGreevy, Craig, Gingrich, Hyde & many, many others. Politicians are the worst offenders, but there are cheaters in all walks of life & all levels of society. Why are we Americans so surprised when a new scandal breaks. Grow up!

We might point out that Newsweek addressed the McCain issue with more words in its headline to the story than the mag devoted to covering the John Edwards' scandal.

It was reader, Dossier, that tipped us to this story--and Dossier provided the link for easy access, as well! Thanks!

"Lisa Jo Druck (RIelle Hunter’s) sister, Melissa Druck, is challenging Edwards to take a paternity test."

Gawker's Ian Spiegelmann's Mistress' Little Sister Puts the Smack-Down on John Edwards is blunt.

John Edwards' former lover Rielle Hunter may be keeping mum while the former politician drags her name through the mud, but Rielle's kid sister, Melissa, is having none of it. She doesn't buy Edwards' claims that he isn't the father of Rielle's baby. She wants the man to take a paternity test. And she wants him to shut the f— up!

At this point, we agree with both Ian and Melissa.

The AP whines through a laundry list of excuses why Big Media couldn't talk about Edwards until yesterday, when Edwards gave Big Media the okay to talk about the scandal. [Reporters found Edwards' affair tough to prove]

The AP says it would have moved on the story, but, “it was never confirmed to the AP’s satisfaction or, apparently, to the satisfaction of others until Edwards himself owned up to the infidelity in an interview with ABC News.”

Short of Edwards calling up the AP and purring, “Hey! How about her? Think she’s got my narcissism?”….what would have confirmed it for the AP?

The AP’s Editor for US news, Michael Oreskes says he would “rather get it right than get it first”. Until yesterday, the AP never got it all. Oreskes also refers to “how hard” it is to investigate “intimate details” of the story.

You mean like license numbers, who’s living in who’s backer’s house or talking to security guards at hotels? Or is he referring to the simple exercise of asking the candidate about it on the record? Perhaps, Oreskes is right: all that’s much too hard.

The AP sounds bitter, calling the National Enquirer a “trashy weekly”. Much of what we’d expect from a news wire that trying hard to spin to their shrinking readership why it wasn’t informed–until John Edwards gave them the go-ahead by appearing on ABC’s Nightline.

The AP’s blind item also took shots at the blogosphere for believing the Edwards allegations as fact though they were not proved yet. NOTE to the AP: Some of us investigated what was possible with limited resources–something the AP did not.

The AP story could have been a one-liner: Reporters found Edwards affair tough to prove because they did no investigation. That’s not only miles more accurate, it also saves the wire service and its members from looking like complete cry-babies.

The AP also appends this notice to the end of the story: “This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.” Which brings up the question: Who would want to do any of the above activities with an opinion-filled press release masquerading as news?

UPDATE #4: 15:48 EDT – NE’s Perel Fires Back at Edwards

Ruh-Roh… Hunter Family Wants One Trick Pony to Take Paternity Test, Gateway Pundit, breaks the news to the AP, John Edwards and the rest of the Dinosaur Media: “This Scandal Isn’t Going Away Any Time Too Soon…” GP also notes:

HotAir calls this “major blowback” for blowing his interview last night. Edwards attempted to salvage some shred of personal reputation at the expense of Rielle Hunter.
It didn’t go over too well with Hunter’s family.

Edwards, for what many in the MSM are calling a confession, confessed to very little. He took shots at both an unnamed National Enquirer and Rielle Hunter. Particularly, leaving the impression, at least some of our readers, that Hunter was blackmailing him. As the Enquirer’s David Perel pointed out last night in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “I think the truest thing that he [Edwards] said today in his statement was when he admitted that he’s narcissistic.”
[John Edwards Scandal: Edwards Statement, Interview Admits Little]

UPDATE #5: 16:25 EDT – Mainstream Media PR “news” departments work overtime

The NY Times Covers it’s Own Non-Coverage

Gateway Pundit saved us the need to write another headline: Oh Brother… NY Times Excuses Itself For Ignoring Edwards Scandal .

GP’s assessment of the Times’ story: “The New York Times today said they looked at the allegations but found nothing solid to report.”

Seems The Times’ expended approximately the same resolve to investigate the Edwards allegations as shown by OJ in his vow to “find the real killers”. Gateway Pundit also compares the Times’ story earlier this year on John McCain to its non-existent one it did on John Edwards.

The New York Times thus joins the AP as Big Media organizations who’ve spent major space explaining to readers why neither did no investigation. Both news organizations’ explanations for non-coverage appeared almost simultaneously with their first mention of the Edwards’ scandal to their readers.

As of yet, lots of excuses, but no apologies to readers nor to the National Enquirer nor to those dangerous members of the blogosphere who did report on it.

Joe Klein tries to frame a debate he only just joined today, by painting it as just “consensual sex” and saying none of that interests him–and besides, he has standards, don’t cha know?

I’m not in favor of censorship. I am in favor of discretion and proportion. If the National Enquirer wants to go there, that’s their business. I don’t think Time Magazine should be in that business, and I’m proud we weren’t. When the Lewinsky story broke, I wrote in the New Yorker: “This is an era that will be remembered more for the ferocity of its prosecutions than for the severity of its crimes.” That still holds.

Klein’s humming a tune you’ll hear for a long time from those who participated the Edwards news blackout. Since Edwards appeared on ABC last night, Klein now feels he can mention the affair, his standards intact.

Glenn Reynolds, at Pajamas Media, napalms the New York’s Times’ story mentioned above.

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.

Just One Minute’s Tom McGuire poses a question likely to be asked by many Big Media’s readers–right before adding an “ex-” in front of their status. “Why was the media in the tank for Edwards, and what other secrets of likable Dems are they hiding?”

UPDATE #6 – 16:58 EDT – John Bedwards & “family”

Ben Smith reports on some of the other things Edwards claimed in his interview that have just been released by ABC.

He also, in explaining his view that his dalliance could remain private, cited Republican John McCain’s reported affair at the end of his first marriage almost three decades ago.

“What I was thining was this was something that was personal to my own family,” Edwards said, citing other public figures having survived extramarital affairs. He recalled, he said, having heard “John McCain talk about the mistakes that he’s made in his past with respect to his first marriage.”

“I’m not the first person to do this,” he said.

Cheeky words for someone who never missed a photo-op with his family on the campaign trail and who campaigned, at least partially, on morality.

Enter the term “John Edwards family” into Image search at Google and it returns 1.25 million results. It appears that the only time John Edwards linked “family” and “private” in a sentence together was in a public statement about decisions he made that eschewed all thoughts of his family.

JOHN BEDWARDS? The NY Post refers to the VP candidate of less than three weeks ago in a headline about Rielle Hunter.

UPDATE #7 17:22 EDT – Critiques and Double Standards

AllahPundit critiques Edwards’ performance last night on ABC and puts it in perspective.

As for Edwards’s performance, it’s vintage Silky. Turns out he didn’t just betray his wife, he betrayed the poor son of a country mill worker he really is at heart, his huge mansion and ego notwithstanding. He also heroically asked Elizabeth not to appear with him for the interview, because after a year of siphoning off Absolute Moral Authority from her illness to help his campaign, he suddenly decided it wouldn’t be right to use her as a “shield.” Tapping his heart and claiming she’s in there “all the time” even when she’s not physically present is an especially Silky touch considering that the whole reason so many of his supporters feel hurt by the news is because they’re no longer sure how true that is.

Michelle Malkin examines the audacity of John Edwards’ statement–especially his use of his family after he alleges they were told.

There will be a lot of sifting through Silky Pony’s public statements and family campaign photo-ops in the quest to find out when exactly the Edwards family knew about the Rielle Hunter affair (before, during, or after Elizabeth fell ill with cancer?) — and what it says about the failed candidate and erstwhile nutroots Democrat darling.

MM also links to DBKP’s John Edwards Scandal: The Video.

Sweet!

No More Mr. Nice Blog explains his double standard.

But on a national level, I’m going to maintain a double standard. John Edwards cheated? Fine — he’s done a bad thing. But he’s a Democrat. He’s not a member of the party that wants to sniff around my sexual behavior, or my neighbors’, when that behavior isn’t anybody’s business. So I’m much less inclined to dwell on his.

Except that “family values” and “basic human morality” were a staple in Edwards’ stump speeches while he was campaigning for president. Conclusion: NMMNB is correct about a double standard at play in this story, he just cites the wrong one.

8th and Final UPDATE: 18:18 EDT – Edwards Timeline

Doug Ross, who was one of the few in the blogosphere who provided steady coverage of the John Edwards story–other than outbreaks in October and December–provides a nifty timeline of events in the John Edwards scandal.

As with most things Rossian, it’s accurate and complete.

Doug did leave out one small tidbit, which may shine a light on Edwards’ repetition of the “2006″ meme in his statement and interview yesterday.

“WHICH political candidate enjoys visiting New York because he has a girlfriend who lives downtown? The pol tells her he’ll marry her when his current wife is out of the picture.”

On August 27, 2007, the New York Post ran the above blind item on its Page Six gossip section. DBKP has mentioned the provocative item before and in searching for the DBKP posts it appeared in, stumbled across the NY Post reminding readers that “EDWARDS BLIND NO MORE“.

WE hate to say we told you so, and we normally never reveal the identities in our blind items, but in light of John Edwards’ finally admitting he had an extramarital affair, we bring your attention to our “Just asking” item of Aug. 27, 2007

Page Six goes on to: “Top Democrats have been assiduously following the Edwards scandal and don’t believe his denial, which was issued last year, before he was caught visiting Rielle Hunter in a Beverly Hills hotel.”

Seems Page Six has its facts of when Edwards issued his denials exactly correct. Those curious may refer to John Edwards Scandal: The Myth of the Edwards’ Denials.

Fellow HuffPo writer, Steve Clemons , reminds the world that it was Sam Stein’s questions that, in retrospect, started the National Enquirer on its collision course with John Edwards.

I wrote about this after reading Sam Stein’s work at Huffington Post. He broke this story — and the National Enquirer built on the ‘revelations‘.

We’ve mentioned Stein’s original piece before, most notably in December [The Edwards Scandal, The Press, The Enquirer and the Blogosphere] and later on July 31 [John Edwards Scandal: Birth Certificates, NBA Players and the Waking of the MSM]. But it may be a tad much to imply that the Enquirer “got” the story from Stein’s piece.

Be that as it may, Stein can’t receive too much credit and Clemons bestows some.

My hat is tipped to Sam Stein who was the first blogger to really work this story. He told me then that his sources were solid, and I believed him. He deserves a salute today — even though the story itself is gross and hardly worth the attention we are compelled to give it.

There will be ramifications of this incident on the blogging community and also on mainstream media. Some blogs frequently see themselves as willing vehicles of politicians, unwilling to focus a critical eye on the pol or party they are supporting. Others see themselves as a hybrid of advocacy and analysis. Others see themselves as competitors with mainstream media — covering political news with greater objectivity and creativity than the largely homogenized, too controlled big time media players offer.

Lastly, a reminder for those who like de-constructing Edwards’ latest allegations, here’s two places they might start:

LBG’s piece earlier today: John Edwards Scandal: Edwards Defends Affair with Supermarket Tabloid Credibility Card; and John Edwards Scandal: Edwards Statement, Interview Admits Little.

As John Edwards has proved during his political career, until recently: a little self-promotion never hurts.

NOTE: One finale after the last UPDATE. Deceiver gets in some shots at the LA Times and its brand of “reporting” on the Edwards scandal.

P.S. Anybody know how Nightline did in the ratings last night? I recorded it, but I haven’t watched it. Seems beside the point. But the LA Times, finally free of their “Keep rockin’” edict, has an analysis of the interview. Hey, if you can’t send a reporter to a hotel 15 miles away from your offices, at least you can have her watch ABC a few weeks later…

Painful, but true.

by Mondoreb

Tags: affair, allegations, baby, cover-up, Frances Quinn Hunter, hush money, John Edwards, lisa druck, love child, media coverage, Melissa, mistress, national enquirer, rielle hunter, scandal, sister